Tag: coffee

Behind the old bamboo blinds

 

Unveils what it takes to stand out in a crowd.

By Foong Pek Yee

foongpekyee@gmail.com

THE little cafe in Pekan Nanas, Johor, is a breath of fresh air.
Nestled in a residential area, Pekan Nanas Platform Coffee and Homestay is simply impressive.
It gives the feeling that much thought has been given to the setting -a seamless blend of creativity and business.
To begin with, I was drawn to its easy to navigate menu strategically and artistically displayed.
Run by a husband and wife team, Hui Peng says they set up  Platform Coffee and Homestay in 2013 and,  she is proud to note their venture turns nine this year.
A story : The deco makes good conversation starters with her guests.
Highlights: A map showing interesting places in and around Pekan Nanas.
Creative juices flowing: Guests are easily drawn to the menu.
Full view:  A corner at the porch for those who prefer outdoors.
Welcome: A pair of ceramic ducks- turned-guards at the entrance to the sitting room.
Eye catching:  For guests’ attention.
Hui Peng, 45, who runs the cafe has drawn on her six years of experience working in a hotel in Singapore.
Friendly and attentive, she says she was in the personalized service department and that her duties included meeting and greeting arriving guests at the airport.
And at this cafe, guests can choose their ceramic cup/mug which were handmade by Hui Peng and her husband.
She says the ceramic deco in the cafe are mostly made by her husband.
A collection: Hui Peng says the items on display, except those on the top shelf, were made by her and her husband. The pieces on the top shelf were made by their mentor.
We are open: The front entrance to the sitting room.
The cafe’s environmental friendly and retro theme itself is a selling point.
Hui Peng says the ambience is popular among guests.

Once a place for the elite

By Foong Pek Yee

13 Dec, 2021

IT is a landing place for helicopters and small planes.

It is also a place for polo – horseback ball game.

Located next to Gopeng town, this is a scene in then Malaya in the colonial era.

Watching the high society lifestyle, the locals called the place  “Fi Gi Chang”  or airport  in Hakka dialect and Lawan Kuda (horse fighting) in Bahasa Malaysia.

In a twist of fate, the place  was turned into a settlement during the Emergency (1948-1960) -Lawan Kuda New Village.

Fast track to the present, many elderly folk in Gopeng, a predominantly Hakka community, continue to call the village  Fi Gi Chang, says Gopeng Museum curator Phang See Kong, 82.

Phang also describes the villagers as an enterprising lot and he attributes it to the good feng shui in the village.

Pulse of the village: The wet market in Lawan Kuda New Village.

The main road  is flanked by restaurants, coffee shops, pharmacies, mobile phone shops, Chinese medicine shops, sundry shops, hardware stores and a yoga studio.

There is also a wet market and a hawker centre.

The latest addition is a 7-Eleven outlet and a courier service shop.

Peaceful and relaxing: Great way to start the day.

The villagers are also resilient and hardworking.

Many elderly, some in their 80s, continue to work.

It  was 6.30am on a recent Sunday where I stumbled upon a group of elderly women  gathering at a roadside near the village entrance.

They were waiting for their contractor  to assign them  part- time jobs

A woman by the surname  Wu told me that they got paid RM40 to work from 7.00am to 12 noon.

The do  farm jobs, like harvesting fruits and vegetables and  grass cutting

At 78, Wu says she has been doing part-time jobs since she lost her job in the tin mines in the 1980s.

She says there are many  part- time farm jobs  in and around Gopeng.

“We cycle or go on a motorcycle to farms nearby. The contractor will provide transport for faraway places like Tanjung Tualang,” says Wu.

It was hardly 7.ooam and many villagers were out and about – doing marketing, enjoying  breakfast, sipping tea, chatting and reading newspapers.

Cruising around: A routine enjoys by the villagers.

Ren He coffeeshop opens around 4.30 am and patrons are already waiting, says a worker selling dim sum there.

She says workers have to be at the coffeeshop by 3.00am to start preparing the food.

In the olden days , villagers  made their way to work at the rubber estates, tin mines and vegetable farms as early as 2.00am.

Many continue with the habit of rising early though they no longer have to go to the fields or mines.

To keep themselves economically active, some elderly continue to grow vegetables and fruit trees in their house compound and sell their harvest in the wet market.

As one villager put it: People in Lawan Kuda can survive as long as they are willing to work.

 

A street dedicated to coffee lovers

By Foong Pek Yee
13 Dec, 2021
Jeonpo Cafe Street in Busan, South Korea has 40 cafes and still counting.
It is the place for coffee lovers; from good coffee, ambience and  service to an interesting history behind it.
Stumbled upon the place during my trip to Busan in the Summer of 2019,  I went there a few days  to try out the cafes and has plans to go there again.
After all, my favourite pastime is sitting at a cafe reading or watching the world go by.
I learned  that South Koreans are particular over the  ambience of a cafe, and this is not without reason.
To begin with, coffee was the drink for only the royalty until 1930.
In 1896, Korea’s King Kojong was introduced to coffee in Russia  where he took refuge from invading Japanese.
He fell in love with hot coffee with sugar and brought home his favourite beverage.
From then until 1930,  sipping hot coffee, eating sweet snacks and listening to classical music was only for the royalty.
Coffee beans were available in the market from 1930 but only the rich had access to it.
By 1950, coffeeshops or  Da-Bang started to crop up in town areas.
In 1970, a  company, Dong – Suh, started manufacturing powdered coffee in South Korea, making coffee easily available to the people .
The history of coffee in Korea is proudly displayed at the entrance to Busan Coffee Museum (BCM)  in Jeonpo Cafe Street.
Kim Dong-Kyu – the founder and owner of BCM- has an extraordinary love for anything coffee.
Focus: Dong-Kyu aims to make Busan Coffee Museum the largest of its kind in the world.
Allergic to coffee beans and never tasted coffee before, Dong-Kyu went on to marry Woo Hee Nae, a licenced master Barista.
BCM was set up in 2018 and Dong-Kyu in his early 30s, says he has researched on coffee for a decade by then.
His collection of some 450 exhibits;  from roasters, grinders, coffee makers, coffee beans and literature from all over the world, some dated back a few centuries, makes BCM a one-stop-centre for coffee lovers.
Fascinated : Visitors to Busan Coffee Museum.
Priced collection: An old fashioned coffee grinder.
Your favourite pick :  Coffee beans from around the world.
The Korean Economic Institute of America was reported saying some  two billions cups of coffee are consumed daily worldwide.
Koreans reportedly drink an average of 12.3 cups coffee a week in 2019.
Dong-Kyu –  a professionally trained curator  and landscape engineer-  has plans to turn BCM into the largest of its kind in the world.
He  has another coffee museum in his house in Yangsan, a 30-minute-drive from Jeonpo.
Attention : You can find anything coffee.
Jeonpo cafe Street is certainly an ideal location for BCM.
Jeonpo rose to be among the trendiest spots in Busan in just a decade, with some 40 cafes among its 170 outlets which are mostly eateries and accessory shops.
Prior to that, Jeonpo was like any backstreet with sunset businesses like hardware stores .
Young people moved in to transform the area – renovated the empty stores into chic cafes and eateries, and the rest is history.