Monday morning. Left the house a little later than usual. All of a sudden, I can feel, hear and imagine the shock and horror on your faces; and expression with gasps of disbelief, if I may; (that is the English English’s way of trying to be descriptive, politely). Leaving home later, on a Monday morning? That’s what I said…wrote😏. I would have been stark raving mad to do so! What with having to wade through all that Monday morning traffic of blurry-eyed drivers wishing it was Friday evening again, mentally calculating the hours to Friday evening.

Sabar, kawan-kawan. (It is Bahasa Malaysia for “be patient, friends”). My wife, Jeannie; was on leave today. We only had to drop our daughter, Laura off at work. We had plenty of time.

Traffic on the road and highway (street and freeway for those in the U.S. of A.) was heavy, but moving. It was manageable. We even had time to make a detour, where I dropped Jeannie off at a hospital to visit a relative. Then I continued to our main destination in Kuala Lumpur to drop Laura off at work. I picked Jeannie up from the hospital about an hour later.

Jeannie suggested going for breakfast to Thong Kee Kopitiam in Section 21/1, Paramount Gardens; P.J. (1)

Though it is one of the earliest suburbs of P.J.; it is still a thriving mini business district. We found the coffee shop pretty quickly but had to go round the block a couple of times before managing to get a slot to park our car. It was right in front of a cafe – Kampar Cafe, all the way from Perak, which specializes in the original Kampar Noodle. First thing that crossed my mind was one noodle in a whole ball of fishballs.💭😉

We had to walk through a “maze line”, the one used for queues. I didn’t see the need🤔 to walk that line when there was no one in front of us, so I cut queue.😂

I ordered a kari pap (curry puff) and a small slice of marble butter cake as I already had a couple of fairly large cookies before leaving the house this morning.

Jeannie went for a muffin that looked somewhat similar to the ones at McD’s, but it was not.

For drinks, Jeannie ordered a coffee cham which is known as “1+1” here. It is a beverage that is made by mixing an intense black tea with sugar, evaporated milk, and concentrated coffee.

My drink order was kopi ais (Bahasa Malaysia for “coffee ice”) with sugar and milk.

While I was looking around the restaurant and taking pictures, there were two pretty employees, with big, bright smiles and happy faces; sporting enough to have themselves as models, included in the pictures. They certainly made what looked like a day about to be rained upon; bright, cheery and happy. If any of you readers need cheering up and want to have a happy day, and happen to be in Paramount Gardens, P.J.; drop by Thong Kee Kopitiam and pay these two lovelies a visit. I know I will be going back there again if I am around the area.

Jeannie asked me to try her ‘coffee”. At that point, I did not know what was the drink she ordered. I drew a long sip of Jeannie’s drink to try it. She failed to mention the black tea in it. I thought it was a concoction of different coffees. It was horrible! She set me up. She had a good laugh. No, it is not so much the drink itself. I am just not a “tea” person. And black tea, to boot.

Then, I took a sip of my coffee, which was a contrast to that of Jeannie’s. It wasn’t all that great. I think it had too much of condensed milk that over-powered the taste of the coffee. I think it should be called “Ais Susu Condens Kopi” (Bahasa Malaysia) or “Ais S C K” in short; or Iced Condensed Milk Coffee in English. Before long, it will become more popularly known as “Susu C K Ais”.

The curry puff or kari pap (as stated on the receipt) and marble butter cake were o.k. Nothing really to shout about. It would be more than just “ok” for the folks living around here. It is convenient, as customers rushing to work will either have a quick breakfast or have it as a “ready to go” on their way to work. They look like they are fast sellers.

I thought the curry puff was a bit unusual. It had neat punctured holes all over it. It was perfectly shaped, the colour was a even, light golden brown. I wonder what the holes were for. Perhaps it was a new technique to make curry puffs, where the holes helped in cooling them don more quickly after taking them out of the baking ovens.

Biting into the curry puff, I got a nice taste of the spicy, curry potato filling. It had a tinge of sweetness in it. There was a piece of hard boiled egg in it. The kari pap and marble butter cake should be fast-moving-off-the-shelf sellers / “to go” sellers, as they are light, non-messy, easy-to-eat food.

While taking photos of the coffee shop from where we were seated; the “library of books” on shelves, caught my eye. On the metal shelves were rows of “Roti Buku” or “Bread Book” (direct translation), neatly arranged.

It is also known as Chinese bread because you can find this bread in many kopitiams. It is usually served as steamed or toast bread with butter or kaya jam. The most famous way of eating this is to have “kopi-o” or black coffee to go with this bread.. This hot, steamed bread with butter, is dipped into the coffee and then, eaten. Out of this world delicious! If you have not tried it, you should add it to your bucket list.

Once we finished our coffee, we headed back to Subang Jaya, to work on all the tasks we had planned out for the day. The traffic was lightly heavy (you will have to figure that one out for yourself).

NOTES:
1. P.J. as it is more fondly called; is Petaling Jaya, a city in the central south state of Selangor, Malaysia.