vip in the city

Return to Skyway

Wasn’t I just in Chinatown?

No matter: this time, I hopped the B from the Upper West Side to join the B brothers at Skyway for what some foodies claim to be the Sripraphai of Malaysian food — a high compliment indeed. I was last at the restaurant in the Fall; this time, with two additional diners, I hoped to be able to delve a little further into the menu.

Roti canai — pronounced “Chennai,” after the city formerly known as Madras — is also called roti prata (or paratha ) in Singapore. The traditional Mamak (Indian Muslim) griddle-fried dough pancake is available around the clock throughout the streets of Malaysia, where I first sampled it off the ubiquitous roadside stalls of Kuala Lumpur. Best served piping hot: buttery-crisp on the outside, fluffy and flaky within, I had relegated the simple snack to fond memory when I recently learned that the dough is stocked frozen in Asian and Indian markets. Hmm, interesting.

Here at Skyway, the roti is served with a side bowl of soupy chicken curry for dipping.

Both SYB and HYB opted for the “fresh coconut drink,”; the regular (un-fresh?) coconut drink, which appeared as a separate (less expensive) item on the menu, turned out not to be an option when HYB attempted to order it, to the slight chagrin of our server.

We each picked one dish to contribute to our family-style dinner: pork and preserved vegetables (HYB;); the vaguely-named “squid with special sauce” (me); and the pearl noodles (SYB), not pictured here.

Ah, good stuff. Those noodles were just as delicious as I remembered, and what was left of the squid dish, with its special, “kicky” sauce — check out that enormous red chile pepper — was deemed worthy of being packed up for home. Unfortunately, not one of the three of us remembered to retrieve the takeout box from AH’s refrigerator later that night… but I guess that’s what a couple buckets of bubbly will do.