3 Meals Of Goodness

If you’re hungry and needed a quick bite, chances are you’ll be heading to the nearest “Kopitiam” to satisfy your hunger pang. And when I mention “Kopitiam”, I don’t mean the traditional neighborhood coffee shop that serves a good variety of food and drinks. A simple search on Wikipedia returned the word “Kopitiam” with this definition …

A kopitiam or kopi tiam is a traditional breakfast and coffee shop found in Malaysia and Singapore in Southeast Asia. The word is a portmanteau of the Malay word for coffee (as borrowed and altered from the Portuguese) and the Hokkien dialect word for shop (?; POJ: tiàm). Menus typically feature simple offerings: a variety of foods based on egg, toast, and kaya, plus coffee, tea, and Milo, a malted chocolate drink which is extremely popular in Southeast Asia, particularly Singapore and Malaysia.

Today there are no less than 100 brand names of modern kopitiams operating in various parts of Malaysia.

Kota Damansara is a fairly new location, at least to some who hasn’t been to this area. Smacked right in the middle of Kota Damansara is a little township known as Dataran Sunway and if you happened to be visiting this area, you’ll notice numerous food eateries popping up all over the area. From Chinese fine dining (Guan Di) to Boutique Cafe (Sit A Spell) and of course countless Kopitiams as well such as Cafe 888, Old Town White Coffee and the latest addition, Pappa Kopitiam.

And the name says it all, Pappa Kopitiam … a place for the Pa Pa to bring the family for some quality family time. Well, it’s more than just that. It’s really a place for all to hang out and have some good viable alternative wherein the coffee culture could be experienced with local flavor and for a more affordable price.

As with any other kopitiam experience, Pappa Kopitiam serves authentic local coffee brews, charcoal toasted Hainan bread served with butter and kaya (a local version of jam made from coconut milk and eggs) and half boiled eggs. The setup is Pappa Kopitiam is pretty unique comparing to the other Kopitiams …they have a reminiscent of the old kopitiams in terms of decor, but yet adding a touch of modern cafe to it.

Of all the varieties of items in their menu, I chose to write about the items below simply because they were my favorite. I’ve visited this place on many occasions but being true to my heart, I always repeat my order in the same manner which is pretty much according to the arrangement below …

I usually will start my order with some Fried Fish Cake and mind you, they make some really awesome fish cake … if not the best! Once you start with a piece … believe me .. you’ll continue down the line with more …. and more.

Once I”m done with the fish cakes, I am ready for my main course … the Dry Curry Mee. The curry mee is served with some toppings of Foo Chok (dried soya bean skin roll), some more fish cakes (yayy!) and a touch of curry. Don’t forget to mix up the bowl of noodle before you start as the sauce are right the the bottom of the bowl. Not too spicy and not too dry, the very perfect combination of a good Dry Curry Mee for me!

And how can you not order some half boiled eggs in a Kopitiam? Of the many different Kopitiams I have visited, I would like to give Pappa Kopitiam a special recommendation for their Half Boiled Eggs. Consistency is why this place is so good. Never in my experience where I find a place serving half boil egg at this consistency i.e. same quality and taste. But during my latest visit, I experience something out of the ordinary … my half boil eggs were slightly a little over boiled. But still, they changed it for me. Oh well, perhaps it was because I visited them at 12 midnight and they were all tired after a hard day’s work.

These are links to some other reviews on this place

The Star Paper
Fooxion – The Malaysian Food Connexion
I’m Saimatkong
StevenHavingFun
Jules Eating Guide To Malaysia

If you would like to visit this place, their location details are as below.

Pappa Kopitiam
No. 2-1, Jalan PJU 5/5,
Dataran Sunway, Kota Damansara,
47810 Petaling Jaya, Selangor Darul Ehsan.
Tel : 03-6141 7128
Website : Pappa Kopitiam

Other branches are in Selayang Mall (Selayang), Bandar Bukit Tinggi 2 (Klang) and Sunway Pyramid (Sunway).

Location Map of Dataran Sunway

If you’re familiar with Klang seafood, you might have heard of another alternative location to have seafood called Teluk Gong. Do bear in mind in you’re coming from Kuala Lumpur or Petaling Jaya, you might be in for a little drive trip.

The journey to Teluk Gong from Petaling Jaya takes about 40 minutes. To go to Teluk Gong, you will need to access the KESAS Highway, and once you’re on it, drive towards Bukit Jelutong, Shah Alam, Banting, Port Klang & Westport (Pelabuhan Barat).

Keep driving along KESAS Highway until you reach the end of the highway (“lebuhraya tamat”). Driving a little further you will notice the exit to Teluk Gong is clearly marked. Drive past the entrance of Glenmarie Cove (a large scale housing development) and continue along this rather dusty road. You will drive pass by two large seafood restaurants on your left, keep going till you see signs. If driving at night-time, watch out for the bright lights. During the day, there are signboards put up by the various restaurant owners. Telok Gong Seafood Restaurant is the one on the left side of the road.

The restaurant may not seemed like much from the outside but once you enter the restaurant, you get a feeling you’re in another country (until you spot some customers speaking in loud hokkien dialects!). As you walk further into the restaurant, you will notice huts with dried Nipah leafs covering the roofs making you feel like you’re in a tropical island resort.

Since there were only four of us, food variety is pretty much out of the question. That leaves us to only limiting our orders to a few choice dishes, namely Steam Ginger Clams (La-La), Sweet and Sour Crabs and a special dish of Peppered Salt Mantis Shrimp. We started off with the Steam Ginger Clams which is quite plain actually. The clams were a little dry, although the sauce was pretty sweet.

As for the Sweet and Sour crab, the name says it all. It’s sweet, yet sour .. haha. I don’t know if it’s because we’re near the sea, the crab is extra juicy and delicious. Dipping the provided bread onto the sauce really makes this dish a good combination. The bread has a layer of crispy skin and when dipped onto the sauce, it’s crispy on the outside …. sweet on the inside!

Although I’ve had my fair share of Mantis Shrimps, this time it’s a little different. This is the first time I am having Mantis Shrimp of such size. And did you also know that there’s a technique to eating large Mantis Shrimps such as these? The secret is in the way you peel the top skin off. If you don’t know it, you’ll end up munching through the shell of the shrimp …

Once you get through the shells, the flesh inside taste a little like barbecued lobster …

Contact Details

Telok Gong Seafood Restaurant
No 705 Jalan Udang Galah Telok Gong, Port Klang
42000 Selangor, Malaysia
* Tel: 03-3134 1918

Ratings

OVERALL RATING : * * * * (The trip is worthy)
Environment Rating : * * * (Tropical feel … hot and sweaty!)
Food Rating : * * * * (So far, so good.)
Service Rating : * * (What service? Unless you speak hokkien…)
Value Rating : * * * * (Save on the food to pay on the gas…)

Operation Details

Average Price : RM 100 ++ for 4

Miscellaneous DetailsHalal : No

Dining Method : Dine in / Take-away

Food/Cuisine : Chinese

Ambience/Features : Tropical Resort Style, complete with nipah rooftops. You can choose to dine in airconditioned areas or open air.
BYO Allowed? : Tar-pau? for what? There’s lot’s to eat in there…

Reservations : Accepted, of course !

This trip to Jonker Street in Melaka could potentially produce some really fruitful street food crawl but alas! I arrived at around 5:15pm and parked my car right in the middle of Jonker Street. I was then told by one of the hawker that he needed my parking space for his stall by 6pm. So I did what humanly was possible, which is to quickly select one random shop, pop in and down my bowl of cendol and was out of the street before you know it.

Good thing is, I found this really good cendol place. But the bad thing is … I forget to check out the name of the shop. Well, good thing is .. I took a photo of the front of the shop. So if you ever want to try this cendol place i Jonker’s street … just print out the photo for matching purpose. (Hopefully they don’t perform a facelift on their storefront .. haha.)

Anyway, besides the cendol … the shop sells good wantan noodle although I did not manage to give it a try. But seeing the amount of people ordering it, I suppose it’s good. But as I mentioned, the cendol was fantastic. If you’re the type that prefers your dessert less sweet, this could be your thing.

When you’re served with your bowl of cendol, they provide ‘Gula Melaka’ (err.. Malacca sugar?!?!) and you can add it onto your cendol as per your liking, which is pretty neat. The variety of cendol flavor that is available are Durian (my favorite), Mango and plain cendol. Here’s a Durian flavored one for your eyes only.

So don’t forget to visit this place if you’re a sucker for desserts!