Back in the day, Tahir worked in Media City and always found it hard to decide what to have for lunch. There weren't many great options for grab and go. So he thought roti (a Pakistani tortilla) was the perfect answer to this. It was also a chance to make Pakistani food fresh, cool and accessible while staying true to the essence of his mum’s recipes.
So, in 2012, he bit the bullet and tested Moti Roti as pop-ups around Dubai. Moti Roti went on to become one of the first food trucks in Dubai, nominated as Best Food Truck (What’s On Awards 2016), as well as a founding member of TruckersDXB. Now, it has opened up its first delivery restaurant in Jumeirah Lake Towers.
"My grandmother used to grind her own flour, on a stone in her kitchen. And many still do, to this day. Luckily, we have machines to do all that. But we still use stoneground wholewheat flour for our rotis. To make the dough we just add water – nothing else. No oil, yeast or dairy. We let it rest for a while. We roll it out into rounds then we cook it on a traditional tawa (flat iron griddle) before finishing it off over the open flame. That last bit is where the magic happens. All that hot air in the roti makes it puff up like a balloon, which gives it that pillowy texture."