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Elsie Chin flips a pancake over a hot griddle and delivers the thin bread to a woman sitting at the counter. “There are no forks here,” Chin says with a toothy grin. “So if you been scratching somewhere, you better go wash your hands.”
At L.C. Roti Shop, a teeny restaurant at a Miami Gardens strip mall, order roti — crêpe-like bread — filled with curried goat ($9) or spicy potatoes ($6). Try the buss-up shut ($3.50), crumbled roti that’s used to scoop up meat and vegetables like pita bread digs into hummus.
For 28 years, Chin has been serving these and other Trinidadian street food favorites: doubles ($2, fried-dough sandwiches stuffed with chickpeas), potato pies, and pholourie (split-pea flour dumplings doused in sweet chutney).
Her tenure has inspired some quirky rules along the way. Mismatched signs line the shop’s walls: “Cash only,” “No cellphones,” and “Farting prohibited.”
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L.C. Roti Shop has more than delectable eats. It has a sense of humor too.
