A kopitiam icon in Penang

By Helen Ong

Kek Seng’s famous ice kacang with home-made ice cream from an old recipe using condensed milk.

GEORGE TOWN, Aug 30 — This iconic kopitiam in Penang Road was the place families headed for when they wanted to tuck into good Penang hawker food.
I remember being brought here many times as a child, when the promise of an ice-kacang dessert with a scoop of their home-made durian ice cream was enough to keep us kids well-behaved for... oh, at least a couple of hours!

It’s one of those old double-fronted shops which are, sadly and inexorably, disappearing. Along one of the walls are high-backed wooden benches which probably date back to the year dot, and in the centre, mismatched tables and chairs are squeezed in where space permits.

From far away you can already smell the tantalising aromas of the different hawker favourites, making your tastebuds water before you even enter.
Many of the stalls which front both narrow entrances have been dishing out local Penang favourites for the past umpteen years.

The popular Chinese mee java at the kopitiam.

Fronting the left of the shop is Ah Hwa’s stall, the gorgeous pink of the bunga kantan (ginger bud flower) contrast beautifully with the bunches of bright red chillies, fragrant fresh green mint, yellow strips of pineapple and lettuce, proclaiming the assam laksa that she has been selling there for the past two decades. There’s kuey teow t’ng across from her.
At the other entrance, Ah Chan displays rows of roast and plain boiled pak cham kai at her chicken rice stall, which she has been running for the last 15 years. Across from her, the lobak stall run by Ah Hong sizzles away as she fries up the prawn fritters, taufu, sausages and other titbits to order.
Slightly further in is Ah Lai Popiah (spring rolls) and kueh pie tee (“top hats”) stall, and in the side alley, the Chinese mee java has been there for the past couple of decades. It is made from a simple recipe of tomato ketchup and chilli paste cooked in a bit of stock, to which some yellow noodles are added, but is popular nevertheless.
Kek Seng Kedai Kopi was started by 65-year-old Tang Peng Guan’s father in 1906. “He ran this place for over 60 years,” he explained, “and I helped my two older brothers with it after he died in 1965.” Tang took over the place in the early ‘90s, and now also runs the char kuey teow stall.
I’ve mentioned their home-made ice cream; although they also offer chocolate and sweet corn flavours, the durian is probably their most popular, made with fruits from Balik Pulau.
According to Tang, they’ve been making it for nearly 60 years. “It’s a simple recipe using condensed milk as its base, which my father created in the 1940s.”
In those days it required manpower to physically churn the mixture as it sat in a tub of crushed ice. “There were few ice-cream vendors in those days,” he continued, “and therefore Kek Seng ice cream was very popular.”
Served with oval transparent globules of attap chi (palm seeds), creamed sweet corn, soft stewed red beans, over which shaved ice and lashings of condensed milk and rose syrup are spooned, it’s another trip down memory lane.
They no longer do their equally famous white “heng jin” (almond) jelly — not a bad thing as far as I am concerned, as it certainly wasn’t a personal favourite.
“Demand just doesn’t justify the effort required to make it,” he said. “Nowadays, people are not that fond of the strong taste either.” Well, I don’t blame them!
However, they are still serving their popular Penang coffee, thick and fragrant, like they have been doing the past 40 years.