It was a Friday morning, last Friday that is; that I was on an errand to the local grocer. It is quite fanciful, the term “local grocer”. To malaysianise “local grocer”, we more often than not call it “provision shop”.
The term “provision shop” seems too general and really does not indicate what they actually sell. For that, you need to be Malaysian. Mostly all Malaysians know that a provision shop or “kedai runcit” (pronounced as “Ke-da-iee roon-chit”) is a general store that sells different food products like: Beverages · Biscuits · Breads & Spreads · Chocolates & Sweets · Condiments & Sauces · Dairy & Chilled food items. Many of these shops or stores also sell general household food and non-food products, too.
Anyway, back to my story. When I was walking back to the car after getting a couple of things for the house; I saw a bright yellow colour background “A-Board” with the words “Jing Specialty Coffee”, by the side of an entrance leading up a staircase.
As I am an unofficial, self-proclaimed connoisseur of coffees, you know; all those coffees you will find in the littlest knooks and corners of a street, shopping mall, small town, and, yes, including the 3-in-1s, 2-in-1s and the coffee bags only type of coffees; I was curious (not “kay poh” [1]) as to what this was all about.
So, I walked up the stairs, opened the door and there it was. A cosy café right above the New Apollos coffee shop…er restaurant. It was nothing like I had ever seen…around these parts…our neighborhood.
It was a CAFE. Not the usual coffee shop or a stall. A café. Pleasant set up, comfortable. Soothing music playing in the background. Where we can have pleasant conversations without having to talk on top of our voices just to be heard like in some of the restaurants, coffeeshops, kopitiams or mamak. The restaurants, coffeeshops, kopitiams and mamak each hold on to their own charm and that’s what makes them a popular “go-to” place.
I met Eugene, the co-owner of Jings, a young gentleman; who told me that the cafe started business a week ago. Right now, they had several types of coffee on the menu, some of which were their own specialties. They also had various cakes on their shelves, all looked rich in calories. 😁
I told Eugene that I would be back another time.
When I got home, I texted (messaged / Whatsapp-ed) my cousin, Christopher and asked if he’d like to meet up at Jings Specialty Coffee that afternoon, though it was on such short notice. He was game for anything new.
We met at 2.00pm. There were a few customers already enjoying the café atmosphere. Chris ordered a tea and I had an Americano. The Americano is from local coffee beans, roasted in a special way, I think. This is supposed to differentiate the coffee here from other cafes. The coffee was nice.
We tried their cheesecake Biscoff. We were told that Eugene’s partner’s relative makes this cheesecake Biscoff and has orders from other cafes, too. We were also told that it was the least sweetest of all the cakes they were offering. The cake was nice, though we could still hear the calorie register ringing furiously in our ears.😁
Chris and I brought each other up to speed with regards to our going-ons and families. We thought this was a good opportunity as we don’t meet that often. With this café setting and ambience, not to mention easy-to-find-car-parking space in the area; we plan to meet more often in the future.
Eugene informed us that that will be putting pastas on their menu in the coming weeks.
“Jings”, the new neighborhood buzzword; is liked “Cheers” (a popular 1990s tv comedy show), for the USJ 4 neighborhood. A place for a nice cup of coffee in the morning or afternoon. This is a good opportunity for neighbors around the area to possibly get to know one another.
The address: 2a, Jalan USJ 4/6b, USJ 4, 47620 Subang Jaya, Selangor. It is just above New Apollos restaurant. Jings complements the local food cuisine offered by New Apollos. Check it out.
NOTES:
Grocer: Convenience store · General store · Grocer · Grocery shop · Grocery store · Retail outlet · Retail shop · Retail store.
[1] “Kay Poh” or “Kay Poh Chee” is a slang word commonly used in Malaysia to mean busybody.
