We mellow with age. Sometimes, this can be quite true. In fact, our love for food and other things also seem to go thru a change in each phase of our life. I was never a coffee lover let alone a connoisseur at that. However, in recent years, I unknowingly have acquired a liking for a cuppa now and then. Mind you, it’s not the special brew from the western culture (Nescafe or Coffee Bean type) but just the authentic traditional local coffee from the old fashioned age old coffee shops.

In the old days, the Hainanese clan were well-known for their skills in brewing a real good cuppa local coffee in those make shift coffee shops (called kopitiam). The patrons are the small traders and village folks who drop in for breakfast and tea breaks. Coffee, tea, milo as well as snacks like toasts with butter and kaya (custard jam), eggs, cakes and of course cigarettes are the revenue generators of these kopitiams. Near where I grew up, was one such kopitiam. Apparently they served very good coffee but unfortunately I was too young then to appreciate it. (Moreover my mum never encouraged kids to drink coffee) Anyway, our family weren’t exactly coffee addicts so we only drink very occasionally, such as when there were guests in the house. I was usually assigned to do the buying. Yours truly would very happily trot to the kopitiam with an enamelled metal container and buy RM0.30 kopi-O (black coffee without sugar) and half loaf of bread plus additional bread crusts. By the way, those days, bread were baked in small shops and they came in big loaves. The koptiams sold them in halves or quarters to the consumers. Now this was the best part - I would ask the Ah Pek (uncle) for additional bread crusts. Why? If the bread were very fresh, these crusts would still be crispy. Spread some margarine and kaya over it or eat it plain by dipping into coffee”..wau. “it’s real yummy! I believe it would be hard for those of you who had never experienced this to envisage all these. More so for the modern generation who have only known the factory produced bread like Gardenia or High Fibre and especially for those who must remove all the crusts before eating it.

As we mature, we seemed to realise that the best things in life are the very simple and uncomplicated things which we tend to lose sight of in our chase for progress, status, material wealth and gains.

So, for those who would like to take a trip down memory lane or have a taste of something traditional, pop in to this stall located at the food court at the basement of Low Yat Plaza and order a cup of local coffe and toast, minus the crust though (what a pity). We found it quite close to the authentic traditional. Alternatively, Ipoh has a couple of such shops but we have yet to try them out.

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 19th, 2004 at 4:35 pm and is filed under General, kitchen tips.