“Hello. Boss, what you want to eat, boss? We have nasi goreng, mee goreng, roti prata?”
“Give me one nasi goreng…ah…with pork.”
“Hello Sir, very sorry to tell you we never sell any pork here. No pork at all.”
“No pork? Eh…you order first.”
“Murtabak…you got what murtabak ar?”
“Murtabak…we have mutton murtabak. You want the small one, big one or medium one? The small one only $5 very cheap.”
It is part of a conversation of two Chinese teenagers and an Indian server.
Whenever we sit down at the coffee shop, the nearest stallholder will approach us and try to sell his/her dishes and also see if any of his/her dishes match our tastes for the day. The foods in Indian/Indian-Muslim and Malay stalls are all “halal” (lawful or permissible) and it just means no serving of pork. There are also other stalls such as “economy rice” stall (offering a wide range of dishes with rice), tze char Chinese kitchen (like a small restaurant that cooks many varieties of Chinese dishes including seafoods and steamboat at affordable prices), Hainanese chicken rice and Western foods (e.g. chops, wings, steaks, fries, burgers).
Other traditional ethnic foods and multicultural individual cuisine served in this coffee shop include ban mian, Hokkien mee, dim sum, nasi lemak (by Chinese), roti john and rojak. Interestingly, a couple of cross-cultural or truly hybrid food are created such as laksa, fish head curry, satay bee hoon, XO fish soup and stewed pork chop in tomato sauce served with green peas. The coffee shop owner usually operates the drink stall on their own as the sales of drinks is normally the most profitable stall in any coffee shop and rent out the rest of the stalls for any interested parties. Even drinks have evolved and creative names are given for some of them like Milo Dinosaur (Milo with lots of Milo powder on top), Milo Godzilla (with ice-cream and/or whipped cream), Singapore Sling, Kopi-O-kosong-gau (a strong brew of coffee without sugar or milk) and Teh-bing (tea with ice). Generally, the food is cheap, tasty, and freshly made.
Nowadays, most of the coffee shops look alike and they have three main seating areas: indoor, outdoor and a small corner for smokers. There is nothing special about this coffee shop. Like any other coffee shops, they have a large LCD television hang on the ceiling for customers to watch and it is always on Channel 8. Their collection point of dirty utensils is in the middle of the coffee shop. Forks and spoons are used for almost all the dishes, but chopsticks are available for Chinese stalls. Indian and Malay customers may choose to eat their food with their hands. The coffee shop is kept quite clean most of the time and the cleaners have been clearing the used utensils and the leftover food away regularly. The cleanliness of their toilets is acceptable as well. Currently, the minimum fine for food hygiene offences is between $200 and $400 depending on the severity of the offence.
Most of the stalls have tried all their means to make their stalls attractive. They have very striking banners and each has a clear pictorial of their food. Some even showed their media coverage that food tasting experts gave them and put up their photographs with celebrities or politicians who patronized their stalls such as Makansutra, Yummy King and City Beat.
During the peak hours (lunch or dinner time), the stallholders are busily cooking and attending to customers non-stop especially the “economy rice” stall which has the longest queue. You can hear drink servers shouting the requests that the customers want to the drink stallholders. Many of the drink servers are carrying waist pouches with small change. About 60% of the assistants, servers and cleaners are from China. Thus we can see that the trend of hiring foreign workers has been very prominent as they are willing to work for longer hours with lower wages compared to local workers. In addition, more and more women beer servers can be seen at almost all the coffee shops and the age range of these women varies. For younger beer servers, they wore tight-fitting dazzling clothes with thick make-up and dyed hair. However, in this coffee shop, the beers are served by older women (addressed as “aunties”) but they still dressed similar as those younger ladies. Normally, older male customers are the ones to tease or make conversation with the women beer servers and this public image created these beer servers as potential husband-stealers.
At weekdays, sometimes when I am going to the coffee shop to grab my lunch, the place is filled with many working adults as there are many nearby factories or industrial parks across the road. Most of them are wearing smart casual and some are still wearing their company lanyards. Quite a handful of the customers are taking away their meals for their colleagues or friends as well and left the coffee shop with a large bag of packet meals. In coffee shop, it is about a sense of openness and equality for everyone where all boundaries are temporary removed. I could witness a diversity of dishes and different people (students, elderly lady, retired man and well-dressed gentleman) sharing a single table or adjacent tables. When all the tables are taken up, it is common to find people asking, “Can I sit here?” and you will seldom get a reply, “No, you cannot.” unless the seat is already taken up. Chinese people are ordering nasi lemak and Malay customers are queuing at Western stall. All these scenes truly reflect the multiculturalism’s tolerance and the code of civility in Singapore. I have been patronized the Fish Noodle stall so often that the stall “auntie” recognized me and without me saying anything, she remembered what I always ordered and started to prepare it (fish soup with milk and rice).
In the evening, I can sense a different environment as the crowd has changed from a hurriedly working population to a group of relaxed and casual looking people. People start to enjoy the leisure time to eat, drink and socialise in all-men or mixed groups (e.g. Chinese and Indian acquaintances). More families begin to occupy the tables than in the afternoon. Parents ask their children to eat more and children are playing with the utensils or food. There are also many more Ah Laus, Pakciks andMakciks (Chinese and Malay elderly) and Ah Bengs, Ah Lians, Mats and Minahs (Chinese and Malay youngsters). Tiger beers are the most popular alcoholic drink and are often ordered by the older men. Laughter could be heard frequently as individuals share their stories or jokes with their friends in the coffee shop. Gossips and complaints could be part of their conversation. At a particular table, a man elucidates his unpleasant experience in his job to his friend. It is so easy to eavesdrop and start a conversation in the coffee shop.
Mark Lee, a Singapore comedian, said in his talk show, “When there is nothing better to do, Ah Bengs will sit in kopitiam to drink kopi and discuss about the latest news like Punggol 21, KPE or Geylang.”
Older Chinese people are using dialects like Hokkien and Cantonese to speak to one another and Singlish language is often used in this type of place, mixing different languages in a sentence or using incorrect sentence structures like “Say what?” and “I sit down you go and buy.” During major events like FIFA World Cup or EPL, the coffee shop opens 24-hour and its cable television will attract men, fathers and sons to come and watch at night. Loud cheering or booing could be heard abundantly within the neighbourhood.
Today, a simple coffee shop in the HDB heartlands reveals the various ethnic groups and the cultural diversity in Singapore. It becomes part of our daily life as it fulfills our basic needs of replenishment, rest and recreation. All kinds of people from different ethnic backgrounds and different dietary habits come over to the coffee shop and enjoy a wide variety of traditional and/or modern dishes. There are also intergenerational transfers of cuisine skills, recorded recipes and creative players in this thriving and competitive F&B industry. The coffee shop is a living example to show Singapore’s success as a racially harmonious nation and society built on a rich diversity of culture and heritage.
