'Murtaba' - a Culinary Journey
"We went to meet the Ravalji (chief priest) of the (Badrinath) temple and were received by the current incumbent, Sri Kesavan Nambuthiri. He was very happy to meet me - a visitor from Kerala, his home state. And I was surprised to learn that Nambuthiri had actually read many of my stories and travelogs. "And that 'Murtaba' you ate in Java...wow, so delicious!" he remarked with genuine pleasure.
- (from the travelog 'Himalayan Realm' written around 1965 by SK Pottekkatt)
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A few days back, I received a pic from Captain in Singapore, showing a wrapper: "Malabar - Best Pakistani Basmati Rice (established in 1955)". I am NOT among the majority who would be puzzled as to what possibly could link Malabar and Pakistan. For, I have read S K Pottekkat's travelogs. And if one has read his 'Indonesian Diary', an account from 1953 of travels in Java, that basmati rice wrapper would certainly trigger memories of a certain Abubakar Kunhi...
While looking around the city of Jogjakarta, SK chances upon an eatery-shack with these words scrawled above: "Restaurant Malabar Pakistan". Guessing it would be a Malayali Muslim establishment, he approaches and greets the propreitor - a sixty-plus old man - in plain Malayalam. The reaction is one of great delight as well as surprise. "Please come and sit!" he invites SK, pointing at the sole bench in his shop.
"My name is Abubakar Kunhi...from 'Kasarod'... its been so many years since I smoked a Malabar beedi!" and in a few minutes, he rustles up a nifty 'murtaba' and plants it before SK.
In SK's words: "The Murtaba has been a delectable contribution to Javan cuisine from India - more specifically, Malayali Muslims. its a panfried snack stuffed with beaten eggs, minced meat, fine-sliced onions, chillies, potatoes, some spices - all carefully mixed in some very special proportion. The precise recipe was traditionally known only to Malayali Muslims and they still monopolize the Murtaba trade in Java"
Abubakar treats SK to one more choice murtaba... and they talk: Abubakar laments that an adoptive daughter of his (offspring of a Javan woman he had married) had run away with some good-for-nothing and worse, started a murtaba joint down the same street in competition with her 'elaappa'. Personal loss apart, that the murtaba recipe is now known to locals rankles our man!
Finally, SK asks him about the name of his establishment and Abubakar answers: "Malabar is my homeland and Pakistan, my faith!"
"Some propagandists for Pakistan had spread canards among the Malayali Muslims in Java - "every Muslim in the former colony of India is now, naturally, a Pakistani national... all Muslim homes there have the right to fly the green-and-crescent Pakistan flag..." and so forth. Old Abubakar, poor and illiterate - and he hadn't seen India for over 40 years - must have fallen for all that nonsense. But I genuinely appreciated his putting native land before religious identity. 'Malabar' first!"(*)
Here is some more info gathered from Wiki:
"In Malaysia, murtabak (note the 'k' at the end!) was originally sold in Indian Muslim restaurants and stalls... The word 'mutabbaq' in Arabic means "folded". This suggests that Murtabak might originate from Yemen, which had a sizeable Indian population; through Indian traders it spread back to their home countries.Murtabak was brought to Southeast Asia by Tamil Muslim traders. The dish referred to as murtabak is a multi-layered pancake that originated in the state of Kerala where the people referred to as "mamaks" ("mama" means "uncle" in Tamil) hail from. The word "mutabar" is the original name for the particular dish referred to in other languages and dialects as "murtabak." "Mutabar" is an amalgam of two words, "muta" (being the Keralite word for egg, a significant component of the dish) and "bar," an abbreviated form of the word barota, or "bratha roti" (the bread). The bread base or pancake on which it is then spread over is referred to in Hindi as "pratha roti" or "pratha.".....Martabak is often called the pancake of asia..... In Indonesia, egg martabak is also called Martabak Malabar ...."
That must be quite a plateful of etymology, history and geography - a finely minced and spiced mix thereof!
------------
Wiki has also told me this: "'Kue' is an Indonesian word of probably Chinese origin that refers to a wide variety of sweet snacks - cakes, cookies, ... 'pinyaram' is a kue traditionally made by the Minangkabau of Sumatra. on festive occasions. Kue pinyaram is made from a mixture of white sugar or palm sugar, white rice flour or black rice, and coconut milk, the way it is cooked is quite similar to cooking a pancake. "
So, it seems 'kue pinyaram' is a foreigner that sometime in the last couple of hundred years(?) got adopted and malayalized into the sweet (and sweet-flowing) 'kuzhippaniyaaram' - now said to be an "authentic and traditional Malayali Muslim sweet"! The word 'kuzhi' meaning pit or depression makes literal sense as well since the nicely rounded sweet is made by pouring batter into small depressions in metal plates which are then stacked and baked.
Aside: the biriyani-like Yemeni dish 'kuzhimanthi' which has become a rage in Kerala over the last decade, really has an awful name. While the rice is indeed cooked in a 'kuzhi', the word 'manthi' in Malayalam means, of all things, 'monkey' - 'Pit monkey'? God!
------------
Question: The 'kuzhimanthi' apart, 'shawarma', 'alfam' and a whole host of dishes from all around the Indian ocean have become big hits in Kerala. When will SK's - and Kesavan Nambuthiri's - beloved 'Murtaba' come home?
------------
(*) During his extensive travels in Java, SK dines at several other Malabari Muslim eateries. And he names at least a couple more - 'Restaurant India' and 'Restarant India-Malabar'
-----------
A few days back, I received a pic from Captain in Singapore, showing a wrapper: "Malabar - Best Pakistani Basmati Rice (established in 1955)". I am NOT among the majority who would be puzzled as to what possibly could link Malabar and Pakistan. For, I have read S K Pottekkat's travelogs. And if one has read his 'Indonesian Diary', an account from 1953 of travels in Java, that basmati rice wrapper would certainly trigger memories of a certain Abubakar Kunhi...
While looking around the city of Jogjakarta, SK chances upon an eatery-shack with these words scrawled above: "Restaurant Malabar Pakistan". Guessing it would be a Malayali Muslim establishment, he approaches and greets the propreitor - a sixty-plus old man - in plain Malayalam. The reaction is one of great delight as well as surprise. "Please come and sit!" he invites SK, pointing at the sole bench in his shop.
"My name is Abubakar Kunhi...from 'Kasarod'... its been so many years since I smoked a Malabar beedi!" and in a few minutes, he rustles up a nifty 'murtaba' and plants it before SK.
In SK's words: "The Murtaba has been a delectable contribution to Javan cuisine from India - more specifically, Malayali Muslims. its a panfried snack stuffed with beaten eggs, minced meat, fine-sliced onions, chillies, potatoes, some spices - all carefully mixed in some very special proportion. The precise recipe was traditionally known only to Malayali Muslims and they still monopolize the Murtaba trade in Java"
Abubakar treats SK to one more choice murtaba... and they talk: Abubakar laments that an adoptive daughter of his (offspring of a Javan woman he had married) had run away with some good-for-nothing and worse, started a murtaba joint down the same street in competition with her 'elaappa'. Personal loss apart, that the murtaba recipe is now known to locals rankles our man!
Finally, SK asks him about the name of his establishment and Abubakar answers: "Malabar is my homeland and Pakistan, my faith!"
"Some propagandists for Pakistan had spread canards among the Malayali Muslims in Java - "every Muslim in the former colony of India is now, naturally, a Pakistani national... all Muslim homes there have the right to fly the green-and-crescent Pakistan flag..." and so forth. Old Abubakar, poor and illiterate - and he hadn't seen India for over 40 years - must have fallen for all that nonsense. But I genuinely appreciated his putting native land before religious identity. 'Malabar' first!"(*)
Here is some more info gathered from Wiki:
"In Malaysia, murtabak (note the 'k' at the end!) was originally sold in Indian Muslim restaurants and stalls... The word 'mutabbaq' in Arabic means "folded". This suggests that Murtabak might originate from Yemen, which had a sizeable Indian population; through Indian traders it spread back to their home countries.Murtabak was brought to Southeast Asia by Tamil Muslim traders. The dish referred to as murtabak is a multi-layered pancake that originated in the state of Kerala where the people referred to as "mamaks" ("mama" means "uncle" in Tamil) hail from. The word "mutabar" is the original name for the particular dish referred to in other languages and dialects as "murtabak." "Mutabar" is an amalgam of two words, "muta" (being the Keralite word for egg, a significant component of the dish) and "bar," an abbreviated form of the word barota, or "bratha roti" (the bread). The bread base or pancake on which it is then spread over is referred to in Hindi as "pratha roti" or "pratha.".....Martabak is often called the pancake of asia..... In Indonesia, egg martabak is also called Martabak Malabar ...."
That must be quite a plateful of etymology, history and geography - a finely minced and spiced mix thereof!
------------
Wiki has also told me this: "'Kue' is an Indonesian word of probably Chinese origin that refers to a wide variety of sweet snacks - cakes, cookies, ... 'pinyaram' is a kue traditionally made by the Minangkabau of Sumatra. on festive occasions. Kue pinyaram is made from a mixture of white sugar or palm sugar, white rice flour or black rice, and coconut milk, the way it is cooked is quite similar to cooking a pancake. "
So, it seems 'kue pinyaram' is a foreigner that sometime in the last couple of hundred years(?) got adopted and malayalized into the sweet (and sweet-flowing) 'kuzhippaniyaaram' - now said to be an "authentic and traditional Malayali Muslim sweet"! The word 'kuzhi' meaning pit or depression makes literal sense as well since the nicely rounded sweet is made by pouring batter into small depressions in metal plates which are then stacked and baked.
Aside: the biriyani-like Yemeni dish 'kuzhimanthi' which has become a rage in Kerala over the last decade, really has an awful name. While the rice is indeed cooked in a 'kuzhi', the word 'manthi' in Malayalam means, of all things, 'monkey' - 'Pit monkey'? God!
------------
Question: The 'kuzhimanthi' apart, 'shawarma', 'alfam' and a whole host of dishes from all around the Indian ocean have become big hits in Kerala. When will SK's - and Kesavan Nambuthiri's - beloved 'Murtaba' come home?
------------
(*) During his extensive travels in Java, SK dines at several other Malabari Muslim eateries. And he names at least a couple more - 'Restaurant India' and 'Restarant India-Malabar'
posted by R.Nandakumar @ 5:09 AM
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