The Brightness of the Moon a.k.a. Martabak Manis

Martabak manis is a sweet, densely thick, buttery pancake, with fillings made of chocolate sprinkles, condensed milk, shredded mild flavored cheese, crushed peanuts and their variation. Some vendors made special  filling with sweetened glutenoeus rice mixed with shredded coconut. When I was little martabaks were mostly sold by street vendor in the evening. My family rarely bought them. When it appeared in our table, my brother and I would ate them happily. In my opinion, martabaks were yummy, but they were not very special. But again, during my childhood, there were not much particular interest for food. Later on martabaks gained popularity and importance ; thanks to people who are foodies and gourmands. 

In other parts of Indonesia, martabak manis are called "Terang Bulan" or the brightness of the moon. In those places, the word "martabak" refers to fried quiche-like pancake made with thin batter, lots of eggs and cooked beef filling, which accompanied with special sauce and pickled veggies. 

Both sweet martabaks/terang bulan and savory martabak/martabak telor are greasy. Both are street food, sold in the evenings. 

Nowadays martabak manis have many varieties and fillings. There are ube, red velvet, pandan, and matcha flavors with fillings like oreo, bananas, toblerone chocolate besides the classics filling previously mentioned. In States, some Indonesians sell homemade frozen martabak in Facebook marketplace or by the words of mouth. Near LA, there is a famous martabak cafe, selles beautifully made yummy martabak. There are many vlogs about martabak vendors, martabak recipe and how to make martabak at Youtube. 

I consider myself lucky because where I live now, many Indonesians sell homemade sweet martabaks a.k.a the brightness of the moon.