62 Grillstreet Smashburgers Wrestles The Competition With Roti John Sinar
The name Roti John has multiple origin stories, and none of them say it was made by a guy called John.
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There’s nothing quite like chomping into a freshly grilled burger by the roadside in the middle of Kuala Lumpur late at night.
Street burgers are a common sight around the city especially in the evening for those who are looking for a simple yet satisfying supper.
But, what about Roti John? It’s also a dish made of meat sandwiched between halves of bread and stuffed with vegetables, sauces, and cheese.
Personally, our experience with Roti John has not always been good – there’s always too little meat and too much sauce.
That is, until we recently came across an Instagram post that piqued our curiosity: a local smashed burger joint was promoting their Roti John Ramadan special for only RM10!
A Roti John as beefy as the wrestler it was named after
62 Grillstreet Smashburgers is offering a limited-time menu item just for the Ramadan period: Roti John Sinar.
Named after World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) athlete and Hollywood star John Cena (Suicide Squad, Peacemaker, and several movies in the Fast & Furious franchise), this rendition of the popular Ramadan bazaar dish was too hard to ignore.
So naturally, we went to try it out.
The outlet in Taman Tun Dr Ismail (TTDI) is actually just a pop up of 62 Grillstreet’s main outlet in Damansara Damai. It’s located on the corner of a shop lot block on Lorong Datuk Sulaiman 7, which is also where popular neighbourhood cafes Quartet and Thursdvys are located.
As we arrived at 8pm, they were just setting the stall up. We immediately put our order in and they began grilling at 8.30pm. It didn’t take long for them to whip up our Roti John Sinar and we dug in as soon as we got it.
The main thing that makes their Roti John shine (or sinar) is the generous portion of homemade Australian beef patties grilled over butter, which gives it a rich, fatty flavour.
Sauces were in good amount too, without overwhelming the taste of the patties. Some sliced cheese, veggies, and a layer of fried egg complemented the savoury profile of the dish.
We also appreciated the plastic gloves provided to help minimise the mess further (and also because there wasn’t any place to wash our hands after).
For RM10 per Roti John Sinar, we think it’s great value for money as we were completely full after the meal.
If you’re looking to try this unique Roti John, do so before Ramadan ends because this will be the only time they’re selling it!
Why is Roti John called Roti John?
The first thing we can tell you is no, the dish was not made by someone named John.
This saucy meat and omelette sandwich actually has several obscure origin stories (kind of like The Joker in Batman) which are quite interesting.
One version of the story from an oral history interview recorded in the National Archives of Singapore attributes the creation of Roti John to an Indian-Muslim hawker named Abdul who sold it on Koek Road.
He served this improvised sandwich to English servicemen, addressing them as “John”, a generic term for Caucasians.
His greeting, “Roti, John?”, eventually became the name of the dish.
Another popular account from a report by The Straits Times in 1988 suggests that in the 1960s, an Englishman in Singapore requested a hamburger from a Malay food vendor.
Lacking the ingredients to make a traditional hamburger, the resourceful hawker improvised by spreading minced meat and chopped onions onto a halved French loaf, binding them with a beaten egg, and frying the concoction.
As “John” was a common term used by locals to address Westerners, the vendor might have presented the dish saying, “Silakan makan roti, John”, leading to the dish being called “Roti John.”
We’re not sure which of these stories are true except the fact that Roti John continues to be a Malaysian favourite at pasar malams and Ramadan bazaars.
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