My First Malaysian Murtabak

Who arrives to a hip-hop festival hungry? This gal! (With two thumbs pointing at herself.) Last weekend at the Manifesto concert in Dundas Square before watching performances by Rakim, Phonte and 9th Wonder, I strolled by the line of food stalls and a banner promising Malaysian food caught my attention. My parents have raved about the roti-like street food they ate in Kuala Lumpur while visiting relatives and I was momentarily shocked when I realized I had found the illusive Murtabak.

I’d never seen this stall or type of food in all my Toronto eating adventures and stood back to survey the process before placing my order. I loved that that they had several boards listing every ingredient of the three Murtabaks (beef, chicken or vegetable). Considering this was likely most people’s first experience with one, it’s a very smart strategy to demystify the contents. Even better since there’s hilarious cut-out pictures.

First there’s the pulling and stretching of the dough made of all-purpose flour, margarine, salt and sugar with some vegetable oil, then it’s slapped onto a round griddle. The fillings are already prepared so the process is speedy as they simply spread it on the centre, then fold the edges up around it and brown both sides. In the end you’re handed a perfectly browned puffy square envelope of food. Special delivery indeed!

On a side table there are two “chutneys” to choose from, though the sauces are a much more liquid consistency than typical North American chutney. The Tomato Chutney has a more robust flavour while the Coconut Chutney is spicier with a pretty great kick (again notice the demystifying ingredient list).

The lovely woman taking my order recommended I try the Chicken Murtabak ($8) and I was thrilled to carry this plate back to a seated area to enjoy. On the way, several people stopped to ask “What is that?” and then remarked on how delicious it looked. Hopefully my unintentional street marketing campaign helped them get a few extra orders. To consume the Murtabak, I started sawing away at it with my useless plastic utensils and eventualy gave into eating it by hand and dunking it into the chutney. The inside is a delicious mash of chicken, curry and vegetables and the dough is soft and chewy. Let’s just say I completely understand why my parents are still raving about the Malaysian “roti.”

After my last bite I went back to the stall in hopes of finding if there was a permanent location. Sadly all I learnt about Pondicherry Catering (which runs the stall) is they do the street festival circuit. Back home, a few moments on the interweb turned up a great Toronto Star article by Jennifer Bain from 2007 and a trail of blog/comment posts indicating they’ve been found at Harbourfront, Toronto Night Market and Taste of Lawrence. It seems my best bet for a second Murtabak will be trolling street festivals and keeping my eyes peeled for their “Malaysian Famous Food” banner.