I was craving for kopitiam. I used to have breakfast at Nasi Lemak Tanglin with arwah Tok Pa and Abiy, and have a cup of tea from a ‘kopitiam’ that in the same complex.
I’m not sure it is because of the taste, or because of the experience drinking in such that unique cup, making me feel so ‘high’.
Since Tok Pa passed away, and I am on leave, I never been there. But the kopitiam experience kept on phantoming me. Everyday I asked Abiy to bring me to kopitiam.
We have a kopitiam near our house, but it serves pork, so I kick it out of list lah. The other name was Old Town White Coffee, which lately becomes so popular. I asked several friends who used to go to this OTWC, and most of them recommended this place.
We used E71’s our Google Map to find nearby OTWC, and found one at Kota Damansara. It’s just beside Giant area. At the old shoplots building in front of tempat main layang-layang. Hahaha. Tu pun sesat-sesat mencarinya.
The first thing I looked for was Halal cert. Yes, I saw halal certs. displayed. So no doubt, Abiy ordered Old Town White Coffee and asam laksa while I ordered hazelnut white coffee with single toast. Yummy yummy~ Puas hati dapat makan kopitiam.
Back home, I was gatal2 to Google about OTWC’s halal status. And it was lots and lots of blogs talking about the non-halalness of OTWC. Even it was an email chaining around (but I never receive it). You can google about ‘Old Town White Coffee halal’ to read about it.
For us, we apparently avoid non-Muslim (or even Muslim pun) restaurants those, 1) have no Halal cert. 2) with other than BM/BI sign. We don’t understand other language. It was so obvious in Miri cos such restaurants write ‘Nasi babi’, ‘Babi BBQ’ in their ‘Today’s Special’, so senanglah. But how about restaurants/cafes with Halal cert and purposely do not serve such food? e.g. Kedai Buah-Buahan Chong, Karan Fried Chicken, Kedai Kopi Thiam, etc.
Food prepared by non-Muslim is halal as long as it is not mixed with the non-halal. But of course we have to avoid was-was things. If was-was better go to Muslim one lah.
In this case, many Muslim Malay loves kopitiam, including me. But, is there any Muslim Malay kopitiam? Kedai kopi ada banyak la kot… But aduh… Sungguh tidak menarik! Of course we have to help Muslim’s economy but not by putting ourselves second, except for warak persons, sure they’ll avoid such things la.
Modern Muslim sekarang quite susah to ‘sami`na wa ato`na’ (we heard and we obey). Everything must have justification. And alternatives, because we love to have what other people can have (except for things yang absolutely haram). For example if Kitty Fried Chicken is not slaughtered, we can go to Haji Karim Fried Chicken which is slaughtered.
And we like to imitate others, or I should say, do what others do, even now halal beer, wine and champaign is entering the market, and the target is obviously the Muslims. We talk later about this halal beer.
So what do you think? How about you? How do you care about this halal-haram? If you’re sure there’s no pork/alcohol served, it’s just OK. Or you’re very particular about this? Do you seek for alternative? Or you just leave it as it is?
And if you receive chain emails regarding this matter, would you rely on them or you’ll find out yourselves whether the emails are telling the truth or not?
You know what, I don’t really like the situation where, I have to boycott some ‘shops’ but the shop that we should not boycott, use this as menangguk di air keruh. Jual barang dengan harga lebih mahal, and tak improve the quality, baik service or keadaan kedai dia.
Leave a Reply