A “kopitiam” translates directly from colloquial Hokkien to mean “coffee shop”. Though it is more a restaurant, albeit a very informal one, than a coffee shop. It’s a kind of restaurant that you’d see all over South-East Asia although known by different local names.

They are characterised by individual stalls set up in the restaurant selling different items, and in Malaysia and Singapore, by the serving of kopi-derived drinks hot and cold, local drinks like sweet soy-bean milk and barley, and even Milo and Horlicks.

The stalls rent their spots from the owners of the restaurant who almost always are the ones selling the drinks. One stall could be selling a soup noodle dish, another could be selling stir-fried noodles, and another could be selling a rice dish. You’d come in and find a free table, and then everyone would order what they want from the different stalls. The drinks guy would come along and you’d order your drinks. Every item is paid for as they are served to your table.

The good kopitiams are usually uniquely identified by one or two stalls which do their dishes especially well. One kopitiam could be famous for its fried kuay-teow or stir-fried rice noodles, and another could be famous for its assam laksa - a sour tamarind fish-based version of the curry laksa.

This one which we went to on our first morning in Penang was famous for its loh-bak - deep-fried pieces of tofu, pork-rolls and crouton-like things with shrimp in them. Here you see mom and dad dipping the pieces into thick gravy and chilli. We had this for starters, and then both mom and I had fried kuay-teow, and dad had a serving of dry wonton-noodles and a serving of Hokkien mee - noodles in prawn broth. We all washed it down with kopi - mom had it white, dad had it iced-white, and I had mine iced-black. This being our first meal in Penang, we covered a lot of ground.

And without further ado, here’s two big pics of prawn mee and fried kuay-teow for you food-porn lovers.

To round off this post, here’s a short clip (0:30) showing you what it looks and sounds like inside a kopitiam. Too bad you can’t smell the food as well. Woohoo!

Inside a Kopitiam
from Marcus Ooi