The backpacker dish so famous they named a whole region after it

Banana Pancakes, Thailand

PLATE UP
It’s the dish so famous, they named a whole region after it. Of course, by “they” we mean Western travellers making their way around South-East Asia, those who noticed that everywhere tourists went in Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar and Vietnam, vendors also appeared selling a dish they had come to know and love: banana pancakes.

Welcome to the Banana Pancake Trail. Welcome to the culture of banana pancakes, the wildly popular street-food snack that isn’t a pancake at all, but rather a Thai/Malaysian-style roti (closer to an Indian paratha) filled with fresh banana and topped with condensed milk. To make it, a glutinous dough is stretched gossamer-thin, fried on a hotplate before being filled, folded, flipped and served. And all this, usually, for about $1.

Perfection ... a Thai banana pancake.Credit: Getty Images

FIRST SERVE
Thai-style roti has its origins in India (the word simply means “bread” in Sanskrit), though it probably arrived via Malaysia. Indian migrants brought with them this light, fluffy grilled flatbread, which in Malaysia is often served as “roti canai”, with a curry of vegetables, chicken or even fish. The Thai Muslim community picked up the ball of dough and ran with it, catering to the tastes of foreign tourists by offering sweet versions with the likes of bananas, mangoes, jam, peanut butter and even Nutella.

ORDER THERE
This is not a fancy dish. It’s not the sort of thing you would order at a restaurant in Thailand, but rather pick up from a street-food stand. Roti with banana is found across the country, though is most prevalent in the south. Try it at the Phuket weekend market. (amazingthailand.com.au).

ORDER HERE
It’s not Thai, but in both Sydney and Melbourne, Malaysian eatery Mamak (mamak.com.au) is a roti specialist that does a very good “roti pisang”, with sweetened banana.

ONE MORE THING
The Banana Pancake Trail is not much of a thing anymore, its popular usage having gone the same way as the Lonely Planet guidebooks its adherents traditionally clutched. Back in the 20th century there was also the “Gringo Trail” in South America, and the “Hippie Trail” in Europe.