What is Kopitiam ?

kopitiam or kopi tiam is a traditional breakfast and coffee shop found in Southeast Asia. The word kopi is Malay for coffee (as borrowed and altered from the Portuguese) and tiam is the Hokkien dialect word for shop. 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, Malaysia and Riau Islands (Indonesia).

Kopitiam Singapore
Kopitiams in Singapore are commonly found in almost all residential areas as well as some industrial and business districts in the country, numbering about 2,000 in total. Although most are an aggregate of small stalls or shops, some may be more reminiscent of food courts, although each stall has similar appearance and the same style of signage.

In a typical kopi tiam, the drinks stall is usually run by the owner who sells coffee, tea, soft drinks, and other beverages as well as breakfast items like kaya toast, soft-boiled eggs and snacks. The other stalls are leased by the owner to independent stallholders who prepare a variety of food dishes, often featuring the cuisine of Singapore & cuisine of Malaysia. Traditional dishes from different ethnicities are usually available at kopitiams so that people from different ethnic backgrounds and having different dietary habits could dine in a common place and even at a common table.

Kopitiam is also the name of a food court chain in Singapore.

Some of the more common foods that can be seen in kopi tiams, besides the ever-popular eggs and toast, consist of char kway tiao (fried hor fun, sometimes cooked with eggs and cockles), Hokkien mee (mee noodles served with various seafoods as well as egg) and, possibly the most common, nasi lemak, or coconut rice (a Malay dish of coconut-flavoured rice, served with sambal chilli paste, egg, and ikan billis or anchovies).

Kopitiam In Malaysia
In Malaysia, as in Singapore, kopitiams are found almost everywhere. However, there are a few differences. In Malaysia:

• the term kopitiam in Malaysia is usually referred specifically to Malaysian Chinese coffeeshops;
• food in a kopitiam is usually exclusively Malaysian Chinese cuisine;
• food courts and hawker centres are usually not referred to as kopitiams.

Recently a new breed of "modern" kopitiams have sprung up. The popularity of the old-fashioned outlets along with society's obsession with nostalgia and increasing affluence has led to the revival of these pseudo-kopitiams. The new kopitiams are fast-food outlets which are reminiscent of the old kopitiams in terms of decor, but are usually built in a more modern, hygienic setting such as a shopping mall rather than in the traditional shophouse, catering mainly for young adults.

To offer the true kopitiam experience, modern kopitiams such as Uncle Lim's Cafe mostly offer authentic local coffee brews, charcoal grilled toast served with butter and kaya (a local version of jam made from coconut milk and eggs) and soft boiled eggs. Some have extended menus where local breakfast, lunch and dinner meals are served. To tap into the sizable Muslim market, these kopitiams usually serve food that is halal (permissible for consumption by Muslims) unlike the traditional shophouse kopitiams

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

Kopitiams in Ipoh oldtown district serves Ipoh white coffee. The coffee beans are roasted with palm-oil margarine and with less sugar. Resulting in a brew that is lighter in colour than normal coffee beans that uses sugar. Hence the name 'white coffee'. The colour is almost comparable with coca-cola.

(SOURCE : wikipedia)

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