1960s Invention · Fried Egg Sandwich

Roti John

Photo: stef yau from Seattle, USA / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY 2.0

'John' wasn't a real customer's name at all — Malay hawkers of the era used it as a generic, polite way to address English customers, and the phrase 'Silakan makan roti, John' ('please eat this bread, John') is thought to have garbled into the dish's name over time.

A halved baguette-style loaf is dipped face-down into a beaten egg-and-onion mixture with minced meat or sardines, then fried on a hot griddle until crisp, and served open-faced with ketchup and chili — a Singapore hawker invention from the 1960s and '70s.

Why it's made this way: The best-known account credits hawker Shukor Shariff, who in the 1960s improvised the dish when an English customer asked for a hamburger he had no ingredients for; his version, later sold at the Taman Serasi hawker centre, became the standard now found at Malay food stalls islandwide.