Arab Street Icon · Stuffed Griddle Bread

Murtabak

Photo: Orderinchaos / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0

Two rival restaurants sit almost side-by-side on North Bridge Road, both trading claims to Singapore's best murtabak since the early 1900s — a feud old enough that regulars have long since picked their side.

Dough is stretched until nearly translucent, folded around a filling of spiced minced meat, egg, and onion, then griddle-fried until crisp and golden, torn into wedges and served with curry sauce and pickled onion — a fixture of Kampong Glam's North Bridge Road since the early 20th century.

Why it's made this way: Murtabak likely arrived via Tamil Muslim traders who carried the folded-bread format across Indian Ocean trade routes, and it took root in Kampong Glam, Singapore's historic Malay-Arab-Muslim quarter, where it's still sold from the same corner restaurants generations later.