The invention has been attributed, though without evidence, to
Zuo Zongtang, a military leader of the late
Qing dynasty. In 1855, the army of the
Taiping Heavenly Kingdom invaded the
Fujian region and General Zuo was appointed to lead an army to crush the rebels. To provide the soldiers with food without interfering in the life of local people, General Zuo is said to have decided to switch from the flatbread which was eaten together with spring onion and chilli sauce, to a pancake that used locally sourced and mass-produced ground cane sugar and peanut as filling. The recipe does seem to have spread throughout the Fujian region, especially around
Quanzhou and later on throughout Southeast China. It was brought south into Southeast Asia or
Nanyang by
Hokkien and
Teochew immigrants, especially to
Singapore, and merchants spread it to neighbouring regions. Its traditional topping includes sugar and sesame seeds. Martabak manis have different names in different regions. In West Borneo, it is called
apam pinang, similar to Malaysia's
apam balik. In
Central Java,
martabak manis is referred to as
kue Bandung which means
Bandung cake. The origin of
kue Bandung started when a man from
Bangka Belitung, opened a Martabak manis stall beside a “Bandung Noodle” stall. == Other names ==