KEPONG, Oct 1 – What looks like a matcha latte but isn’t?
In fact, if you’re having lunch at Kedai Kopi Fong in Kepong, this matcha latte doppelgänger is as far from the real thing as one could get. It is, believe it or not, a lei cha soymilk.
Listed in the shop’s menu as Thunder Tea Soymilk, Kedai Kopi Fong is where customers can triple their “thunder tea” fix with lei cha, lei cha soymilk and even lei cha toast!
To locate the shop, look out for the big banner of recommended dishes below its signage.
Parking can be a bit of a challenge during peak mealtime hours so I’d suggest dropping by for a late breakfast or late lunch instead.
Inside, the shop is a bit dark and sparsely furnished. The lack of natural lighting is the bane of most intermediate shophouse units so one might try to grab a table closer to the entrance for a clearer idea of what one is eating.
The usual kopitiam beverages are available – from kopi O and white coffee to cham and Hainanese tea.
We decided to order two soymilks, one plain and the other the aforementioned version infused with lei cha paste, to better differentiate the two.
The OG soymilk tasted as you would expect, nothing remarkable about it. Sweeter than we’d like but that is a personal preference. The Thunder Tea Soymilk, however, was a revelation.
Though the shop didn’t reveal the secret recipe for their lei cha paste, we detected the usual notes of jiǔcéngtǎ (or “the nine-layered pagoda” Chinese basil), tea leaves, roasted peanuts, toasted sesame seeds, mint and cilantro.
It tasted simultaneously herbal yet bean-y; the latter due to the soymilk but perhaps further enhanced by the roasted peanuts used in the lei cha paste.
This was as far from a matcha latte as you can get, and – fortunately for us – one of those rare instances where novelty is paired with good flavour.
Even then, I suspect the drink will be an acquired taste for most: if you enjoy lei cha, this might be another way to enjoy it; if you don’t, one doubts this would change your mind.
What was more divisive was their Thunder Tea Roti Bakar. We were split 50/50 on whether it was any good. The toasted bread was fine, we both agreed, but that’s where our concurrence ended.
One felt the lei cha paste tasted weird on bread, plus there wasn’t enough peanut butter. The other thought the thunder tea toast was a fine idea though it was true that the lei cha paste did overpower the peanut butter.
Perhaps taking a leaf from the old school kaya butter roti bakar rulebook would have helped: a cold slab of pure unsalted butter might have been a better accompaniment to the bitter-savoury lei cha paste.
But if we don’t experiment, how would we come up with new dishes, right?
This principle extends to their offering of standard lei cha: beyond the classic carb pairing of white rice, customers may also opt for brown rice, rice vermicelli, pan mee or even spinach noodles.
I went for the last one, partly because I enjoyed the terrific handmade spinach noodles at Shiang Kang Noodles in Seremban.
Alas, Kedai Kopi Fong’s version was the more commercially available spinach noodles, akin to instant noodles. Less chewy and toothsome, these nonetheless were still very slurpworthy.
In fact, when mixed with the lei cha soup, the entire bowl came together quite well, tasting almost like chicken noodle soup even though this was a vegetarian dish. I guess when you have enough umami flavours (from the lei cha and spinach noodles), it ups the savoury notes measurably.
I enjoyed it despite my disappointment that the spinach noodles weren’t handmade. It doesn’t have to be; it’s allowed to be its own thing.
What about those who don’t particularly enjoy lei cha but are dragged along to the shop by their thunder tea loving better halves?
Well, curry mee is another popular dish at Kedai Kopi Fong. Despite the less than aesthetically pleasing globules of santan on the surface of the chilli-red broth, this was a fairly decent bowl of curry mee.
Enough aroma from the coconut milk and kaffir lime leaves, though the seehum could be larger and more succulent. It will work in a pinch.
Besides their lei cha and curry mee, Kedai Kopi Fong’s prawn mee and pork noodles are also popular with regular customers. There’s something to satisfy most taste buds.
Yet unless one is truly not a fan of lei cha, that’s what you ought to try... in any of its three thunder tea incarnations.
Kedai Kopi Fong
15, Jalan Ambong Kanan 1, Kepong Baru, KL
Open daily 8am-3pm
Phone: 017-250 6811
* This is an independent review where the writer paid for the meal.
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