A snack to die for: Pasar malam vendor in Malaysia goes viral for selling food resembling 'pocong'

Every striving business aims to have a unique selling point.

And it seems that Yusri Baharin's pasar malam stall in Malaysia has a deathly one, so to speak.

The food vendor specialises in selling Roti Pocong.

Yes, you read that right, this snack is meant to resemble a supernatural entity known as a pocong.

For the uninitiated, in accordance with folklore common in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia, a pocong is a spirit resembling a person wrapped in a funeral cloth used in Islamic burials.

It is also something of a common figure in local ghost stories.

On Thursday (March 21), Yusri shared a TikTok clip to promote his stall, which is located in a Ramadan bazaar in Seremban. 

Viewers will also notice efforts were made to provide a more spooky feel to the stall—from pocong images to a fake pocong figure.

The clip has since gone viral, amassing 1.1 million views at the time of writing.

@yusri_baharin

Roti Pocong. Tapak Bazaar Stadium Paroi

♬ original sound - YusriBaharin

The comments section included amused netizens who were taken aback by the sudden appearance of the fake pocong figure popping up on-screen.

"Hey, why didn't you warn us about the jumpscare?" one user joked.

Another commented: "My neighbour was shocked upon hearing me scream."

Inside a Roti Pocong

Yusri's snack is basically made of roti canai dough, filled with chicken or beef and wrapped with egg, before being pan-fried to achieve the crispy outer layer.

While it is similar to roti sarang burung (or bird's nest), what differs is that Yusri tightly wraps the dough at both ends, to resemble the look of a pocong.

Each Roti Pocong goes for RM10 ($3).

The ones you see in the video are lathered with cheese sauce but other options include Pocong Black Pepper, Pocong Mushroom and Pocong Bolognese.

There's even one named Pocong Lemas (RM15), or drowning pocong. 

In a previous TikTok video last September, Yusri revealed how Roti Pocong came about as a menu item.

He was keen on starting an F&B business focusing on breakfast food as he saw a gap in the market.

"I wanted to start a breakfast business because I feel like there isn't any competitor," Yusri said with a grin.

Together with his current business partner Firdaus, the Roti Pocong idea came about and it went viral on X, previously Twitter; and TikTok.

This led to sales going up and since then, the viral snack has been sold all over Malaysia, from Ipoh to Johor.

ALSO READ: Hot and thorny: Shirtless durian seller in Malaysia has netizens going bananas

amierul@asiaone.com

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