At first glance, the new Homemade Kitchen Roti Shop looks like another Latino deli in the bustling neighborhood of Valley Stream. A constant stream of school kids made the trip in for afternoon snacks. The counter had no signs, but they still knew what to ask for: tennis rolls, egg ball and China cake.
This is common fare in Guyanese neighborhoods like Richmond Hill, Queens, which is host to dozens of West Indian bakeries, roti shops and clothing stores. Homemade Kitchen Roti Shop feels like a slice of Little Guyana in Nassau County. The shop is owned by Valley Stream residents Seerita Karim and her husband Shazam, who hail from Guyana and decided to open their own spot now that their kids are old enough to go to school.
“It was always my dream to own a restaurant. I love to cook,” Seerita said. “We see the population (in Valley Stream) is getting very diverse, so we thought it would be nice to have a place close to home, instead of going all the way to Queens.
” She's hired three workers to help her prepare the roti from scratch every day, using paddles to smack the wheat flour dough into flaky disks. The large flatbread is a symbol of Guyana's multicultural background, which includes people of Indian, African and Chinese descent as well as indigenous groups. Considered part of the Caribbean, the South American nation was colonized by the Dutch and later the British, who brought in slaves and indentured servants to work on sugar plantations.
Guyana gained its independ.
