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Sweet · Guyana
Black cake
Dark fruit cake made with dried fruits ground and soaked in rum for weeks, darkened with burnt caramel and doused with rum after baking. It's the Christmas cake in Guyana.
Flavors · Guyana
Dhal puri
Roti stuffed with ground, seasoned split pea, griddled and served with curry. It arrived with indentured workers from India, beginning in 1838, and today is one of Guyana’s most common snacks.
Traditional dish from Guyana
Also known as: dhalpuri, dhal puri roti
Illustrative images. The pictures in this guide are illustrations based on the real place, not photographs, and may differ from it.
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Dhal puri — Guyana
Dhal puri is a type of roti, the flatbread of Indian origin. The dough is filled with dhal—cooked, ground yellow split pea—seasoned with cumin, garlic and pepper. It is then rolled very thin and cooked on a tawa, a round griddle, until it develops golden spots. The filling forms a thin layer inside the bread.
Roti came to Guyana with indentured workers from British India. The first arrivals landed on May 5, 1838, a date now commemorated as Arrival Day, a national holiday. By 1917, about 240,000 people had made the journey, most to work on sugar plantations.
Over time, Indian cuisine became part of the country’s everyday table. According to the Guyana Chronicle, dhal puri became one of Guyana’s most common and affordable snacks.
It is eaten with curry—chicken, goat, potato or chickpea—tearing pieces of the bread to scoop up the filling. It is also eaten on its own or with a sour mango sauce. Other types of roti on the Guyanese table include paratha, layered, and sada, plain and unfilled.
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Where it comes from
Guyana
Heritage of indentured workers from India, today one of the country’s most common snacks.
Ingredients
Wheat flour dough; filling of cooked, ground yellow split pea (dhal) seasoned with cumin, garlic and pepper; oil for the griddle.
How it is eaten
With curry, tearing pieces of the bread to scoop up the filling; also on its own or with sour mango sauce.
When it is eaten
All year round, as a meal or a snack.
Your questions
Questions about Dhal puri
What is the difference between dhal puri and other rotis?
Dhal puri has a filling of ground yellow split pea seasoned and spiced. Paratha is made in layers without a filling, and sada is the simplest roti.
When did roti arrive in Guyana?
With indentured workers from India, who began arriving on May 5, 1838. The date is remembered as Arrival Day.
Flavors of Guyana
Discover other flavors of Guyana
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Pork cured for days in vinegar with garlic, pepper and thyme, then fried. It arrived in Guyana with Portuguese settlers and is served at Christmas breakfast, with bread.
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Pepperpot
Dark meat stew slowly cooked in cassareep, a sauce made from the juice of bitter cassava, with cinnamon, clove and pepper. It originated with the Indigenous peoples, is called the national dish and is the morning Christmas dish in Guyana.
Drink · Demerara-Mahaica
Demerara rum
Rum made at Diamond Distillery on the east bank of the Demerara River near Georgetown, the last distillery in Guyana. Its historic wooden stills came from the distilleries of former sugar plantations.