Yue Pik Kong's Blog: Old Town White Coffee

After writing Kedai Kopi Sin Yoon Loong where the original white coffee came from, I am very tempted to write about the Old Town White Coffee franchise which is springing up everywhere in Malaysia.

As I said, the franchise came from a shop called Nam Heong Old Town White Coffee, which is located directly opposite of Kedai Kopi Sin Yoon Loong. The shop owner of Nam Heong has an enterprising son, who saw the potential of a coffee shop with cozy environment and wifi connectivity as a place for people to meet and socialize like Starbuck coffee and set up the first branch in Petaling Street.

Before the franchise boomed, I went to its first and only branch in Petaling Street by chance when I brought my Japanese friends to KL Chinatown. The fresh new look of a kopitiam created quite an impression in me. Next, I brought my good friend Azam there. He was so impressed with the idea of the shop that he actually asked how to set up a branch on franchise. Had he embarked on his idea, he could have set up the first branch of Old Town White Coffee on franchise.

Well, there are already 141 outlets of Old Town White Coffee throughout Malaysia right now. If I run out of idea on where to go to meet a friend, Old Town White Coffee is always at the back of my mind.

The branch that I frequent most is the one in Jaya Jusco, Permas Jaya.The reason being is none other than the fact that I always pass by the place on my way home.

Actually, to be fair, its white coffee is quite original in taste except that its brew is a bit too sweet compared with Sin Yoon Loong's original brew. Besides that, its Ipoh chicken hor fun is quite authentic too, except that the sweetness of the soup tastes a bit like flavoured (with seasoning). Its half boiled eggs taste good too. So is its curry chicken with nasi kunyit (glutinous rice flavoured and coloured by turmeric).

Its half boiled eggs are labeled as half boiled Omega eggs on its menu. Some chicken farms nowadays feed their hens with a special diets to produce eggs with enhanced amounts of omega-3 fatty acids. Omega-3 eggs have three to six times the amount of omega-3 fatty acids than regular eggs. You know, the omega-3 fatty acids that is supposed to make your kids more brainy! The egg yolk is mildly orange in colour, but not starkly orange like Japanese egg yolk.

Half boiled eggs with soya sauce and lots of pepper powder has always been my favourite. I figured out that if you want to enjoy the good taste of half boiled eggs, there is really no point in swallowing the entire bowl of eggs in its entirety down your throat in one go. You might as well eat it with its tiny table spoon scoop by scoop so that you get a fresh taste of the egg in your mouth at every scoop.

3 years ago, my good friend Kai Fong wanted to set up a coffee shop in Batu Pahat. Well, his in-laws used to run an apparel business in Batu Pahat that employed house wives to sew shirts and pants. With cheaper labour cost in China and Vietnam, they were not able to compete and had to close down their operation. So, my good friend Kai Fong had to embarked on starting up a new business for his in-laws.

Thanks to him, at that point of time, we went to so many coffee shops and tasted so much coffee in his home that I almost died of caffein intoxication one night. In his madness to standardize the taste of coffee in his shop, he wanted me and Kok Mun to taste coffee from different beans, brewed with 6, 6½, 7, 7½, 8, 8½ scoops of powder respectively. When I got home at 12 mid night one day, my heart was palpitating and the blood vessels of my eyes were gorged red. I had to drink 1 litre of water and waited 2 hours before I could finally sleep. One of the shops with good interior decor, which he copied faithfully, was Old Town White Coffee

The picture above was taken in an Old Town White Coffee branch in Ipoh Garden East that we visited in 2006. The two pictures below was taken in another branch in Green Town, Ipoh. By the way, if you have not been back to Ipoh for quite a while, Green Town is an upmarket area in Ipoh nowadays with pubs and discos.

Anyway, I have been to countless Old Town White Coffee outlets. The best outlet that I have been to is the one in Bangsar South. The branch was near Azam's hospital and he took me there a couple of time. The outlet is spacious and airy. The decor is chic with a combination of Chinatown and colonial atmosphere and yet modern. I even took Kok Mun and Kai Fong to take a look at the Bangsar South branch. I told Kai Fong that if his coffee shop is like the Old Town White Coffee branch in Bangsar South, I will patronize his coffee shop everyday.