nothing like a good plate of murtabak...

It all started with an invite by my cousin, to head for Sultan Mosque, early that Saturday morning, for some Zikirullah (Quranic prayer recitations alongside praises for Allah), with aims directing at medical benefits.

And we eventually got down to a more Islamic way of exercises & stretches - not unlike the much-hyped Yoga, which leaned more towards Hinduism - spiritually. I'm amazed that I can still stretch well, even touching the floor-going beyond my toes, when bending down. All that under the glaring sun (we sat outdoors), with solemn prayer recitations and aptly-timed deep inhales & exhales, it (naturally) got me pretty hungry.

Doesn't help that I only got 1/3 of a boiled sweetcorn for breakfast. MIL packed me 4 of those, but I decided to share with the others. Oh, and the fact that we're surrounded by many many eateries o'there. So what do we have later... Murtabak @ Zam Zam? Nasi Padang @ Wisvry? Or mediterranean food?

The choice eventually became imminent, as we were greeted by the aroma of freshly cooked murtabak wafting out of the famed institution, Zam Zam from across the road. We literally let our noses lead the way.

It was packed, as usual and seeing that there were nine of us, we waited a lil' before getting our seats and making our order. Murtabak it shall be. I mentioned about having the chicken one as well, but many disagreed. Well, I'm all for variety and 3 plates of similar mutton murtabak will definitely be an overload.

So 2 meat & 1 chicken murtabak it is. All large.

They eventually served the condiments of sliced cucumbers (sliced a tad too thin!) with ketchup and 3 varieties of curries, i.e. dhal, fish & chicken curry.

meat (usually mutton) murtabak

Look at how crisp that is! Most of us lunged for the edges. And the excess minced meat sprinkled on top was equally crunchy.

This is still my favourite location to satiate any murtabak craving...

chicken murtabak

Looks like any other murtabak, though the edges are crispy, one can see that the center, (where the filling is), seemed a lil' soggy and dense....

the chicken meat inside

...due to the gravy that comes with the chicken pieces.

I later realised that the chicken seemed similar to the one on my cousin's plate of chicken briyani.

Truth to be told, I even end up spitting our small bone fragments in some pieces of the chicken murtabak.

No wonder it wasn't THAT popular with many.

my cousin and her chicken briyani

She the case of, 'must-have-rice-to-be-full'. She was aghast to hear that we'll be eating ONLY murtabak and immediately placed her order for this.

We walked out of there very much appeased. It seemed that most of us must have been craving for this for quite some time!