Tong Ah Coffeeshop

Address 36 Keong Siak Road

Opening Hours 6am-10pm 6am-3pm Wednesday only.

I had the honour of being served by the legend himself. It was over many occasions when I stole away for little “jiak chua” jaunts at his humble stall during my stint as a photographer with The Straits Times in the 80s. It was at the old Lau Pa Sat hawker centre and then at the Telok Ayer Transit Food Market just across the road.

The late Loi Ah Koon was friendly but in his sincere and stern Hainanese manner. Slightly hunched and very nifty for his old age then, he can eyeball you and predict what you are going to order, “ two loti and kopi kau.” (two slices of kaya toast with thick coffee), and not even ask to repeat it. The only time I saw Ah Koon smile was in the publicity photo and materials used in the Ya Kun Kaya Toast franchise publicity collaterals

Your order arrives within minutes, and a platter of crispy and hot char-grilled roti kaya toast, oozing with slices of slippery butter and rich kaya, cut into little bite sized squares and pierced with toothpicks (so your fingers don’t touch the sticky kaya), was served. The coffee was aromatic, you can smell it and it was thick, smooth and left dark stains on the white porcelain cup after every sip. His kaya was not friendly looking, it was mean and rough but had a very satisfying texture and taste. Egg-y, coconut-ty and sweet with a hint of pandan leaf fragrance.

Today, the personal touch of that old legend is gone. It has become popular household franchise brand. In the common logic and pragmatism of franchising a mom and pop foodstall concept, some things have to give way. Like having a Ah Kun at every stall to instill discipline in quality, ensuring the unfathomable yardstick in measuring taste and aroma is consistently applied and constantly processing fuzzy logic intelligence information on customer demographics and preferences. It has given way to a well-defined and detailed franchise operations manual that is open to interpretation. As a franchised eatery that is well received in many parts of the world today, I can’t complain , except when nostalgia sets in on me and I am harking back and trying to remember the old Septembers.

But along comes a 43 year old Mr Tang Chew Fue, a new generation Ah Kun of sorts. Enigmatic and quietly confident about his coffee and kaya at his quaint triangular shaped corner coffee shop in Chinatown. “Mine is the best.”, he once revealed in one of the many media reports on his stall and tells me “Don’t talk, just taste ok?”, and he waved me off just before he served a plate of his signature kaya toast, perfect half boiled eggs and coffee, which I was all too familiar with as I had been patronizing his stall for six years.

The toast was thin and he uses traditional white instead of brown bread, sliced thin and roasty (although he uses an electric instead of charcoal grill and it looses some marks on the smokiness of the toast). The kaya was pale green and rough as “there is an art of knowing when to stir like hell and when to slow down to get the effect.” It was not overly sweet but still felt very rich, an evolvement in recipe determined by the kiasu palate of the newer generation of his Keong Siak Road customers. He now uses 30% less sugar.

“My coffee beans and tea leaves come from a certain place only and I keep all my five suppliers on their toes to constantly give me the best.” Otherwise they loose out on his 400 kilo order of business per month. He drags me into his storeroom and reveals his secret after I pestered.

I promised not to tell. But I can only say there is a process it goes through before he turns them into cups of his smooth, thick and rich coffee and tea which does not have that “siap siap” (sourish and tannin) aftertaste. Even the porcelain cup, which was stained with steaks of dark coffee when I was done savouring it, was soaked in hot water before he uses it.

But alas, history has shown us that the master, no matter how hard he tries, will never be able to impart 10% of his skills. Go on day when business is overflowing or when Chew Fue is absent, and you can taste that theory in action.

But hey, 90% of true quality is still very good!