Feisty roast paans

By Fathima Riznaz Hafi

Moving away from sweet treats, this time around we’re looking at savouries. A newcomer to the food scene, ‘Tosakanth’s Roast Paan’ has brought in her value addition to the local roast paan, livening it up with a variety of creative fillings. 

This may sound plain and boring as one may think ‘It’s just roast paan’, but her roast paan sandwiches are really worth a try as they offer something different. The paan itself is light and crisp while the fillings are unique in taste and generous in quantity. 

Tashya De Silva is the person behind the business. Coming from a family of bakers, she learnt the basics from her mother but has developed her own distinctive ideas for fillings. “If we can create interesting fillings with bread I think bread can go a long way,” she says.

Before proceeding to try out her bread I just had to ask how she came up with the bizarre name. Apparently ‘Ravana’ – the demon king from the Indian epic, is known as ‘Tosakanth’ in Thailand and she just happened to have a t-shirt with his face and name on it. “It was my favourite shirt and I used to wear it all the time so my friends called me Tosakanth. That was a random thing and now everything I do is related to Tosakanth.” 

Digging further I asked about the moustache theme that her brand carries. “I have a bit of an obsession with moustaches, in case you haven’t noticed,” she says as she points at her moustache-shaped brooch, earrings and other accessories. “Everything is moustache-related. I just have a fascination with it and have to use it somehow, somewhere.”

Once my curiosity was satisfied, I went for the food …

Pol Sambol and Cheese

This is half a roast paan, stuffed with pol sambol and there’s no Maldive fish in it so it’s vegetarian. It’s got cheese wedges that are sliced up – lots of this inside and is buttered on the outside and toasted on a hot plate grill – not a normal grill. 

At my first bite I was hit by a pleasing zesty flavour coming from the lime and this combined with a generous amount of pol sambol and the cheese made it a flavoursome sandwich. It had the very familiar taste of the popular pol sambol bread but with an enhanced flavour added through Tashya’s personalised mix. 

Chilli Chicken

The shredded chicken in this filling is incredibly spicy, as one would expect but has a touch of sweetness and some herbs running through it as well. It was moist and the pieces were tender. I wouldn’t recommend this for those who are not into hot stuff – the spice brought on tears and I may not be brave enough to go for another one but spice lovers would absolutely devour this. 

Cajun Chicken and Cranberry Sauce

This was delightful with some spice mixed with the sweetness of cranberry and was a relief from the terror bread I had earlier. It’s like a Mexican spice dish, whereby chopped chicken pieces are covered in spices and pan-fried adding mayo to make it into a paste. Cranberry sauce mixed into this paste adds a sweet/sour element to it. This would appeal to those who like the teasing mix of elements in their meals.

Tashya says her sandwiches are all pretty spicy and not really for kids but the Cajun Chicken is do-able for them because of the sweetness from its jammy sauce.

Ambul Thiyal Fish

Well this basically tasted like what it’s called – ambul thiyal. It had fish pieces broken up with mayonnaise mixed through it and there is a nice crunch added from chopped onions. You get the occasional piece of green chilli when biting into it, giving that light hit of spice every now and then. 

Conclusion

My thumbs up to Tosakanth’s Roast Paan for its creative attempts to rev-up the relatively plain and simple Sri Lankan bread, turning it into a more ‘adventurous’ savoury treat. 

We all have our own preferences on the level of spice in our bread and Tosakanth’s sandwiches have different levels for you to choose from, with the Chilli Chicken being way up on the scale of spiciness while the Cajun Chicken would please those who like spice but not the overflow of it. 

Tashya has a full-time job and therefore requests 24 hours’ notice for an order and adds the service is pick-up only. She is based in Horton Place, Colombo 7.

Pix by Upul Abayasekara