During the last 2 to 3 years, a new breed of Kopitiams (or coffeeshops in Chinese) has sprouted into the food and beverage industry, replacing the old style of doing business which dates back to the colonial days. In the olden times, these coffee shops were usually owned and ran by Hainanese families. These families were engaged by the British to serve (in the then Malaya) them as cooks in their homes, usually large tropical bungalows in an estate. The Hainanese learnt to make English breads and brew coffee or tea in the preferred English way. When the British left after Malaysia has gained independence, these families started to open up their own coffee shops which have evolved into the franchised kopitiam of today.
Unlike the more established franchised f & b businesses like McDonalds, KFC or Burger King, our Malaysian kopitiams are still at its infancy in terms of consistency in quality and the methods used on food preparation are not so very well defined.
In contrast to the said international franchised f & b businesses with our local ones, the former has a central food preparation centre ( like McFoods) and then distributed to the outlets. They have designed for used cooking equipment to minimise human error where quality and taste are concern. They spent money and time to train up their kitchen staff who usually work in teams before sending them out to man an outlet.
The Malaysians have talked so much about franchising and branding and so far, some businesses have proven successful, but there is still a lot of room for improvement like this one here that I am writing about.
Most of today's kopitiam are opened 24 hours similar to that of the Mamak or Indian coffee shops. This is only possible because these food outlets employ foreign workers like Burmese or Indian nationals whose salaries/wages are more affordable and they are tied down to the employment for at least 2 years, thus minimising high staff turnover.
I have visited many of these kopitiam outlets but there are still many flaws in the quality of the food and its authenticity. Here is the verdict:
The Coffee: The original coffee used are locally grown and roasted. Most of the kopitiams do use the right ones. But because of the foreign influence of Coffeebean or Starbucks, some will use imported coffee powder.
The Creamer: To protect the oil palm industry, Malaysia has stopped the import of sweetened condensed milk which were used during the colonial days until the 80s. What you see at the supermarket shelves are sweetened creamer which has a vast difference if you read the ingredients labled on the can. Sweetened condensed milk is used for 'teh' or 'teh susu'. 'Teh See' uses evaporated milk. 'Teh See' is also similar to 'Teh Tarik' just that the latter is 'dragged' or 'tarik' by using a long-spouted tea/coffee pot when pouring the drink into the cup so as to create a froth just like a coffee machine for a cappucino, but with not so fine bubbles.
The Tea: The type of tea leaves used should be Assam tea, a full bodied black tea. When making a good cup of 'Teh See' or 'Teh Tarik' the tea must be strong to start off with. 'Teh O' is a weaker tea. While it is expensive to use pure Assam tea, a good blend is acceptable as long as it is predominantly Assam tea leaves used in the blend.
The Soft-boiled Egg: Someone has cleverly invented a simple two-tier plastic gadget to cook soft-boiled egg to perfection everytime. The top container has a tiny hole in the middle at the base. It can contain a maximum of up to 4 medium eggs. Eggs have to be in room temperature. Hot boiling water is poured in up the level marked depending on the number of eggs. The water will run through the hole at the bottom into the other container at the base. When all the water has flowed through, the eggs are ready. Over the years the quality or nutrient content of eggs have diminished. The yolks and whites are more watery as compared to the ones which we call 'kampung eggs'. The latter have their yolks and whites firmer in texture which means they are richer and higher in nutrient. Recently, the local farmers have come up with a new method of breeding the eggs-laying hen by feeding them with a special diet to produce better quality eggs. They are what we call today the 'branded eggs'. Some kopitiams do use these better quality eggs and you can recognised this by the orange-coloured yolks as resulted from their diet of dried corn.
The Toast: The correct type of bread use should be the English White Bread which is very soft and white but a shorter shelf life. It should be sliced thickly, at least 1 inch thick. The bread is toasted and then sliced into half to get two slices of 1/2 inch thick each, before spreading the kaya (egg and coconut milk sweet custard) and the butter. Yes, butter NOT margarine.
The Kaya: The kaya used by the Hainanese is smooth unlike the Nyonya ones which is lumpy and thicker in consistency. The Hainanese kaya is cooked in a pot while the Nyonya kaya is steamed in a double-boiler. Caramel is added towards the end for the brown colour.
The Butter: Butter is preferred not to be spread and must be solid, not melted, so that we can sink our teeth into. The butter is sliced to about 2mm thickness and to be placed on the toast after the kaya has been spread, with a pair of tongs. Butter would have to be kept cold.
The Toaster: During the olden days, the Hainanese toast their bread over hot charcoal ambers. Today, the modern kopitiam uses an electric toaster which comes in many different designs but all has the heat from the heating element confined in the space of the toaster. This feature causes the toast to be very hot especially in the centre and when the cold butter is added, it melts almost immediately. However, when its toasted over charcoal fire, the heat is not confined and the centre of the toast is not too hot. It cool down further after it has been sliced and the cold butter is added. Soft and cold on the inside and warm and crspy on the outside! A perfect 'roti khawin' everytime! Hmmm..sedap! Satu lagi, Boss!
