Eat, Talk, Coffee...etc in Kedai Kopi, Kopi Tiam Malaysia/Singapore – No.1

The water boiler in Kluang Rail Coffee, Kluang Johore

The original Kluang Rail Coffee, located in the prenises of Kluang Railway Station

Taking time off for a cuppa...

The service station for the cuppa...

Coffee shops( English) kedai kopi (malay), kopi tiam (hokkien) are “watering holes” for Singaporeans and Malaysians to get away from the hectic schedules of daily life. They are usually located in an old prewar shop house which were non- air-conditioned and ventilated by twirling overhead electric fans ( no more the punkas of colonial days!)

Others could be a makeshift stall along a busy road, with just plastic sheets "roofs" as a shade, or along the beach and public parks – these are usually “Mamak Stalls” run by Indians ( Muslim Tamils) mainly found in Malaysia.
The coffee made by Indians are usually sweeter and not too thick on the coffee essence. Their tea are usually “tarik(malay) or pulled to cool the heat of the beverage. As such, should you want your coffee/tea hot, just say “Panas” (malay) or hot.

Chinese Coffee shops serves their coffee/tea in porcelain cups with saucers and they are not “tarik”. The Chinese think that having air bubbles in the beverage is not good for internal health.
To cool the beverage, you can pour the coffee/tea onto the saucer and sip your drink from there, with a long and satisfying slurpy noise ( that’s what my Grandfather used to do and that’s where I get my beverage – from the saucer when I was very young)

In order to get a thicker coffee essence, you have to order “Kopi Kau” – Coffee Thicker or “Kopi Poh” – Thinner Coffee. What the Kopi “barista”would do is to add more or lesser hot water to the coffee essence ( concentrated liquid coffee) to get the texture.

When you order “Kopi” ,it is hot coffee, with sugar, and condensed milk .”Kopi-O” is black coffee with sugar.”Kopi Kosong” is just black coffee. Black “English Tea” would be ordered the same way i.e. “Teh” is hot tea, with sugar, and condensed milk.”Teh-O” is black tea with sugar and .”Teh Kosong” is just black tea.

Other beverages available includes the following, with a certain terms only used in Singapore –e.g.
Tuck kew ( Kick ball in Hokkien) – Milo ; a chocolate and malt powder drink which is mixed with hot milk; The brand labels of the product usually has a boy or girl doing sports; and for some reasons, the label of the boy playing football stuck with the coffee shop waiters!
Tiau her ( Catch fish in Hokkien) – Chinese tea ;coffee shops in Singapore serve Chinese tea in tea bags ; as such dunking the bag up and down the hot water to infuse the tea is just like tugging the fishing line!