Slippery smooth hor fun imported directly from Ipoh, famed Choy Kee Bakery egg tarts, an Instagrammable cup of joe overflowing with fragrant white coffee and more are now available at Ipoh Town Kopitiam, the latest concept to land in Jewel Changi Airport.
The 70-seater cafe is fronted by a pair of Ipoh-born sisters looking to bring treasured food memories from their hometown to Singapore, drawing from a childhood spent assisting their mother at her hawker stall, along with heaps of earnest research.
Their investigations led them to a collaboration with one of Ipoh’s household names: Choy Kee Bakery, an egg tart specialist established in 1980 that’s known for its snaking queues.
The good news is that you can now skip the drive up north – and those famous queues – thanks to the bakery’s exclusive collaboration with Ipoh Town Kopitiam, marking the first time its bakes will be available outside of Malaysia.
As tempting as it is to rush home to nosh on your box of scrumptious egg tarts, it’s worth staying a while to soak in the painstakingly recreated Ipoh kopitiam atmosphere – along with its host of familiar favourites.
These include its famous hor fun (flat rice noodles) which are said to get their smooth texture thanks to the region’s mineral-rich water from the mountains, served here with a nourishing chicken soup (note: it’s a big portion); a hard-to-find breakfast plate of crispy toast doused in creamy curry and topped with a soft boiled egg; and Nasi Ayam Goreng Berempah, pairing coconut rice with a deep-fried, spice-marinated chicken thigh.
Don’t forget about other local snacks from the region given a modern makeover – think rendang encased in fluffy puff pastry, or a deep-fried chicken char siew bao.
And of course, wash it all down with a cup of white coffee, brewed from one traditional recipe that stood out among 40 others during the sisters’ research, and served overflowing out of the cup for extra style points.
It might be a good idea to head down on opening weekend, since Ipoh Town Kopitiam will be celebrating its debut with a limited one-for-one promotion for its Ipoh Choy Kee Egg Tarts only on Jun 22 and 23.
Ipoh Town Kopitiam is at Jewel Changi Airport, #B1-299, 78 Airport Boulevard, Singapore 819666.
