Undergraduate /
Eating roti canai - common application long answer [3]
I'm still not sure whether my essay qualifies fo "Topic of your choice". Anyway thanks for reading!
"Topic of your choice".
The morning sun peeks through the trees that form a canopy above us. Waiters weave themselves around bustling tables, diligently tossing pieces of bread, plates of fried goodies and bowls of curry into the loving arms of ravenous customers. You might probably think that this is an Indian restaurant, with a complicated name and the Indian waiters, but I prefer to think of it as a Malaysian eatery. I am pretty sure you won't find traditional Malay Nasi Lemak or Chinese soya bean drinks being served in a Madras joint. At that moment a waiter suddenly flings a piece of bread onto my banana leaf. This crispy, flat piece of bread is why there is a line of impatient people waiting outside the restaurant. They are all here for Roti Canai.
Us Malaysians' love for Roti Canai probably began during the colonial times when it was generously shared with the locals by the South Indian immigrants. Since then the Roti Canai has earned its position as one of the three most popular foods in this country. It even has been reinvented more times than Madonna, from being twisted into different shapes and adorned with additions of the weirdest possible fillings ever. Sardines, bananas and cocoa powder anyone?
But the whole Roti Canai experience extends from just originates in the taste alone. Since I was a kid I loved to watch how the cook would lovingly knead, stretch and flip the dough into the air with as much finesse as an Italian pizza maker. He would then toss it onto the grill and it is allowed to crispen up. Waiters hung around the grill like vultures, waiting to snap up the bread the moment they are ready.
My attention is drawn back to the circular piece of grilled dough sitting idly on the banana leaf in front of me, glistening in all of its oily glory. What sheer bliss!
Looking around, I can see the same contented expression on everyone's face. Whether it's the Chinese family to my right, the Malay couple to my left, the group of students in the corner or the Western tourists behind me, it feels amazing how to see how all of us can sit down together and enjoy something as simple as a piece of bread. It is at moments like this when I truly feel grateful to be living in a country where different cultures are so genuinely respected and embraced.
And even though our dietary habits may be less than exemplary (the gentlemen sitting in the opposite table is dexterously wrapping a greasy piece of roti canai around a chunk of deep-fried chicken), I am proud that Malaysians are still passionate about our local fare and that many of us still can't let go of our morning roti canai. Did I say morning? I meant morning, brunch, lunch, tea, dinner and supper. Well what can I say, Malaysia is a land of eating after all.[/quote]
This is an excellent descriptive essay! Well written over all, but make sure all of your tenses are correct - the nature of the essay is to bounce from memory to present tense, so it makes it a little trickier to get it right...also, lose the contractions.
The essay doesn't say where you are when you are in the present...I would like to know...
I am not sure whether or not it is appropriate for a common app essay because I never had to apply to college (I was middle age when I entered community college through the military, so the application process consisted of signing on the dotted line and forking over the dough:), but maybe someone else can advise you on that.
This was a real pleasure to read, Ashwini, and if you change nothing, they are only minor errors. Good job.
Blue skies!
Jeannie Oops! I forgot to address the first paragraph!
"You might probably think that this is an Indian restaurant, with a in light of the complicated name and the Indian waiters, but I prefer to think of it as a Malaysian eatery."
"At that moment a waiter suddenly flings a piece of bread onto my banana leaf."
