hope the more knowledgeable among you can enlighten me what is the difference between murtabak and murtabak singapura? I was in one mamak the other day perusing through their menu and i saw murtabak and another murtabak singapura which was more expensive...

Okay this is to my knowledge, a normal murtabak is as you know it, a roti filled with minced meat, onions, and egg then folded and grilled. Now I believe a murtabak Singapura is similar to a murtabak Johor which basically is a normal murtabak then put on another roti with another layer of meat, onions and egg, folded and grilled again. They go a little crazy and you can get up to seven layers of roti, meat, onions and sometimes as many as 14 eggs in it so it can get up to the size of a small table and when you cut it you will find layers upon layers of murtabak. To better understand this go to our Foodsters Invasion- http://www.friedchillies.com/index.php/fctv/detail/murtabark-larkin-johor-bahru/ and this is what I believe Murtabak Singapura is kin to.

So in a long winded way to answer your question, a murtabak Singapura is a murtabak wrapped in another murtabak, wrapped in another murtabak... (at the very least 2 layers) hence why it's more expensive.

While I know they have a multi layered jumbo version, I seem to recall that the normal version which I had years ago in Singapore's Zam Zam Restaurant consited of a single layer which had its mince meat egg and onion layer spread on top rather than inside the roti (positively sacrileges by Malaysian standard, I know). To achieve a crisp surface, I recall that much less meat mixture was used compared to malaysian (especially KL) varieties and probably more ghee too.

Slightly of point, I note that murtabaks in KL tend to be far thicker than the murtabaks in Penang and so are not ascrispy(an excellent example of which is the Hammeedia Restarurant on Cambell Road thats been selling the stuf since 1907). A lot if not most places in KL also find no shame in serving their versions without red pickled onions hence my usual avoidance of the dish.

I guess that there are several versions of the jumbo style. I know that the reference to Murtabak Singapore/Johor is normally refers to the jumbo ones. There is a place in Sri hartamas called nasi Lemak Tanjung Puteri that serves the johor jumbo version. Not as many layers as the ones at larkin perdana tho.

asian-malaysian : I hear you bro. haven't found a decent murtabak in kl. closest is ismail in Taman Tun. I noticed that some penang sellers put a slice of the roti (canai) on top of the filling before wrapping the whole thing and grilling over the flat pan.

hey Tg Puteri murtabak is served with pickled red onions