Location: 4646 Heritage Hills Boulevard, Mississauga
Website: None
Apparently a mega-popular Sri Lankan street food, I’ll admit that I wasn’t even particularly familiar with kottu roti before trying it at Anantha Bhavan.
Sometimes you try a new dish, and it’s strange and unfamiliar; it’s good, but you can see why it might be considered an acquired taste. This was not one of those times.
I honestly think anyone would enjoy this — it’s essentially a South Asian version of hash. Consisting of pieces of roti (a flatbread) griddled with eggs, veggies, meat, and spices, it’s got all the crispy, starchy, eggy textures you expect from a hash, but thoroughly infused with floral Sri Lankan spices. It’s pure comfort food.
At Anantha Bhavan, you can get it vegetarian, with chicken, or with mutton. A quick Google search revealed mutton to be traditional, so that’s what I got. A couple of pieces of meat were a bit on the chewy side, but aside from that the morsels were tender and tasty.
It’s one of those dishes where once you start eating, you can’t stop. I was on my lunch break and didn’t particularly want to go back to work stuffed, so I thought I’d eat about half and save the rest for later. Easier said than done. And it’s a huge portion for seven bucks, so it’s a pretty good value, too.
How have I gone my whole life without having even heard of this, let alone tried it? How is this dish not a bigger deal? I don’t get it. I can only bemoan all those years spent kottu roti-less, like a sucker. Thanks a lot, society.
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