It's My Patriotic Act Over Slice Of Srikaya Toast

These days singaporean-coffee-hawker-theme became popular in Indonesia. No offense, but it’s just insanely ridiculous. It’s not i’ve anything against that, no. But, Indonesia has many good things to made as trend, ironically, we just copy-copy-copy from others culture, it’s insane. From ‘gaudiesque’ non-contextual architecture, so-called-indie-fake-band-and-other-stuff, even the europeanism frikkin' snobbery  traits on celebrity and socialite, horrible! Coffee hawker is just one tiny example, it started when the popular Singapore’s coffee hawker brand, Ya Kun Kaya Toast had placed their popularity in Jakarta, and it was booming.  I love the kaya-toast, teh ping, and soft/runny boiled egg combo though (as my Dad favorites combo too), but it’s just an ‘okay’, not wonderfully good. The Ya Kun always packed of peoples, especially on weekend, the concept was smart-ass approached, i don’t mind about it. But for me, there’s one contender that can beat those Singaporean cool franchises, its Kopi Lay, the North Sumatran (Medaners) version of true coffee hawker, located at Eat & Eat Food Court Concept, Mal Kelapa Gading 3, Jakarta.

The history of coffee hawker it’s not originally came from Singapore. It brought by the chinese immigrants, hokkien spoken/Southern Fujian, Taiwan descendants, that have been recited around Singapore, Malaysia, and Medan (North Sumatra, Indonesia) for centuries. So no wonder, there’s a lot of franchised/ghetto/modern version of coffee hawker amoba-ized everywhere. It‘s just the same as “Warung Kopi/Warung Tegal” in Jakarta, and else here, it’s essentially a place to hang out (usually for workers/salary man) after hard days labor, drink a couple of solid-black coffees with easy snack, discussing reality of life, then get relax. Just easy like that.

Now, back to Kopi Lay, i’m always have a regular combo from there, consists of; “Es Teh Tarik”/pulled-iced milk tea or “Milo Dinosaur”/iced Milo with full drenched with sprinkled, well... Milo. That refreshing drinks doesn’t come plain; they dressed in vintage glass, perfected by small tea plate with the complimentary of finger biscuits, nice! The meal itself; “Toast with Gula Melaka”/dark brown french toast, tasted comforting, with the retro-thick-sliced-home-made bread. And for the egg (there’s no proper coffee hawker combo without soft/runny boiled egg combo, damn right!), and Kopi Lay excelled that by using “Telor Ayam Kampung”/free-ranged egg. Take that Ya Kun guy!

Yup, that guy just making my order, "Es Teh Tarik". As you can see, the stall was retrotastic! The vintage plank/canister, old owner's family portrait, F&N creamer can, and...the "Selai Srikaya"/indonesian version kaya jam on a plastic jar, okay...it's not like Ya Kun, singaporean version which pale green, it's more yellow-pale-tan colored (as they aren't contained "Pandan" and "Suji" leaves).

The chinese folkore pin-up right there just one of the props from Kopi Lay stall. The rest, well, there's vintage knick-knacks like; "Fan Bo" beauty powder, Carnation condensed milk can, and so on. Overall, it's pleasant experiences to lingering the place itself, food and drinks are very affordable, and such a relief matter to escape from all-things-singapore booming in Jakarta for a while, BREATH!