Foto Friday # 90

A local enjoying breakfast in a small coffee shop in Kuching, one of my favourite foodie towns.

Singapore Coffee Hawker Stand

A short video of a man making coffee at his stall "New Fashion Coffee" at the Pek Kio Food Centre in Singapore.
He only makes 200 cups a day then he goes home.
For more videos goto www.youtube.com/mzungu1970 

Chinese Coffee Shops

  

               Coffee shops keep the world moving. Wether they are in Europe, the Americas, or in Chinese communities in Asia. Only in Asia are Chinese Coffee shops different from the rest of the world. No comfy sofas to sit back and drink your soy milk caffe mocka. The coffee or Kopi as it's called in Malay, is strained through a large cloth strainer that resembles one of my old socks. 

These places are very basic in appearance. Plastic chairs, tables and cutlery. The places are normally with white tiles. Actually I haven't seen one that wasn't tiled white. The image of cleanliness is important, as they proudly show off the certificates to prove it.

Depending on where you are, really depends on the people who frequent them. For example, in Malaka and Penang, you get a good mixture of races, not just Chinese. Where as in Kuching it would mainly be the Chinese who visit. 

Not only are drinks provided, you can get an assortment of local snacks, mainly Chinese in origin. Well they are Chinese Coffee Shops after all. 

We have had some good noodle soups, dim sum buns, stir fried noodles in most of them. Good, filling and cheap food. What more can you ask. 

During the week we found it was mainly workers who came to drink or eat. At weekends we saw a lot of families come for a lunchtime snack (we were never up that early). The shops are always busy, normally from dawn to well beyond dusk, sometimes 24 hours. Lots of people coming in for a quick bite or drink, friends to gossip or just to meet up, or others like us, just to watch the world go by in very relaxed atmosphere. 

Maybe coffee shops the world over are similar after all.