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“FOR ME, curry has always been the connection,” says Joonie Tan, an executive pastry artist with Lavonne, and the trailblazer behind Kopitiam Lah — the country’s first kopitiam, which directly translates to kopi (for coffee) and tiam (meaning shop) in Malay. She’s pointing to the centuries of culinary conversation between her homeland of Malaysia and her chosen home of South India. It’s been a little over a week, and Kopitiam Lah — the newest eatery in Bengaluru’s Indiranagar — is already as busy as the city’s infamous Silk Board junction. This immediate popularity, for Tan, speaks to the familiarity of the local palate to the “Indian influences in Malay cuisine”. Some of the early patrons are already drawing parallels, with high praise like “Oh, this reminds me of my mom’s curry”, Tan says.
But quickly, Tan adds that Kopitiam Lah’s menu pays homage to a selection of “classic kopitiam dishes” with Malay and Chinese influences as well. Over the 15 months from seed to swinging open Kopitiam Lah’s doors, Tan — along with head chef David D’Souza — took numerous research trips to Malaysia. They discussed and debated, trained and ran recipe and kitchen trails across cities — Kuala Lumpur and Bengaluru — with Chef Darren Teoh, chef consultant and chef patron of Dewakan (a two-Michelin star restaurant), to practise and perfect the kopitiam favourites that finally made it to Kopitiam Lah’s menu. The options were endless and “there are still some specialities to be perfected that will show up on our menu,” Tan teases. There’s woo kok (mashed taro formed into ovals stuffed with pork belly and deep-fried with a spider web crust layer on the outside), a dish of crab tossed with dried red chillies and fermented soybean, and still more delicacies benched, waiting to enter the fray.
CURRY UP AND MAKE UP YOUR MIND
When Tan leaves us to attend to the other tables, we greedily scan through the tight but tempting menu: its small plates, dim sum and bao, toasties, noodle and rice dishes, mains with pairing options, dessert, kopi or coffee options, and mocktails. Decidedly eating with our eyes rather than our stomachs, we over-order for our table of two. Dishes finalised, my multi-hyphenate lunch companion — a guitarist, tech writer and rescuer of street dogs — whips out his phone to show me photos of kopitiams from a past holiday in Malaysia. “See, they’re just like little vintage antique stores,” he tells me. I begin to spot that Tan has faithfully reflected that vibe in this outpost’s decor and design. There are Portuguese-style tiles on the floor, a showcase displaying pop-coloured enamel biscuit boxes, tea-sets and jugs; old transistors radios and rotary telephones, floral-printed flasks and painted plates, propped-up record covers and pretty ceramics. And the seating is easy — there are cafe-style cane-and-cushioned chairs around white marble-top tables or picnic-style tables with stools. There are open shelves with towering stacks of serving ware and bottles of condiments. The open coffee bar proudly holds pyramids of Milo tins, condensed milk, cups and saucers. “Just like the functional design of the kopitiams back home,” Tan chimes in. Every little detail at Kopitiam Lah has been blessed with a touch of its tropical start.
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Our small plates arrive, and our first bite into the Ayam Goreng Berempah or spiced fried chicken is a feast of flavour and feel. Crispy with a herby hit of citrus from the lemongrass. My companion and I find ourselves in a tussle for the last of its crumbs. From that auspicious beginning, it is all hits. The slices of Char Siu Pork are deliciously divine. They melt away on first contact with our tongues, leaving us with a craving for more. We could easily demolish their daily quota of this dish. Demonstrating restraint, we turn our attention to dunking our popiah — crunchy spring rolls, stuffed with juicy chicken and duck — into the accompanying fermented chilli sauce. We finish off this round with the rojak, a summery fruit salad tossed with fantastic, funky shrimp paste. It’s tart, tangy and thoroughly tasty. This excellent dish reminded us of eating bowls of fruit salad dusted with chaat masala outside our high school. But here, it is elevated, there’s a punch of umami and a dash of the sea. We interrupt stuffing our faces to sip on hand-made chilled coffee drinks: Milo Cold Kopi and Kaya Milk Shake. The interplay of the spicy and savoury tones of our small plates with the sweetness of our kopi drinks is an added tantalising treat.
BAKE IT HAPPEN
We stand up for a minute, to allow for these dishes to drop to our knees and make room for the mains. There’s the Nasi Lemak — the national dish of Malaysia — with beef rendang that is just hearty, superb and a riveting dialogue between textures and tastes. We scoop up every last drop of our Wantan Mee Soup; the clear broth is complex and the correct prescription for the cold, rainy afternoon. The floating chicken and duck steamed wontons perfectly soak up all of this enriching nuance. The Char Kway Teow, stir-fried flat noodles, is smokey with a strong kick of soy sauce; we gladly fork up every ribbon of it.
Stuffed to our gills, we truck on to have dessert. We are on assignment, after-all, so we get one sweet item each. The roasted banana and hazelnut rose cookie betrays another chit-chat between our countries’ cuisines. It’s also a make-your-own-adventure indulgence – a little extra coconut creme brulee in one bite; more carmelly, nutty hazelnut ice-cream in another, maybe a bit of the roasted banana, or another shard of the rose cookie. The combinations are excitingly endless. With the mandarin roll cake, the road to the bang is simpler but no less striking. Here, sweet, tart mandarin wonderfully waltzes with buttery cashew and toasty, nutty sesame.
Waddling our way out of this coffeeshop, escorted by Tan, we spot a single hibiscus popping out the grills. “It’s also the motif of the restaurant,” she says, pointing to its graphic representation on the eatery’s sign behind us. “It’s the national flower of Malaysia,” she helpfully adds. Our research for this review revealed the Hibiscus rosa-sinensis or red hibiscus was selected on July 28, 1960 by popular vote. It beat out the champaca, jasmine, lotus, rose, Spanish cherry and ylang-ylang for this honour. Its five petals represent the five principles of Rukun Negara, or the pillars of the Malaysian nation: belief in God, loyalty to king and country, supremacy of the constitution, rule of law, courtesy and decency. In this instance, the hibiscus could also symbolise the five tastes — sweet, sour, bitter, salty and umami or savoury — that are so finely tuned and balanced in Malaysian cuisine.
Kopitiam Lah is a shining beacon of adherence to these principles. We’ll be back to eat through your breakfast menu. You’ve been warned!
Meal for two: Rs 3,000 without alcohol
Timings: Tuesday-Sunday, serving breakfast and lunch from 8.30am to 3.30pm and beverages and bakes until 5pm. Dinner service isn’t available yet.
Address: Ground Floor, 1088, 12th Main, Indira Nagar. Call 7259543888 for reservations.
