Ayutthaya Original · Sugar-Thread Wrap

Roti Sai Mai (Cotton Candy Roti)

Photo: Takeaway / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0

In the 1980s and '90s, vendors sold it from bicycles fitted with a coin-operated spinning dial — drop in a coin and the number the dial landed on decided how many pieces you won, turning a street snack into a tiny game of chance.

Hand-spun threads of colored sugar candy are wrapped inside a thin, pliable roti flatbread, sometimes tinted green with pandan, and finished with a scatter of sesame seeds. Vendors spin the sugar fresh in front of customers since it turns sticky and unusable within days.

Why it's made this way: The recipe traces back to Indian Muslim traders who introduced it to the old capital of Ayutthaya, and it has remained a fixture of Thai roadside and night-market stalls ever since.