The Tasty Dozen

What's in a chicken chop? When Alan Chan invited Sunday Metro to check out “not one but 12 types of chicken chop”, our immediate reaction was: “Huh? How can there be that many?”
www.shiok-kopitiam.com.

Our interest piqued, we decided to take up his offer.

Chan, who runs the Shiok Kopitiam in Puchong with seven other Rotarians, chose to reveal the fare to us at their latest venture at the YMCA in Brickfields.

In the small talk that preceeded the food tasting, Chan admitted that he “simply loves food”.

“I do love cooking as well, something I picked up from my mother,” he said with a sheepish smile.

Before any labels are thrown at him, let’s get the story straight.

When he and his siblings were younger, he related, their mother used to threaten not to cook for them if they refused to clean up the house after messing it up.

Short of going hungry in case the threat was carried out, Chan thought it pertinent to learn a few meaningful recipes and watched Mom from afar as she cooked.

“The threat was carried out several times but by then, I, the big brother, was already a professional in the kitchen and none of us ever went hungry,” he said.

While learning to cook to feed his rather rambunctious siblings, Chan said, he also developed a knack for adding a twist to his recipes, creating even better flavours. He continued this right into his academic life and later when he married and became a father.

Today, this civil engineer, who still practises his professional career, is instrumental in concocting many types of sauces to go with chicken chops. And that’s basically how the 12 types of chicken chop came to be.

The chicken would either be deep-fried or grilled and each would be served with one of six sauces – Oriental, black pepper, lemon plum, white cream, Thai chilli, and mushroom. On the menu, the 12 are listed as The Shiok, Hainan, Caribbean, Mexican, Mediterranean, Aussie, American, Swedish, Balinese, Pattaya, French and Swiss.

“Initially, we served two types of chicken chop. They are sold at only RM9.90 per serving with either steamed vegetables, half of a grilled tomato and fries for the grilled version or fries with coleslaw for the fried version,” Chan said.

Noting that the dishes were popular, and in response to customer’s requests for a wider selection of sauces, they decided to expand the menu. For this, Chan credits his chef, Amar Mohamed, 28, who worked tirelessly to get the different flavours right.

The Caribbean, Balinese, Aussie and Swedish are the more popular ones, Chan said.

For a more substantial meal, you can add mashed potato or buttered rice for RM1.50.

They don’t serve just chicken chops, however. There is a good selection of other dishes as well, including fried seafood pasta, and a delectable white coffee, which is really good. It has a creamy feel, thick and not too strong, that also gives you a wake-up call. The white coffee is sourced from a special roaster in Ipoh, Chan’s hometown, and made to specification.

“The coffee is percolated,” Chan said.

The seafood pasta, which is also popular, is a generous portion of pasta with mussels, prawns and squid.

According to Chan, he and his partners take great care to check every ingredient that goes into their dishes.

“The one thing that must be stressed is that this kopitiam is not just a business venture but a thing of passion,” he said.

Relating the background of the business, he said Shiok Kopitiam came about because the Puchong Rotary Club, of which he is a member, was looking for spots to have meetings.

“We wanted a place where we could be casual and hold our meetings and yet be able to enjoy good coffee and some nice snacks or even a meal,” he said.

Then four of them got together and decided to open up an eatery, Shiok Kopitiam. That was early last year and their latest at the YMCA began operations on May 8 this year.

If you are in the vicinity, do try this kopitiam, which incidentally has free wi-fi and a corner for board games. It is at No.95, Jalan Padang Belia (off Jalan Tun Sambanthan 4), Brickfields, Tel: 03-22732993 or No.9, Jalan BK 3/2, Bandar Kinrara, Puchong. Tel: 03-8075 1017. You can also check them out on their website,

Source: The Star