Kopitiam

Find Liberation from Boring Breakfast at Kopitiam | The New Yorker

"Anyone who feels, as I do, stifled by Western ideas of what counts as breakfast will find freedom at Kopitiam, which means “coffee shop” in Hokkien. Here you can eat nasi lemak any time of day: a scoop of soft coconut rice ringed with crunchy half-moons of cucumber and topped with a slightly overcooked boiled egg, a mound of salty, chewy dried anchovies studded with silvery eyes and soy-roasted peanuts, and a dollop of jammy sambal for a real jolt; to thumb your nose at yogurt and granola, order the delicate, fragrant fish-ball soup for breakfast too. For a sweeter route there are fat, squishy French-toast squares marbled with Milo and drizzled with condensed milk, regular toast slathered with thick, eggy pandan-coconut jam, or soft-boiled eggs made brothy with soy sauce. Malaysian “white coffee” is roasted in olive oil, butter, and sugar, then hand-pulled between pitchers until sweet and frothy. Chef Kyo Pang, from Penang and of Baba-Nyonya heritage, cooks the food she grew up with; after opening a tiny Canal Street storefront in 2017 and closing when rent spiked, she reopened in June in a much larger, better-appointed space with a devoted backer, Moonlynn Tsai, and proper tables now often piled with as many small, inexpensive dishes as will fit. The expanded menu includes keropok chips for dipping in spicy salted egg-yolk paste, a silky-stranded fin of stingray steamed with sambal and string beans in a tinfoil packet, and duck tongues stir-fried in seafood sauce—delicate cartilage with surprisingly luscious pockets of rendered fat. Who decided you shouldn’t have duck tongues for dinner? You should! (Dishes $2–$15.)" - Hannah Goldfield