As one of the more enticing food craved by Malaysians, especially sweet-toothed Penangites, this local egg pancake is an affordable, uncomplicated and hard to resist delicacy. The Indian-origin dish is commonly spotted in hawker stalls and it’s impossible not to see a long queue of aficionados. “Apom” means coconut pancake, while “telur” is egg, and I promise it’s never your regular pancake that you have for your breakfast. Only certain foods are loved by a young kid till an aging man, well apom telur hits the roof!
The pancake which looks like an islet island is simple, takes short time to be ready and uses very few yet fresh ingredients such as eggs, sugar and coconut milk. The key for a luscious apom is the batter itself, which requires expertise measurements of ingredients. It makes a great light meal or snack (unless you’re eating 10 apoms per meal, its more than enough). The fluffiness and yellowish texture arises because of the egg and it’s only mildly sugary.
The apom is prepared with a small hot wok or claypot over charcoal flame and covered with a palm-sized lid for approximately two minutes. There are usually
around 6 to 8 woks in a stall. It’s relatively fun to see the apom being prepared, twisting and turning the woks to get the elegant round shape while the experts habitually do it super-fast (Tourists normally get their video recorder on). It might look easy but trust me you don’t want to get your hands on the heating wok (It takes years of practice to be familiar with it). Once it’s done, it’s served on a banana leaf. The middle part is thick and soft, whereas the edges are crispy. Unlike regular apoms, the apom telur can be eaten without any curry or coconut milk. Every person has their own special way of eating it, some roll them and bite it all the way, while others eat the browned edges first and keep the precious soft base for the last bite.
Some customers do prefer the double egg apom, where once the batter is poured into the wok, an additional egg is cracked in between and it takes around four minutes to get ready. Have a good relationship with your apom seller as only selected people will be given this double egg apom as it consumes time.
Apom telur is very much reasonable, only Rm 3 ($0.83) for 6 pieces. The best advice for first timers, never go for only one piece for a try because as soon as you finish your first bite, at a drop of a hat you will be back in the long train for more
