ODE TO ROTI

Nearly everywhere I’ve traveled in the developing world, I’ve nurtured a love affair with sweetened condensed milk. While I’m normally not a fan of its sickly sweetness, its presence in everything from coffees and teas to snacks and desserts has a way of hitting the spot when you’re otherwise subsisting on rice with sauce. My guess is that an absence of sugary foods—not to mention the milk’s infinite shelf-life—contributes to condensed milk’s popularity in places like Africa and Southeast Asia.

Luckily for me and my taste buds, sweetened condensed milk is a crucial ingredient in Thailand’s most famous street snack, roti. A fried flatbread descended from Indian chapatti, the roti is stuffed with bananas, drizzled liberally with chocolate and sweetened condensed milk, and sprinkled with granulated sugar. (In other words, a diabetic’s worst nightmare.) It might sound repulsive, but trust me: after a few tries this saccharine snack becomes strangely addictive.