By itself, min jiang kueh is a crowd-pleasing snack. But the Indonesian-style martabak manis is an ultra-hedonistic version of the beloved traditional pancake. Commonly sold from street carts, the sweet martabak is shamelessly piled with unholy amounts of sinful fillings like cheese, chocolate and sugary crushed peanuts over a thick layer of margarine (to keep its cost low).

It’s not that hard to find martabak manis in Singapore, but new online-based biz Smile Martabak has an unusual background — it’s owned by a husband-and-wife team whose main job is running their own tuition agency called SmileTutor.

Newlyweds Rum Tan, 27, and Jessica Mulyawan, 26, who hails from Surabaya, got the idea to sell their own martabak manis after they “could not find any good ones in Singapore”. Due to Covid-19, the couple also couldn’t travel to Jessica’s native Indonesia for their martabak fix. “[We] want to establish a stronger connection between both countries by bringing famous Indonesian cuisine into Singapore and making it mainstream,” Rum tells 8days.sg.

While they have been running SmileTutor since 2015, this is the first time that Rum and Jessica are starting an F&B biz. Rum says: “We do not have any prior F&B experience, but we are motivated to build Smile Martabak as a strong brand. We plan to start opening retail outlets once we are back.”

His martabak manis orders are currently made with Indonesia-imported ingredients in a central kitchen in Bukit Batok, which Jessica oversees. “We hire both Indonesian and Singaporean kitchen staff,” shares Rum.

Incidentally, the entrepreneur made the news two years back when he shared his story of having survived shaken baby syndrome. Rum was two months old when he was shaken violently - suspectedly by a domestic helper - and fell into a coma after suffering a severe brain haemorrhage. He fortunately survived, though he spent almost 10 years recovering from eye damage that left him with a lazy left eye.

Smile Martabak currently offers four mod flavours: Original Choco Cheese ($19.30), Pandan Cheese Milk ($19.30), Ondeh Ondeh Special ($18.80) and Red Velvet Oreo ($19.80). “We are planning many exciting flavours,” says Rum, who adds that it will be a mix of “popular traditional flavours in Indonesia and innovative fusion flavours that we invented”. The martabaks are available for islandwide delivery (free for orders above $30).

Chocolate and cheese is a popular flavour combination for martabak manis in Indonesia, and we enjoy Smile Martabak’s pairing of a creamy Ovomaltine spread and grated cheddar (the OG choco-and-cheese Indonesian streetside martabak sometimes uses the junkier, and far less tasty, chocolate rice). It’s worth topping up 50 cents to add some crunchy crushed peanuts to your pancake.

But it’s a pity that its texture is less than stellar — while our freshly-delivered martabak retains some crispiness around its edges, it’s too moist to be fluffy on the inside, which prevents us from truly savouring the interesting and delish fillings.

This interesting flavour has crumbled gula melaka and grated coconut stuffed into a pandan pancake. The juicy coconut with the earthy gula is a fab combo that could be far tastier in a pancake that’s not overly moist, with a stronger pandan hit.

The same pandan pancake as the Ondeh Ondeh martabak, with a grated cheddar and condensed milk filling. Yummy.

Cream cheese and crushed Oreos in a pancake that has been dyed red with food colouring. We’re not much of a fan of this overly-sweet pick, but it’s a fun option compared to the usual chocolate, cheese or peanut offerings.

To order, go to www.martabak.sg.