Located at the intersection of Beach Street (Lebuh Pantai) and Chulia Street (Lebuh Chulia), Kedai Kopi Lam Ah (南亚茶室) is your typical kopitiam (traditional coffee shop) in George Town. There are only 2 food stalls here. Both are local favorites.
The more popular stall is Lebuh Acheh Loo Family (吕家打石街). Like the one at Sri Weld Food Court, this stall has been selling Beef Noodle Soup (牛肉粿条汤) for several decades now. During lunch time, the waiting time can be grueling long. Try to avoid peak hours whenever possible.
For RM10.00, you get to enjoy a bowl which includes nearly every ingredient available: beef slices (牛肉片), beef meatballs (牛肉丸), beef stomach (牛肚) and beef tendons (牛腱). For better aroma, fried garlic and chopped scallion (spring onion) are added. I find it nice to sprinkle some white pepper too, but not too much to a point that the pepper covers the original flavor of beef soup.
The beef soup is quite tasty and satisfying. Although the soup plays the key role, it does not overpower other beef ingredients in the process. In particular, I like the chewy mouthfeel of beef tendons. If beef is part of your food chain, this stall’s Beef Noodle Soup is one place to satisfy your carnivorous craving.
The other nameless stall sells Fried Oyster (蚝煎). Depending on the number people, there are several serving sizes. The price starts from RM6.00, which is just right for one person.
Unlike the average fried oyster that you see in hawker centers, this stall’s recipe is drastically different. The omelette is crispy especially along the edges. The key to this difference lies in the fact that flour batter is allowed to solidify first, only then eggs are added in. Oysters are also placed on top the omelette, instead of being stirred into the batter-egg emulsion.
This dish comes with sweet chili sauce which suits the crispy omelette. Nevertheless, I suggest that you sample the omelette without the sauce first, in order to get a feel of the omelette itself. I am confident that most first-timers will like this dish very much!
As always, beverage is the exclusive turf of the kopitiam itself. My cup of Kopi O (RM1.20) is prepared in a mess. It is an eyesore to see coffee stains on the outside of the cup and on the handle. As for the coffee itself, it is unpleasantly sour. I am very skeptical of the quality of coffee beans used here.
Kedai Kopi Lam Ah is one of the kopitiam which notoriously charges a fee for each dine-in customer who does not order a drink. The fee is usually equivalent to a glass of water, so essentially everyone is required to order a drink. Nevertheless, because it is the home of two renowned delicacies, most people have no choice but to bite the bullet.
Address: 194, Lebuh Pantai, 10300 George Town, Pulau Pinang
Contact: N/A
Business hours: 10:30am-4:30pm, closed on SundaysTaste