A place I sometimes drop by when I have time to kill before a class is the Kopitiam Kaya Toast shop located next to Cheonggye stream in central Seoul.
Kopitiam shops can be found all over Singapore and Malaysia. In Seoul, the one by Cheonggye stream is the only one I’ve seen. And I just noticed it for the first time a few months ago, so I have no idea when it opened. While they apparently serve a variety of items elsewhere, the menu in Seoul consists of a few different kinds of toast (Kaya toast, cheese toast, peanut butter toast, thin or thick), tea and coffee. My favorite is the Kaya toast with Kopitiam tea, pictured below amongst my peripherals.
I had never had Kaya toast until I first stopped in Kopitiam a couple of months ago. The Kopitiam tea looks like coffee with cream, but it has a distinctive tea taste. Before I swore off coffee (which I did recently) I usually ordered the cappuccino, but now I’m totally hooked on the Kopitiam tea.
As a bonus, the staff at the Cheonggye location are extremely courteous. The whole place has a friendly feel to it and a great atmosphere set by the deco. I particularly enjoy the view from the second floor. Unfortunately, the entire second floor is the smoking section. Since I gave up cigarettes almost four years ago, I’ve come to abhor the smell. So I always tend to sit on the first floor with a book or two. If you are in the Cheonggye area and have some time to kill or just want to try something new, look for Kopitiam. I’ll take it over Starbuck’s or The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf any day of the week.
Technorati Tags: Korea, Kopitiam, Kaya Toast, Cheonggye stream
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