In Kota Bharu, A Friendly Hello and a Killer Soup

It rained buckets our first evening in Kota Bharu. We sat in our room sipping vodka we'd brought from Penang, watching the sky turn from mud to black and waiting for the rain to stop. It didn't. So around half past seven we grabbed umbrellas and went in search of dinner.

Big mistake.

Kota Bharu goes to bed at sunset. The streets were empty, the sidewalks rolled up. We splashed our way past Pasar Siti Kadijah to the night market and found it a shadow of its 2005 self. There were no crowds, no buzz. Nor was there anything tempting on offer at the few stalls weathering the storm.

So we headed back to the hotel, passing fast food joints belching out that nasty elixir of too-sweet baked goods, preservatives and grease that hangs over airport food courts. No thanks. We'd rather go hungry, and were reconciled to doing so until we turned onto Jalan Tok Hakim and saw, three blocks up, a promising glow.

'Hello my friend!" shouted the white taqiyah-capped proprietor as we stepped over the threshold of Kedai Kopi Din Tokyo.

Pak Din grinned at us as if we were long-lost friends, then pointed  to a place at his counter. "Come in, come in! What will you eat? What will you drink?"

Kedai Kopi Pak Din Tokyo is an indoor kuda, the Kelantanese term for old-fashioned coffee stalls with U-shaped counters and long wooden benches that must be mounted like a steed (kuda is Malay for horse). Inside the interior of the U sits a big boiler on legs where Pak Din makes good, strong Chinese kopitiam-style coffee and tea by pouring water through grounds-filled cotton socks suspended from metal rings. At the U's base is a long stainless steel trough over which he "pulls" tea by pouring it glass to glass, stirs quail eggs into hot ginger infusion and steeps eggs in boiling water before serving them in classic kopitiam green-and-white saucers.

Short and sturdily built, Pak Din is a blur taking orders, serving drinks and food, selling cigarettes, making change and shaking hands, all the while spewing friendly banter and communicating, via the occasional shout, with the kitchen at the back of his shop. If there's a break in the action he makes good use of it, wiping down counters, replenishing the water boiler from a red plastic bucket and keeping glasses -- always at the ready, stacked in a drainer over the trough -- warm with splashes of water from the boiler.

What would we eat? On a night like this, our backs wet and our pants soaked to our knees, something hot and comforting sounded about right. So thought Pak Din's patrons, most of whom were leaning over bowls of the house specialty: sup ekor (oxtail soup).

We ordered two bowls of soup and spooned it up slowly, marvelling at this concoction of meat, bones, tendons, cinnamon, star anise and nutmeg that tasted too good to be medicine yet instantly rendered us healthy, happy and certain that the world is a beautiful place. The hyper-distilled broth was deep, real deep, a gut-punch of meat essence. When we got to the bottom of our bowls it came as no surprise to find them stained sup ekor brown.

By now the rain had stopped but we lingered, reluctant to leave the comradely warmth of Pak Din's U. We ordered a hot milky teh tarik just for the enjoyment of watching his exuberant way with the pull, and then another because the first was so darned tasty, the tea strong and bitter enough to not be overwhelmed by sweetened condensed milk. We sauntered back to our room wired and satisfied.

We returned to Kedai Kopi Pak Din the next day and the next and the next, always around 7am for our caffeine fix and then once or twice again, for tea and a banana leaf-wrapped nasi lemak or a few Kelantanese kuih plucked from the trays and plates lined up along the inside edges of the counters. During the day Pak Din's staff set tables out front of the shop, and if there were no places at the U two were always found for us there.

On our last day in Kota Bharu, after a morning of too much food and before the long drive back to Penang, we stopped in to bid Pak Din farewell. Dave couldn't resist ordering a couple of soft-boiled eggs. When they arrived he followed the lead of other diners and blanketed them with black pepper from a shaker on the counter. (That black pepper is a Kelantanese touch, courtesy of the state's long-porous border with southern Thailand. In other parts of Malaysia it would be white).

We agreed that if we lived in Kota Bharu -- which would never, ever in a million years happen -- Kedai Kopi Pak Din would be a daily stop, if not for the sup ekor, the coffee, or the soft-boiled eggs then simply for the pure pleasure of Pak Din's hello.

Kedai Kopi Din Tokyo, 3945 Jalan Tok Hakim, downtown Kota Bharu, Kelantan; 012/959-0153.

Comments

[Nate @ House of Annie]

Great story and great find! I don't see too many of these U-shaped counters around. I think it's much more efficient than individual tables. It also elicits a greater sense of camaraderie.

[John Thompson]

I love your photography!

[Katy]

What is the 'Tokyo' in Kedai Kopi Din Tokyo? And that green and white saucer is nothing to do with the classic Hainanese kofi flowery set?

It's similar to the traditional Japanese Sushi bar - the U-shaped counter and the chef is also the host - there are smaller ones in Japan that open for Japanese men, after work drink and food - the great sense of camaraderie as Nate said.It might have changed now, but traditionally women don't set foot in these places.

But - I don't get this kuda - is it traditionally an Islamic eatery because it is (or looks) gender segregated? So do they have kuda for women? And is it regional or all across SE Asia (in the Muslim community)?

I guess that means you walked into a Man's world then?

[Robyn]

Exactly Nate. I'd never seen them till this trip to Kelantan -- then we were seeing them everywhere, mostly in warung-type places or just out under trees.

Katy, Pak Din bought the place from another guy 12-15 yrs ago, I think he said, and it was Kedai Kopi Tokyo (he doesn't know why "tokyo"). So he just left the name and added his own.

It's called "kuda" because of the long wooden benches. You have to swing your leg over to sit down (they are really, really long) like getting on a horse. It has nothing to do with Muslims or gender -- there were Chinese eating in there the night we arrived, and a couple women, more women during the day. Just no Chinese in the photos bec I think the Chs population in KB is sth like 5%, not many.

Surprisingly, though Kelantan state is controlled by conservative Islamic party PAS, KB does not "feel" particularly conservative. There are "tangible" markers of its status -- liquor is hard to find, bars are few to none, the official weekend is Fri/Sat (yes, banks open on Sunday which is a work day for everyone), one street is blocked off on Fridays for outdoor prayers and ALOT of pple show up, most women wear the tudung -- KB feels in many ways more liberal, if that's the right word, than some parts of KL. And it's nothing like eastern Turkey. Market vendors are ALL women -- this is different to other parts of Malaysia -- and women work outside the home and go out by themselves and all that. In general KB Malays are more welcoming, open to outsiders -- at least that was our experience -- than some in KL. Far from the capital and all that, I don't know.

This was definately not the Malaysian equivalent of a tea house in eastern Turkey.

[Robyn]

Hey John -- thanks so much! The photographer has his own blog as well: http://davidhagerman.typepad.com and he's got a few slideshows up at NYTimes website, you may be able to search him there.
Thank you for stopping by!
Robyn

[Marie]

On this rainy day in Auckland that soup sounds just the ticket. I laughed at your comment about the teh tarik because my husband and I often order, too, just to watch it being pulled. I do remember going to a very simlilar shop in Penang, but it was so many years ago now I couldn't tell you where. Fairly central I think it was. That particular one was quite male-based, and mostly elderly men like the ones in the smaller towns. I wonder if it still exists.

[Robyn]

Thanks for the comment Marie. If that shop in Penang that you went to was in George Town (in Little India, maybe?) there's a good chance it still exists. It's mesmerizing, watching a good tea "puller".

[cooking.eating.carousing.]

Sigh..... This post makes me long for the food from my Indonesian hometown. A lot of the small restaurants there also have this elbow-to-elbow set up and familiar atmosphere.

And the sup ekor, in Indonesia we call them sop buntut. I love making them in winter, so hearty and comforting.

[Simon @ SoyRiceFire.com]

Love the story! Black pepper on soft-boiled eggs? Border cuisines are always surprising and fascinating!

[J2Kfm]

What beautiful shots. I had my eggs and coffee at White House Kopitiam, while the breakfast fix was had at Capital Nasi Dagang. Indeed, KB is a mighty fine place to mingle.

[bigbaldnbearded]

really nice write up and images .. so miss the teh tarik and nasi lemak !! btw what is that fried dough in the image along with the eggs? looks sinful :D

[sarah]

really nice write-up! was browsing around looking for info on this kedai kopi and when i finished reading, i feel like going to kota bharu right this minute! thanks for the info and beautiful photos.

[Jenny]

Just went there for breakfast after reading this post and wow! It is so wonderful when places live up to what you read. Thank you so much for sharing this gem of a place. We helped ourselves to the wonderful array of serve yourself dishes. The coffee is the best I have had for a long time and we got taught how to say it exactly how we like it in Malay "Coffee o kasong" translating to hot plain coffee ( no sugar, no milk) mmm we will be going back there soon. I want to try the soft eggs with black pepper and the various delicious looking meals wrapped in paper and banana leaf they were very popular.