Rudy Martabak, Jakarta

Whenever I hear my Indonesian friends speak of martabak; it's always with great emotional fondess. They can wax such lyrical about martabak that I was certain this must be the food of the Gods. From their descriptions about the dish, I always drew parallels with it and our local min jiang kueh but if I was ever vocal about these comparisons, I would draw quite a few evils from them as well haha. The best way to see if this stuff really lived up to its name would be to have a taste; fresh, and that's what I got from Rudy's.

When I first heard "martabak" I thought of the local Indian dish of "murtabak" which is savory with minced meat bits. It was only through more queries and descriptions that I realised this dish was really a dessert. As you can see, the setup here is quite similar to that of a pancake joint, very assembly line-like.

You can throw all health consciousness to the wind when indulging in martabak. Each pancake is very generously smothered with margarine.

As I wanted to sample the purportedly best two flavors, I decided to go for a half-and-half. Here's some cheese being freshly grated onto one half.

The other is a mixture of nuts, chocolate rice and sesame seeds. Each flavor is also enhanced by copious amounts of condensed milk and sugar.

Although this may look abit like min jiang kueh and has some elements of it such as nuts and a batter pancake, that's pretty much where the similarities end. This stuff in all honesty, tasted rather mind-blowing.

Although there's cheese in this, it's not really salty. I don't even know what sort of cheese this is (the wrapper only had the word "cheesy" on it haha). It tasted like a blend of cheddar and mozzarella. The sweet condensed milk and sugar blended and melted in perfectly with the pancake to make this really very delicious.

Look at this baby. Just look at it. Chocolate, condensed milk, sesame seed, peanuts and margarine. You know there's enough grease in a dish if it soaks through the cardboard box. Seriously, if you are a true fan of min jiang kueh or any localized pancake you have to try a martabak from Jakarta at least once in your life-time. You won't regret it.

D