#52 Typica

Last Wednesday, I took a detour to Shaw Parade's Typica right after work before a scheduled dinner with the gang.

Although smacked right in the heart of the city, Typica is more of a tranquil haven that's collectively ideal for both serenity seekers and coffeeholics alike. Laden with wooden furnitures and a laboratory-like worktop cum bar counter, guests can choose from taking a seat by the counter to experience a hands-on coffee brewing journey toying with coffee beans and equipments or having a sip by the floor-to-ceiling window. I would personally recommend the former, because that's what makes Typica anything but your typical caffeine fix.

So, here's my account of what happened after grabbing a seat in front of the counter.

Fancy stuffs.

Being the clueless me, manager/barista Kai Yin had helpfully ran me through what Typica is all about. Established nearly six years ago, Typica serves a range of hand-brewed coffee beverages, which includes siphon, hand drip, ice drip, milk-based and liquor-laced. No sight of latte, flat white etc. When it comes to bean sourcing, the cafe practices coffee fair trade by purchasing beans straight from independent farmers (Kluang's being one of the local farms) with fair and reasonable price, thus justifying the cafe's slightly higher price tag for every serving. Some might call it overrated, but these people are indeed putting painstakingly delicate effort in ensuring the quality of both the beans and the drinks. From bean roasting to brewing, extra coffee profiling measures are taken to fully optimize the bean's potential into handcrafted cuppa.

Feeling particularly adventurous, I opted for The Forgotten Peaberry. For the uniniated, a peaberry bean is different from your conventional coffee bean (or flatbean) as only one out of two seeds is fertilized. The fertilized seed will develop with nothing to flatten it, hence forming an oval-shaped bean. Around 5% of all coffee beans being harvested are of peaberry, and this form of beans are said to constitute taste that is much intense or stronger than the flatbeans. On the other hand, a flatbean contains two fertilized seeds, which both will develop and flatten out.

Much like groundnuts, the peaberry beans were served on a plate. Before coffee preparation, I was instructed to smell and taste the beans. Hints of cocoa was what I registered.

Moving on, a grinder was provided. I had fun grinding the beans, but the process could get a bit tiring. Judging from how bad and clumsy I was when it comes to operating the RM 160-priced manual grinder, I killed the joy by letting the professional proceeds.

And that's how coffee is prepared using a vacuum siphon. Trust me, coffee brewing is very much like chemistry. Taste profiling was done by utilising the sense of smell.

Voila! My cuppa peaberry coffee is served!

The Forgotten Peaberry (RM 26)

The coffee is served in two ways - a quarterly-filled glass shot and an ordinary ceramic cup. Why? Kai Lin explained that coffee tends to taste different at certain degree of temperature. As coffee is inclined to exude stronger taste at lower temperature, I was advised to take less than 10 sips from the glass shot in order to keep track of how the taste intensifies as heat is lost to the glass. To sum things up, my cup of Forgotten Peaberry bears aromatic, bitter notes with sweet aftertaste.

Viennase Unbaked Cheesecake (RM 18)

Cheesecake laced with rice liquor. Elaboration not needed.

Before heading off dinner, our chat ended at cold-brew. I was baffled of how others could distinguish the taste variation between an iced coffee and a cold brew, so Kai Yin gave me two petite samples to try on, one of Ethiopian origin (strong, pungent stuff indeed!) and another of peaberry. Yup, the cold-brewed peaberry have the most pronounced taste when compared to what I had previously. According to Kai Yin, cold-brew preparation ain't easy job as the process could take up days albeit meticulous steps of ensuring nothing goes wrong during the delicate steeping process.

Overall, it has been a pleasant experience having a cuppa Joe at Typica. Every cup of coffee has a story and knowledge of its own, and it's these little things that would make you appreciate a little bit more of what's in your cup. Big thanks to Kai Yin for the awesome coffee!

Note: In less than a year's time, Typica will move to its Ampang HQ!

Typica
GL-08, Ground Floor,
Shaw Parade Plaza,
Changkat Thambi Dollah,
55100 Kuala Lumpur.
Tel: 03-21450328
Business hours:
Monday - Sunday: 11.00 a.m. - 9.00 p.m.

#51 Hoi Tong Steamboat Restaurant

Never really thought about how a typical dinner with colleagues after work would eventually turn out to be a steamboat buffet.

For a hefty RM 30 per person, we heartily barbecued, grilled and cooked the night away with countless meat and of course, seafood dishes. Unless you can stand the killing heat, Hoi Tong should be a good place for friendly gatherings and huge appetites.

Hoi Tong Steamboat Restaurant
Jalan SK 13/5, Kampung Baru Seri Kembangan, 43300 Seri Kembangan, Selangor
Tel: 03-8943 6580

#50 Homi Chicken Curry Puff

Located at SS2's Restoran Hock Seng 2, this establishment has been serving delicious chicken curry puffs for as long as I could remember. It's great to see that the owner still leaves its original stall up and running, churning and selling countless numbers of curry puffs per day even after the brand's recent expansion into more commercialised shopping venues.

Nothing beats the original I guess.

Each chicken curry puff is priced at RM 1.50. The curry puffs are probably (or always?) freshly fried since they were selling like hot cakes.

The puff might look a bit too thick and huge, but don't let the exterior fool you, as buttery crunchiness will soon emerge as its true colours. The fillings are generous and spicy I must say, diced chickens and potatoes go well with the aromatic curry.

Homi Chicken Curry Puff
Restoran Hock Seng Two,
66, Jalan SS2/66,
Seksyen SS2,
Petaling Jaya,
Selangor Darul Ehsan,
Malaysia.
Business hours:
Monday - Sunday: 6.00 a.m. - 6.00 p.m.

#49 The Bee (Jaya One)

A shot of impulse has brought me and the gang back to Jaya One again to sample The Bee's all-day breakfast.

The Bee serves Two-Man Tent Coffee, a blend of Brazilian Cerrado, Colombian Supremo and Sumatran Ratawali Valley. It is known to carry sweet, fruity note and bold nutty finish. However, having had too much coffee the day before, I decided to order something else instead.

So, we had two hearty breakfast dishes...

The Bee Breakfast (RM 23)

The first dish to arrive was a massive plate of breakfast platter. A total of 5 sides were served in balanced portion - Two eggs done your way (which in this case, scrambled) on a toast, chicken sausages (or optionally, beef bacon), house made potato hash, roasted mushrooms, grilled tomato and bean rancheros. Outstanding ones seem to be the potato hash and toast. The bean rancheros was too mushy, while the others were ordinary at its best.

Huevos Rancheros (RM 20)

Moving on, the Huevos Rancheros packed a punch with its fried eggs and generous servings of beef bacon, spicy jalapenos, cheese and ranchero beans, all rolled into a flour tortilla.

The Bee (Jaya One)
2A-G, Block K, Jaya One
72A Jalan Universiti
46200 Petaling Jaya
Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia.
Tel: 03-79602160
Business hours:
Monday - Friday: 9.00 a.m. - 12.00 a.m.
Saturday - Sunday: 10.30 a.m. - 1.00 a.m.

#48 Rekindle (SS2)

Rustic ebullience prevails in Rekindle Cafe as shades of brown fill up the entire dimly-lit space with a sense of unrefined tradition. Aplenty of coffee bean bags, solid orange bricks and custom-made sewing machine cum tables can be seen here as elemental souls of the cafe's interior decor.

Coffee beverages aside, this place is a certified dessert haven judging from its vast selections of cake (refrigerated or non refrigerated), mille crepe and of course, hueful macarons.

3 people, 3 cakes, 2 glasses of iced beverage, enough to inflict a damage of RM 70 (with the exclusion of Red Velvet).

Banana Pecan (RM 11.90)

Not really a banana person myself, the Banana Pecan managed to unlock a certain undiscovered part of my taste buds with its piquantly mild banana hints and nutty flavour courtesy of the pecan toppings.

Chocolate Baileys with Hazelnut (RM 16)

Alcoholic cakes for that extra kick. Absolutely the best of the bunch. Need we say more?

Nutella Hazelnut (RM 11.90)

Dubbed the best-seller, the Nutella Hazelnut is a sure pleaser among the die-hard Nutella fans. The dry texture of this slice kinda put us off though.

Red Velvet (RM 11.90)

Red Velvet was what I had for take-away before having the 3 cakes there. While the texture of the cake is nice on the palate, the taste is still a tad too sweet for me.

From left: Carrot Juice (RM 10.00) and Iced Butterscotch Latte (RM 14.00). 

While the environment is no doubt easy and laidback (you can choose to kick back at the bean bags section if you find the wooden chair/steel stool uncomfortable), parking around the very hectic SS2 is another headache that requires a tonne of patience and endurance.

Rekindle
Jalan SS2/64
47300 Petaling Jaya,

Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia.

Tel: 03-74966309

Business hours:

Tuesday - Thursday: 12.00 p.m. - 12.00 a.m.
Friday - Saturday: 12.00 p.m. - 1.00 a.m.
Sunday: 12.00 p.m. - 12.00 a.m.

#47 Donutes Coffee & Cafe Baking (Malaysia)

A whimsical rummage through my lappie photo archive had abruptly prompted me to post a quick update about this Taiwanese bakery cafe. And this ain't a review. The coffee, breads cakes were decent enough to satisfy one's teatime hunger.

Established since 1989, Donutes Coffee & Cafe Baking had since then grown into an multinational chain of bakery cafes serving coffee, cakes and freshly baked items. Since the Puchong branch was the first and only in Malaysia ('was' as this post is supposedly dated back to last year's Xmas, and the second cafe just opened its doors at Kota Damansara..), parking and getting an empty table on weekend is definitely a challenge.

As you can see from the picture above, the cafe serves a wide array of colourful cakes and puffs.

The items we bought....

Left tray, Clockwise from far left: Golden Cheese (RM 4.20),  Choco Marble Bun (Top, RM 6.00) and Sun Pastry (Bottom, RM 2.50), Cream Bread (RM2.50), Marble Cake (RM 3.00), Crispy Chocolate (RM 3.00), Original Donut (RM 2.20).
Right tray, from top: Big Wheel (RM 5.50), Milky Bublo (RM 4.80). Notable mentions: Danish Cheese (RM 5.20), Onion Cheese (RM 3.90)

Tiramisu (RM 7.80)

Pure Cheese (RM 7.20)

From far left: Fresh Strawberry & Cream, Crispy Puff, Chiffon, Original Donut, Danish Polo.

Donutes Coffee & Cafe Baking
No 7, Jalan Kenari 6, Bandara Puchong Jaya, 47100 Puchong. Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia.
Tel : 03-58807038