Is this the best roti in Inner Sydney? It might well be, and the crowd of Malaysian people eating there the day we visit suggests so too. This little stall in Chippendale’s Spice Alley is doing roti canai for $7 and it’s the perfect side, or light main dish. You get a jumble of thin, light, stretchy, chewy, crisp roti aside three little dips: a salty, fish-dense sambal, a coconutty laksa fragrant with lemongrass, and our pick, a bright red, spice-driven chicken curry that we could drink by the gallon. Want to up the protein stakes? Pay an extra $3 and get a big slab of chook with that roti in lieu of the other sauces (order no.4).
Or for an even more substantial meal, pair your roti canai with the Chatterbox Chicken. It’s a big pile of rice cooked in proper chicken stock so it takes on all of those deep, savoury flavours, topped with super-tender poached chicken, rich chicken broth, crunchy cucumber and tomatoes, with a heap of coriander and a spicy ginger sauce for dipping or pouring over the top at your leisure. Oh, and there is an excellent bowl of chicken soup on the side too. And it’s only $11! This combo might be our favourite thing to eat at Spice Alley, it’s that amazing, and it makes us want to move to Malaysia (or Chippo) immediately, and never, ever leave.
