Coffee & Kopi in Penang

ČStarbucks is in Penang but there are other options and here are three places that we stopped by for a cuppa.

Toh Soon Café


Toh Soon is a back lane café where everything is still done the old and slow way. The bread is still steamed or toasted over charcoal, runny eggs are served in punch cups and my delicious iced kopi was served in a beat up plastic ice cream soda cup. We had not intended to come here but a local secondhand store dealer pointed us in this direction for a good local coffee and I’m glad we followed his lead. Popular with the locals, this place was a hive of activity when we got there on a late Saturday morning. We had to stake out our own seats and fortuitously sat down with an extremely friendly local Penang couple whom we chatted with about the local culture and history and shared with us their favourite eating haunts. Together, we shared a little bit of everything with our new found friends – steamed bread with peanut butter, steam bread with kaya and nasi lemak but amongst everything the winner in spite the waiting for our orders to be taken was the iced kopi which was a good reprieve from the heat, iced, strong and not too sweet, that and the local company made it a good combination.

SiTigun



This was a lazy Sunday afternoon pit stop for us. The locals swing by for a coffee and cake. We stopped by for a coffee and shade. The beans are roasted in house and the standard drinks are double shot strong. Strong, aromatic with a long after taste, this was a good reprieve from the heat as we sat under the rapidly spinning fans and a cold coffee in hand.

Mugshot


I don’t know what the history of this place but my guess is this was set up by three friends (two guys and a girl) - a barista, a cook and a host - who spent time abroad and returned to Penang and decided to set up something that reminded them of their time overseas. Boasting to serve good bagels and even better coffee – it delivers in doing a decent job of both but it is the service that will makes me choose to never return. Don’t count on any hospitality from lady who takes your orders and mans the cash machine unless you are a personal friend. Don’t even expect a plastic smile or pleasantries – just surrender your orders and hand over your cash, and expect to wait a while because service is slow.

Toh Soon Café
Lebuh Campbell, off Jalan Penang
Georgetown
Penang, Malaysia

SiTigun
30 Jalan Nagore
Georgetown
Penang, Malaysia

Mugshot
302 Lebuh chulia
Georgetown
Penang, Malaysia

Corner Cool: Po's & Deadend

Bready artisan morsels can be found in a corner at Po’s, a corner bakery along Po Hing Fong. At my last visit, instead of the chocolate Danish which I usually have that has a dark rich chocolate and crisp pastry, I had the “Today’s Special” Pain au Chocolate which was a hit and a miss as a whole. The pastry was airy and crisp but I didn’t enjoy the chocolate that was in the croissant pastry – it was too sweet and I couldn’t quite make out what type of chocolate or was it a caramel mix? Moving away from chocolates, one other item that I love and recommend is the Yunnan ham fougasse, that will (unfortunately) cost a large amount of your daily lunch pocket allowance at HKD 50 a pop, is a seriously delicious crusty breadstick with a good chewy texture that is flavoured with cubes of Yunnan ham.

 

If you want a cuppa just walk a few more steps to the neighbouring Café Deadend. In terms of coffee, my favourite thing to drink here is a dirty. Actually, no make that a dirty double – hot double espresso in a chilled cup and served with cold milk. It is a tricky one. It isn’t neither a piping hot drink that some are very finicky about and the milk isn’t foamed so the milk isn’t aerated to be creamier nor is it cold enough to be an iced coffee. The temperature that you have it is warmer than lukewarm and the idea behind it is that at that temperature, you get to taste more of the coffee, which you really do. This is me having a little whinge - since it’s opening late last year the café has gained a sizable following, which means more people and limited seats. A few months ago, Café Deadend didn’t even have a food menu and only served coffee and it had a more zen vibe about it. That’s all changed; now if you sit indoors (with the roof over your head) you get service and coffee in proper cups and food from their menu. If you sit outdoors, your coffee comes in a plastic cup, you can take out from Po’s and there is no service charge on your bill. In my ideal world, I would like a proper cup, no crowds and no restrictions on takeout from Po’s regardless of where I sit. The choice is yours.



Po’s Atelier
G/F 62 Po Hing Fong
Sheung Wan, Hong Kong
 
Café Deadend
G/F 72 Po Hing Fong
Sheung Wan, Hong Kong

Brown Sugar: It is sweet but ...

Brown Sugar Cafe Bistro
277 River Valley Road
Stardus Clubhouse, #01-04
Tel: 6333-6612



For Sunday Brunch, there are a few good things and a few not so good things happening at this relatively new bistro Brown Sugar. The unfortunate thing about it is that it is the not-so-good things that I think might either kill it or make it a run of the mill bistro with no real clear identity.

The chef or rather the architect behind the menu is Yuan Oeij, a man who is relatively new but familiar to the culinary scene. Having worked in some famed kitchens, Yuen has been working as a chef for hire cooking for private parties, which I image are still possible with a private room at the Brown Sugar premise. He, however (and this I find rather odd), does not really cook in Brown Sugar but does more floor management, as spotted on Sunday in his white polo and jeans greeting and chatting with his friends and select guests.

The best thing about this place was its reasonably priced menu. On weekdays they offer competitively priced set lunches $23 for two courses and $27 for three. And even if you ordered a la carte like we did, the food that we ordered were nothing too extraordinary but well presented and good value for money.

With regards to food, there are a few good things going on. Most of the items that we ordered were from the abridged version of the a la carte section of the menu. Starters of lobster bisque with prawn ravioli and grilled squid salad, orange and Mediterranean vinaigrette were delicious, the former being robust and yet light and the latter had a great refreshing quality. Main course choices consisted of pasta options and ‘burger’ options, and we sampled the latter, choosing the ribeye sandwich with caramelised onions, roasted aioli and yam chips and the signature portobello mushroom burger, mozzarella, cherry tomatoes, arugula and fries, both of which were very down-to-earth and hearty.

We ordered one item from their brunch menu and this is where, food-wise, it goes pear-shaped. Two eggs, scrambled, with sausage and hash brown, and this was rather disappointing. The scrambled eggs were far over-cooked and looked and was too dry and was probably closer to something that you might find in a McDonald’s styrofoam box that has been sitting around for too long. The secondary elements on that plate were ok, but nothing to rave about.

The other not so good things that are happening here is the disorganisation or the non-responsive nature of the service staff. Once we were seated and had our orders taken, no one came to take drink orders or to bring water to the table for at least 20 minutes. The second incident of almost feeling ignored was when we asked if they had a dinner a la carte menu, after which we waited, eventually paid for the bill and realised that they were not going to bring it to us.

If you excuse the service, the food is dependable. To me, its not bad but it needs to find its own voice because currently it almost like a long lost twin to the Marmalade Pantry in terms of the clean modern deco and its casual but elegant menu items.

* See the whole set of photos here