Street Griddle · Stuffed Pancake

Martabak

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"Martabak" is really two unrelated dishes sharing one name — a savory egg-and-meat-stuffed pastry, and an entirely different thick, spongy sweet pancake folded around chocolate and cheese.

For the savory version (martabak telur), a thin dough is stuffed with spiced minced meat, egg, and scallions, folded into a square, and fried crisp on a flat griddle, then sliced and served with a tangy vinegar-cucumber dip. Night-market vendors cook each order fresh in full view, flipping the pastry with a wide spatula.

Why it's made this way: The dish traces back to Arab and Indian Muslim traders who settled in coastal Indonesia centuries ago, and its name comes from the Arabic word for "folded" — a fitting description of how street vendors still fold it today.