An insult to Ipoh white coffee?

Ipoh is famous for a number of things, which include white coffee.

According to Wikipedia:

'Ipoh "white" coffee is a popular coffee drink which originated in Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia. The coffee beans are roasted with palm-oil margarine, and the resulting coffee is served with condensed milk. The term "white coffee" originates from the literal translation of its Chinese name, which was introduced in the 19th century by Chinese migrants who came to work in the local tin mines.

Traditionally, Malaysian style "black" coffee roast (Kopi-O) is produced by roasting the beans with sugar, margarine and wheat. "White" coffee, on the other hand, is produced with only margarine and without any sugar, resulting in a less dark roast...'

The locals know that the original coffee shop which made white coffee famous is Sin Yoon Loong, but modern management and marketing skills have made their competitor, Nam Heong, much more successful. A son of Nam Heong proprietor started the Old Town White Coffee in instant form which was a hit with Malaysians here and abroad, as well as introducing it to foreigners. Somehow, there were changes along the way and according to hearsay, the franchise (not sure if started by the original Nam Heong family) expanded locally and was taken over by another company. It was recently listed on BSKL. The original entrepreneurs started Papparich chain of trendy coffee shops, with its flagship in Ipoh.

We had five young ladies, graduates from University of Kent, Canterbury (university mates of our daughter), as guests over the weekend. With a Malay lady, we have to adjust ourselves when choosing where to have our meals or drinks.

They arrived on Friday night around midnight because they left KL after work and dinner (to get away from the expected mayhem in KL the next day). The next morning, breakfast was either buy back roti canai, go to the local shop for it, or somewhere else. It was Jas's suggestion to go to a typical local 'kopitiam' and SP suggested Sin Yoon Loong, but its offshoot near Jalan Bendahara, to avoid the crowd at the original shop. But what a surprise when we got there... it was more spacious with more tables spilling out onto the road, and it was full with people waiting for vacant seats! When we finally got two small tables joined to accommodate eight of us, it was order time. Four of them sitting on one side actually ordered Milo this or Milo that! What? we came all the way from Batu Gajah (half an hour's drive) supposedly for white coffee and half the number of us ordered Milo instead! Personally, sometimes when I ordered tea instead, in a famous white coffee shop, I felt a bit uncomfortable. But Milo!

Some of us had 'hor fun and shredded chicken' while Jas and another had soft-boiled eggs and toast. But to my mind, the reason for going to Ipoh for white coffee was a miscommunication and actually unnecessary especially in view of the lack of time, as they were due for Damai Laut which was in the opposite direction!

After a night at Damai Laut, the same waste of time happened (at least to my reasoning). Got a call at 12.30 pm from DL asking where to go for lunch before they head back to KL. Again SP suggested something which does not make sense to me: steamboat (in this hot weather in the afternoon) at Moven Peak in Ipoh! It would be easily past 2.00 pm by the time we reach there. I decided to opt out (sign of old age and the onset of the 'grumpy old man').

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