"Muhibbah" Kopitiam

Have you ever spent a moment in your busy life to reflect on the current situation in our country lately? If you did, was one of the topics that you pondered over, happened to involve the subject of "race" or "religion"? What about the recent major religious festivals celebrated by the Hindus and Muslims, do you rejoice being able to live in a country that celebrates multiculturalism with so much gusto, or fret at the gomens hypocrisy of throwing huge "open houses" but then failing to stop irresponsible politicians from harping on seditiously racial issues ?

Lately, I've been alarmed that sensitive issues relating to race and religion have been brought to the fore, the latest being the national fatwa's decision to outlaw yoga practise amongst Muslim followers, citing the reason of possible diversion to the practise of Hinduism.

I remembered the time when race and religion were words to distinguish our origins and beliefs but never interfered with our lives.

Thus the few questions I asked myself recently. Does it make me less Malaysian just because my ancestors immigrated from elsewhere? Am I not proud to be a Malaysian? Do my fellow countrymen of other races feel the same as I do?

Thank goodness my faith in "muhibbah"-ism was renewed last weekend when I frequented an old favourite haunt of my parents and relatives, the old iconic Klang landmark named "Chong Kok Kopitiam".

Located opposite the Klang KTM station, it has had a wonderful history of roughly 80 years of serving customers of all races with its different variety of local cuisine. According to Mommy Dearest, it started out as a Hainanese coffee shop cum hotel (similar to that of Coliseum Cafe in KL) but had a seedy side to it because the hotel (upstairs) was known to have catered to the whims and fancies of chinese tycoons (during the period when having concubines was the trend to indicate financial status) via their very own guest relations personnel.

The situation changed about 30 years ago when the second generation of owners eliminated the seedy part and transformed the place into a proper eating place that also served western dishes "ala" Hainanese-styled cooking. Clientele also changed as the regulars started bringing their families and the owners adopted the "halal" friendly concept to lure an all-race based clientele by hiring Malay staff to run the nasi lemak stall and also in the kitchen.

From what I observed last weekend, the situation has remained very positive because the place was packed to the brim with customers of all races who shared tables, mingled freely with the chinese owner and her siblings (now 3rd generation) and the Malay staff. It was really heartening to see skins of different tones and hear voices of different languages, all under one roof. Most of all, everyone thronged the place to savour the culturally-diversed types of food to which I could only describe as "truly Malaysian!" complimented by the heavenly local fresh brewed coffee and tea that is "to die for".

Here are some pics taken to share with you guys:

"nasi lemak" with many extras eg. cuttlefish, chicken& beef rendang, cockles

all-race crowd

bread toasted the old way

muhibbah kitchen staff

half-boiled eggs, yum!

cheesecake?? (3rd generation innovation)

custom-made house coffee cups

tucking into nasi lemak, butered kaya bread

Chong Kok Kopitiam

Station Street,

Klang.

p/s... Station Street also houses the famous "under-the-bridge" bakuteh place as well as the famous Hainanese chicken rice ball eatery.