Just did my 10 kilometer walk in the morning. The sun was blazing. I mean, here it is in the morning at 11.25am but it felt like it was the 1.30pm sun. I had a cold shower to cool me down. Though an ice bath would have been nice.
The cold shower was refreshing. When I sat at my workstation and began to check and go though all the messages and emails received in the morning, a WhatsApp message from my La Salle school classmate, Leslie Quak; flashed across the screen.
He had just completed some things he had to do in Taipan (USJ Subang Jaya) and was heading to a restaurant in SS19, for Curry Prawn Mee. If “Curry Prawn Mee” was referred to as “Prawn Mee Curry”, it would mean something else, the emphasis being on the curry instead of the “Prawn Mee”.
Leslie arrived at the restaurant a few minutes before I did. He sent a picture of the shop, “Heritage Kopitiam”.
When I got there, his order of Ice Kacang or Air (pronounced as “ayer”) Batu Campur (pronounced as “cham-pur”) had arrived. It looked so good, especially during this unusually hot sunny day, that I had to order 1 for myself. Instead of curry prawn mee, I ordered a Chee cheong fun plain.
I heard someone from the next table call me. I turned to see good friends, Y. C. and his wife, Karen from St Thomas More Church there. Y. C. and Karen were on the same Marriage Encounter weekend (ME 135) as Jeannie and me.
It was good seeing them after so long. Though we are from the same parish, we attend different mass times. As usual, they asked how Laura and Jeannie were. They were keen to know of Laura’s plans for the short to mid-term as they have always been supportive of her.
This restaurant or kopitiam is a small single shoplot. To get there, you would have to drive to the last row of shop houses, towards the end of Jalan (road / street) USJ 19/6. It is a very Chinese atmosphere. When I got there, old Chinese songs were coming from a hifi set or speaker nearby. It was quite loud but not intrusive in people’s conversations. It sort of “lent the air” of old China or old Chinese coffee shops, common throughout Malaysia.
My chee cheong fun came shortly. It was a small plate with two rows of chee cheong fun, the sweet brown sauce and the chili sauce at the side. The size was just right for me, not too much. I dipped a piece of the chee cheong fun roll in the sweet brown sauce and dabbed it into the chili. It tasted good, as in pretty much the same as anywhere else.
I had my ice kacang after that. It comes with a mound of ice shavings, a generous serving of kacang (pronounced as “ka-chang”) merah or red beans, the green noodles-like (that also comes with cendol) and other condiments. What made this ice kacang special was that coconut milk (I think) was added to it. It could have been coconut water, I am not too sure. It tasted really good, more so, because of the very hot weather. I enjoyed it.
The young waitresses and waiters serving customers, were very polite and pleasant. “Thank you”, the waitress said; when clearing the plates and cutlery away.
Overall, it was a good experience at Heritage Kopitiam.
Anyone wanting good, simple Chinese food, can check out Heritage Kopitiam. I know I will come back here soon to try out their cendol (pronounced as “chen-dol”). It will have to be another hot day like this to really appreciate the cool iced cendol.
NOTES:
As there are international readers and supporters spanning over 80 countries, I try as much as possible to explain the way things are done in Malaysia. In this essay, I try to explain how local terms are pronounced, or at least the way I pronounced them.