Roti Sai Mai – A Sweet Speciality from Ayutthaya

Following my recent post about my trip to Ayutthaya, I learned that there is a dessert speciality from Ayutthaya which is called Roti Sai Mai. It is also referred to as ‘Sweet Angel Hair’ and Sai Mai (สายไหม) means “silky threads”.

Thus, I searched the internet for this ‘Kanom’ (Thai expression for “sweets, dessert”) and found some amazing pictures of this sweetmeat on Pinterest.

Roti Sai Mai

Sadly enough, I missed trying this sweetmeat while being in Thailand and visiting Ayutthaya 🙁 However, I hope to catch up on tasting this amazing dessert some time!

Roti Sai Mai is mainly associated with the ancient Kingdom of Ayutthaya. However, today it is generally a popular street food in Thailand that can be found ‘anywhere’. Nevertheless, Ayutthaya is still the centre for the production of these kind of crepes in Thailand.

Making Roti Sai Mai

However, the origins of this colourful sweetmeat goes back to the Indian subcontinent and was most likely brought to Thailand by Indian and Pakistani Roti vendors who migrated to the Kingdom.

In fact, there are different kinds of Roti but this one is made with cotton candy that comes in various colours and is wrapped in a piece or two lightly salted thin paper-like crepes. Since the cotton candy looks like hair, it is called ‘angel hair’ 🙂

cotton candy that looks like hair

colourful cotton candy

The Roti crepe is very often green in colour. This effect is achieved by adding Pandan leafs to the mix of egg and flour.

Here you see a greenish Roti with pink and purple ‘angel hair’

I think this is an amazingly delicious looking sweetmeat! Yummy!!! 🙂

Have you tried this sweetmeat while being in Thailand?

Finally, I’d like to show you a short video about the Roti Sai Mai production and selling in Ayutthaya.

Have a ‘yummy’ day!

Yours, Sirinya

(All pictures in this post are from Pinterest, for more information about desserts, check out my Thai Food Dictionary)