Kulai Old Street (古来老街) is just one street along Jalan Ismail, in Taman Kulai, where a number of rustic coffee shops and eateries sit on both sides of the road. One of those coffee shops is very popular with locals and nearly always full, even on weekdays.
Yong Juan Hin Coffee Shop (永泉兴传统海南咖啡店), established since 1961, is a traditional, long-standing Hainanese coffee shop that has been around for more than 60 years. It is well-known for its nostalgic atmosphere and old-school Nanyang breakfast, featuring charcoal-grilled kaya toasts, charcoal-roasted coffee, and soft-boiled eggs.
Aside from serving handcrafted traditional Hainanese coffee and teh tarik (pulled milk tea), Yong Juan Hin also serves specialty coffees using imported coffee beans (Ethiopia, Guatemala, Blue Mountain, etc), a special 60-year “Old Tree (老树)” coffee and also cat coffee (kopi luwak?). All the coffee beans are charcoal roasted in-house.
Their self-invented, premium Western-style coffees, like latte, Americano, cappuccino, and specialty traditional beverages, like milocino, teh-C, cham, are brewed using moka pot, which uses steam pressure to extract intense, rich coffee.
The coffee shop serves toasts with margarine and sugar, margarine and kaya, butter and kaya, and pandan kaya. Their most-popular toasts is Roti Tiger Skin (老虎皮面包) — as recommended by netizens.
The Old Tree Coffee (老树咖啡) is served in two small cups: one is original (black) without adding anything and the other is added with evaporated milk — when ordered without specifying anything (with / without milk, sugar). The black coffee has a strong charcoal-roasty aroma, full-bodied and unique taste profile, and not bitter at all without sugar — you have to try it yourself to known the flavours.
The amount of evaporated milk in the other cup is not too much so as not to overpower the flavour of the “old tree” coffee beans and it enhances the coffee with a sweet aroma and taste. This is a great way to taste the coffee without going for two cups of coffee and twice the amount of caffeine.
The freshly-baked Homemade Garlic Bread (香蒜吐司) uses very soft bread that is topped with roasty sesame seeds and the garlic spread are stuffed into cut slits before being grilled over charcoal. The bread is crispy on the surface and still soft and fluffy inside with nice flavours of the garlic spread that is not overpowering.
Oops, I missed the Roti Tiger Skin, will go for it next time.
Other than coffee and traditional toasts, Yong Juan Hin Coffee Shop has two food stalls — one selling a variety of noodle dishes, including Vietnamese beef pho, and the other sells mixed rice (for lunch). External food from nearby coffee shops, like Yun Yun Loy Wanton Noodle (远远来古早味云吞面), Jie Di Char Kway Teow (古来老街姐弟炒粿条) and Heng Heng Hainanese Chicken Rice (兴兴烧腊海南鸡饭) can also be ordered and eaten at Yong Juan Hin with their speciality coffees and tea.
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Address:
5C, Jalan Ismail, Taman Kulai, 81000 Kulai, Johor, Malaysia
Opening Hours:
7am to 3pm | Closed on Monday
How to Get There:
From JB Sentral, take BAS.MY J30 to Taman Kulai. Read: JB Bus / Train: To Kulai District in Johor (柔佛.古来).
Nearby:
More Eats @ Kulai:
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