Hello Everyone, TACO TUESDAYS time!!!
As for you who haven't known about Taco-Tuesdays, it's a routine themed post about food in FreeCompliments Community, and it doesn't have to be TACO. We just like to name it TACO. So today I would like to present you one of my favorite food during tea time or coffee time, It is called Martabak, or Egg Martabak.
EGG MARTABAK
From the name itself, we can guess it is not an original Indonesian Food. The real name is Motabbaq or Murtabak, a pan fried pancake food from Arabian Peninsula. Some said it is from Yemeni Arabic, well I do not know precisely because several literature said it a bit differently.
Why do I call this Egg Martabak? Because in Indonesia, especially in Java Island, there are two kind of Martabak. The sweet one, which is a pancake with a lot of sweet things as the topping, a great dessert for sure, and the other one is this Martabak, which most people here call this as Martabak Telur (egg) or Martabak Mesir (egypt).
In some part of Indonesia, Martabak has different meaning. For example, in some part of Sumatera Island, if you order Martabak, they will give you an Omelette with some curry sauce. So... yeah... it will be a bit confusing for a tourist because they might get different food even they order with the same name "Martabak"
What is Egg Martabak itself?
It is an omelette pancake with some mix of vegetables, duck eggs (sometime they use chicken eggs) and meat. The pancake it self is a thin crispy skin, it is similar to CREPES. So it is not wrong to say martabak is a pan friend crepes with beaten eggs, mix veggies with onions and chives, with some chopped meat or chicken.
This food is one of the most favorited and popular street food in Indonesia. I do not know exactly whether this is a snack, a side dish or a starter / appetizers. But in some restaurant they put this food on the starter part, so let say this is a great appetizers.
Anyway this video from youtube below will give you a great view about how it is made and sold
My Order
There is a small foodtruck near my home, I often go there to buy some Martabak
The place is simple, the car is small one not a real truck anyway. What I like on this stall is that their taste is not bad even they sell the food with a very affordable price. I usually buy Martabak here less than $3 while some famous brands and stalls sell them at $6-8 per portion.
Yes I am very stingy about buying stuff. But the truth is I do not see the point buying expensive street food. It is ok if you buy them from fancy outlet or restaurants, but from food truck or small stall on the sideway? Well buying from those people can give me a feeling of getting scammed.
Well I can not say it is wrong either. Let say everyone has their own preferences, mine is avoiding buying expensive price tagged food on street.
after it is well cooked, they will cut them into 12 pieces and put those in the cartoon box. Then its ready to be taken away. You can not dine in on Martabak Stall, all of them selling it as a taken out food.
Here is my Martabak, the smell is great. The bread is very crispy but not to hard. They give you some pickles and sauce. Each stall has different style and flavors on their sauce. Some use chilli based sauce, some used Soy based sauce, and there are stalls who gives curry based sauces.
Mine here is a chilli based sauce. Actually I like soy based sauce more but that stall was closed down during the Covid 19 Pandemic.
I like going to some street food stalls by foot. Walking for 5-10 minutes is good for my health too. Well it is a bit weird in Indonesia if you do this, that's for sure because my neighbor keeps saying that too... People here always go out with car or motorcycle, only rich guy using expensive bike, and people who walk is a weird one LoL.
I am closing this post right now before I go blabbering out of the topic. That's for Today Egg Murtabak for you guys, thank you for visiting and reading my Taco Tuesdays post. I hope this post can entertain you and encourage you to go grab some Murtabak for yourself.
