My younger sister Juji was on holiday recently in Singapore, Hong Kong and Malaysia. She blogged and tweeted about the food she ate, giving me terrible food envy! One of the meals she enjoyed most was the quinessential Malaysian/Singaporean kopitiam breakfast of soft-boiled eggs and kaya toast.
More Juji food envy, featuring durian-flavoured ice cream “bricks”!
Singapore street food: ice cream wafers
Ice cream in rainbow bread
More ice cream in rainbow bread
There are a few kopitiams in Perth – I’ve heard of at Austin’s Kopitiam in Mt Hawthorn and Mak’s Place in Northbridge, but O’Mama is the first kopitiam in Perth I’ve been to. We have some wonderful breakfast places in Perth but I’m all for greater diversity in breakfast food. More kopitiams would be a great start! At the end of this post, see my short list of something different for breakfast.
Behold, kaya toast (AU$3.20) and soft-boiled eggs (AU$3.00 per 2 eggs) at O’Mama Kopitiam in Karawara. It’s a simple perfect breakfast or snack combination we could easily make at home, but it’s fun eating it in a coffee shop.
Yum yum, the kaya toast was good. Butter makes so many things better. Butter and peanut butter, butter and cheese, butter and chocolate spread, butter and kaya. I’d have liked thick slices of butter like Juji was served on her holidays though. :)
I lived in Malaysia until my family moved to Australia when I was ten years old. In Malaysia, my grandma would often make us soft-boiled eggs for breakfast before school. She called it “half-boiled egg”. You break the egg into a bowl, holding the hot egg carefully so you don’t burn your fingertips, scraping every bit of soft egg from the shell, then add soy sauce and white pepper. I ate mine with a spoon, but my Dad, who likes his soft-boiled eggs cooked even less than “half-boiled”, would lift the bowl up and drink his eggs straight from the bowl.
The friendly lady who took our order boiled the eggs in a soft-boiled egg cooker similar to this one featured in a post at A Table for Two: Foolproof Soft Boiled Egg Cooker (her soft-boiled egg cooker wasn’t a beautiful bright yellow one though). I want one of these! If I ever visit Malaysia or Singapore I’m totally buying one to bring home with me. The eggs turned out perfect!
If you like gooey eggs and have never eaten Malaysian/Singaporean style soft-boiled egg with soy sauce and white pepper, you have missed out! It’s so simple but so delicious.
We shared one serve of kaya toast and eggs so we had room to venture into more serious eating pants country and try O’Mama’s nasi lemak too. Let’s just say we didn’t need lunch that day. :)
The menu was a bit confusing. In retrospect, we should’ve simply chosen from the AU$4.80 nasi lemak special flyers posted on the window. When we approached the front counter to order, the lady who served us told us to ignore the menu that’s hanging up on the wall behind the front counter – it’s a leftover from the previous management (to which I say: take it down!). She gave us paper menus instead, and we immediately both chose nasi lemak with chicken curry or beef rendang (AU$10.80), item R3 under “Rice Dishes” – I chose chicken curry; Jac, beef rendang. We were then told with the $10.80 nasi lemak we each were entitled to choose another two chicken dishes from the bain marie, a choice of: fried chicken, lemongrass chicken, tomato chicken, chicken kicap manis and chicken rendang. We thought briefly about downgrading to the $4.80 nasi lemak special (with one chicken dish) but decided to use the opportunity to get a sampler of O’Mama’s chicken dishes.
So to go with her nasi lemak and beef rendang, Jac chose tomato chicken and chicken kicap manis (sweet soy chicken).
To go with my nasi lemak and curry chicken, I chose chicken rendang and fried chicken. The curry chicken and chicken rendang were both tasty enough but the fried chicken was the best – crispy and juicy, with no bones. The tomato chicken was my favourite out of Jac’s meat dishes. My brother the Chicken Boy would love the chicken-loaded nasi lemak for sure.
The rice was not as lemak as my mum’s but it was tasty enough. And I was pleased we each got a whole hard-boiled egg – I always feel cheated when nasi lemak comes with half a boiled egg or a stingy little thin rubbery square of omelette. There was a generous amount of ikan bilis (fried anchovies) with peanuts, just a shame the ikan bilis were not crispy.
If you’re not as greedy as us, the AU$4.80 nasi lemak specials (nasi lemak + one chicken dish) will probably suffice! Yes, that’s my reflection in the window as I stood taking the photograph.
The interior decor is quirky, with marble-topped tables and wallpaper featuring reindeer, butterfly and bird silhouettes. I wish I’d taken a picture to show you! They use those black buzzers that look like UFOS, that vibrate and flash red when your order is ready.
There’s a lot of construction/renovation work going on at Waterford Plaza where O’Mama Kopitiam is located, so it’s not really noticeable from the street. The parking lot is a bit of an obstacle course but we parked away from the congestion and made our way to the coffee shop on foot.
While we were there, there was a steady trickle of customers, both dine-in and takeaway. One person ordered the char kway teow and it smelled really good! I need to eat at more kopitiams for comparison, but we enjoyed our meal at O’Mama Kopitiam. I’d like to return to try more of the food, especially the chicken chop rice (AU$12.80). I haven’t eaten chicken chop for years! Jac, an offal lover, was most interested to see the pork soup noodles (AU$10.80), with noodles of your choice in a pork broth, with pork pieces, pork liver, pork mince and vegetables. They have cendol, ais kacang and teh tarik too – next time, next time. I only wish that O’Mama opened on Sundays and that they opened earlier – sadly, that’s probably because there’s just not enough demand in Perth for Malaysian coffee shop breakfasts early in the morning.
O’Mama Kopitiam
Shop 23, Waterford Plaza
Corner of Manning Road and Kent St
Karawara WA 6152
Telephone: (08) 9313 2433
Open Monday to Saturday 9.30am to 8.30pm
Special weekday packed lunch $4.80 (9.30am to 11.30am)
Something different for breakfast
Try these:
- Welcome Inn Tea House, Northbridge – dim sum
- That Little Mexican Place, Victoria Park – Mexican-style
- Gopi Curry Leaf, Willetton – roti, curry and nasi lemak
- Mondo Butchers, Inglewood – hot roast meat sandwiches
- O’Mama Kopitiam, Karawara – Malaysian coffee shop favourites (featured in this post)
We’re always on the lookout to try something different for breakfast! Feel free to share your suggestions in the comments.
I'm TFP, a food blogger from Perth, Western Australia.
{ 45 comments… read them below or add one }
My dad would also enjoy his eggs barely cooked or fresh warm from the hen in the morning.
Gigglesigh,
At our previous house, Jac and I kept chickens for a while. I loved to collect the eggs fresh on a Sunday morning and make us scrambled eggs for breaky.
I was always a little grossed out by the barely cooked eggs my Dad enjoyed so much. :)
THOSE EGGS LOOK LIKE HEAVEN. O_O
Wei-Wei,
THEY WERE! LOL
I always walk past this place cos i never kno what they have!!!!
But next time I have a break from uni I am so there!!!
That rendang and fried chicken combo looks amazing!!! *droolz*
Karrie,
I wonder if they get much Curtin student traffic. If I studied or worked there, I’d drop by for lunch for sure. Or stop by after work to pick up takeaway on my way home. :)
Oh yes, definitely try the fried chicken if you’re a fan of deepfried battered chicken. Mmm, I wish I had some now. Some nasi lemak with fried chicken would be PERFECT right now. And of course, a couple of soft-boiled eggs.
The nasi lemak looks so sedap!. Beside the normal nasi lemak condiments, I love adding some curry to my nasi. There was a little hawker near my previous office in Malaysia, where the makcik makes the best curry and the best nasi lemak and I paid less than $3.00 for a bungkus/wrapped. And that was a premium. Yum yum…
ahh i miss those makcik/pakcik stalls… i use to hav them every morning. i m craving for nasi lemak badly. my mom was on skype the other day whacking nasi lemak.. showing it to me :(
flower,
Ya, sedap rasanya! :D I’d love to have nasi lemak bungkus for lunch. I’d have it all the time.
Christine,
I used to go with my mum to the market in the morning before school in Malaysia, just so I could have yummy breaky from hawkers – my favourite then was not nasi lemak, I loved to have wantan mee, fishball soup or chee cheong fun. These days I think if I were in Malaysia deciding what to have for breakfast I would have a difficult time choosing! I am craving nasi lemak now, not a good thing in Perth, Western Australia at quarter to 6am. :(
ooh what an interesting dish!
For the most important meal of the day it seems odd to me that breakfast menus are often so predictable. Generically you’ll find eggs on toast, cereal, muffins, pancakes and for the health conscious offerings of fruit and muesli. This lack of breakfast menu diversity is a nation wide problem.
In Melbourne, the alleyways of the uber cool Flinders Lane cafes waft with the smells of sizzling bacon. Sydney’s Bondi Beach cafes serve up high stack of pancakes to locals as well as the swarming tourists. In Queensland you’ll find that a slice of avocado with your ‘hungry mans breakfast’ is possibly as exotic as the brekkie menu reads. As you have pointed out, Perth outlets too seem to generally stick with mainstream breakfast fare.
Of course, as you have done with your post, there are pioneering cafes that dare to stray from the main menu route, but finding them is a long and tiresome process, not something I am up for prior to midday.
I wonder if the lack of early morning menu diversity is because runny poached eggs, served with toast and a side of crispy bacon, a short black and the morning paper is pretty close to breakfast perfection. More likely, its because before a kick starter morning coffee, many of us find it difficult to decide on the smallest of things, let alone an overwhelming breakfast menu? So, eggs on toast, black coffee and hold the bacon – if you can’t beat ‘em – just eat ‘em.
Kerrib,
Regular readers will know how much I love bacon and pancakes with maple syrup – I can eat that for any meal, not just breakfast! Add scrambled eggs, mushrooms, hash browns and baked beans and I’m in heaven. But I love eating all kinds of food at breakfast time – not just the standard breakfast fare. Some mornings I crave rice, noodles and/or curry. I miss those options from my childhood in Malaysia. In fact, I just had leftover curry and rice for breakfast… and now munching on a piece of bread with Swiss cheese. :D
“tomato chicken and chicken kicap manis (sweet soy chicken).”
That looks really good, especially with boiled eggs! Would love to try it.
Cindy,
It really was tasty. Damn, the more I respond to comments this morning, the more I am craving nasi lemak. Wonder if we can get some this weekend… ;)
That food just looks totally delicious. If I could I’d get some right now! Alas, only a dream.
kathy,
I want some right now too – no way I will be able to do anything about that craving quickly enough! :D
WOW! Karawara has changed so much since I moved over the East! And that’s only like 10 months ago!
I must say for once Perth does do better Malaysian/Singaporean food compared to the East. :)
cynthia,
A few friends have told me the same thing – they are envious of the Malaysian/Singaporean food we can get here. But I am envious of Sydneysiders – they have Mamak! I want to go to Mamak! I’m yet to visit Melbourne though. That’s on my list. :)
I love having toast bread (kaya+butter) with a local cup of hainanese coffee and half-boiled eggs to go along. But one thing though, I can NEVER have my half-boiled eggs just as they are (sipping or drinking with a spoon). It is a must for me to dunk plain thick bread (we call them Benggali bread) into my eggs and I’ll always make sure the last piece of bread will wipe off all the eggs nicely from the bowl/cup. I think drinking eggs is a little too much for me…kinda leaves the after-taste! :P
Peky,
Heheh, dunking with bread sounds great!
yes yes! no matter how big the egg cooker is, u simply have to bring one back to PErth… best decision I’ve ever made!
billy,
The good thing is my other half loves soft-boiled eggs too, so she won’t argue if I insist on lugging back one of those cookers. :D
Thank you so much for this post. I have been craving for Nasi Lemak! Had 2 different versions last Sunday at the Malaysian Food Fair at Willetton but both were horrible. I will give this a try this weekend if I can control my cravings till then! Love the gooey runny soft-boiled eggs too!
I want nasi lemak with all the extras, rendang, sambal sotong, kangkung and my all time favourite sambal kerang(cockles). Yum yum.
Christine,
Hopefully this one does the trick. I still think my mum’s nasi is the best for lemak-ness but I’d go back to O’Mama again for nasi lemak for sure. I also like the nasi lemak you can buy wrapped in brown paper at many Asian supermarkets – very simple but just enough to satisfy a craving for nasi lemak.
flower,
I like sambal udang with lots of bawang best. Ooh yes, and kangkung. I’ve never been a cockles fan though. :)
TFP, I could not wait for the weekend I went yesterday! Yes, I drove all the way from Joondalup and satisfied my cravings! Ur rite, the nasi didn’t have any lemak. But the sambal and chicken dishes were nice. I’ve never seen any nasi lemak at the Asian groceries. Will hunt for them. After nasi lemak i packed satay ayam, keropok lekor and nasi goreng kampung from Mahsuri! Very satisfied now! And yes, I miss wantan mee, chee cheong fun & fishball soup too.. they dont seem to have good ones here :(
Christine,
LOL, great! :P I’ve seen some Asian supermarkets sell them – usually if they have it, it’s near the front. Will take photo and take note of where next time. We went to Mahsuri once, not that impressed. The food was OK, but we haven’t been inspired to return. One of my friends tells me there’s an awesome hawker food restaurant in Mirrabooka called Sense La. I’ve never been there, but my friend says it is really good – she says the wantan mee is “like being in Malaysia, no joke”.
TFP
Have you tried Suria Cafe before. My Malaysian friends told me that their nasi lemak sambal tasted as good as in Malaysia. I never been there since it’s quite a distant from my place and I don’t think my hb wants to drive me all the way there for a nasi lemak. He doesnt like nasi lemak and can’t understand why we eat nasi for breakfast.
flower,
No, I haven’t tried Suria. We don’t go north of the river that often (well, not that north anyway :)). We don’t always have time to go eat nasi lemak for breakfast, but at least Jac is a big fan of it. In fact, she woke up this morning and said she felt like eating nasi lemak for breaky. :) She’s gone to get a costume for a fancy dress party she is going to this weekend, we might go out in search of nasi lemak afterwards.
I bought frozen keropok lekor last month from one of the oriental shop here in Perth. It tasted ok lah. Not as good as the one fresh from Terengganu.
flower,
Mmm, keropok.
When I was a kid (before we migrated to Australia) my family had a holiday in Rantau Abang, Terengganu. We stayed on a chalet on the beach, went swimming every day. Ate ice cream potong every day on the beach. It was so much fun. My only regret was the morning my auntie, dad, sisters and cousins got up before dawn to go watch turtles laying eggs I was too sleepy and didn’t go with them.
flower, I just looked at Suria’s Facebook page! I wish they weren’t so far away – today’s specials are kuih lapis, chilli squid and goreng pisang!
Those black buzzers always scare the crap out of me when they go off, even though I keep telling myself that it will go off soon and I shouldn’t jump when it happens.
I’ve never had kaya toast. This makes me sad.
Conor,
Haha, yes I usually jump too!
Aw, you can make kaya toast yourself though! Get some brown bread, a jar of kaya and some butter. :D
When we had chooks in our backyard, we used to give my folks eggs. Mum would make kaya and give us some – that kaya was the best. I didn’t even need to toast the bread – just kaya thickly spread on fresh soft white bread, soooo good.
I have now officially given myself a craving for nasi lemak and kaya toast. Not a good thing before work on a Friday morning. Gah. :)
Someone told me Mela (that indian restaurant near Lido in northbridge) does breakfast?? I want to try it!
Liz,
Well, I look fwd to your review! :D
Oh wow!
That post is one of my recent favourites, all that food looks great.
I love eggs but have never considered eating them like your dad, might try it.
Thanks kissy,
It was a delicious meal, I was in a great mood after that breakfast!
Let me know what you think if you do try eggs a la TFP’s Dad. :)
Honestly, coming from sg, i think mama koptiam is really horrible. The rice for the nasi lemak is very salty…and the food is just not up to standard although the price is cheap for a student like me. But on my 2nd visit there, i ordered the tomato chicken for the 4.80 nasi lemak, the taste is much better. The bottle drinks used to have discount when you purchase together with a meal and now its very costly! So i dont recommend.
Sorry, O’mama is as good as you said it is………..but it’s my personal opinion anyway. Like you, I read the advert in the Canning Times and always looking out for new eateries. So far, I have been to the place 3 times. I have tried the mee suah broth with wine which is quite good but at $12 per serving, it better be. The fried hokkien mee is also worthy of mention……black in colour like in KL. But in all fairness, the nasi lemak lacks ‘oomp’……the sambal is not sweet enough, if you have eaten all good nasi lemaks in Malaysia (esp those cooked by Malays) their sambal is sweet…..the fried anchovies are hard and not crispy….
Finally, the last straw………….the lady boss who is behind the counter is very short tempered and rude. I mean, if this place has just been open, surely you must be making an effort to be courteous, polite, and patient in order to lure customers…!!! Out of the 3 times I was there, on 2 occasions I saw her scolding her workers right in front of us. Mind you, she was also very impatient with me despite knowing that I had a sore mouth and could not talk properly when I ordered my food……..in all fairness, if she continues her bad atitude, I have pity on her husband, who is actually the person doing the cooking behind………….
I do agree with mc that the “Boss” lady was rather rude. I have been there three times last year and have in fact introduced a few of my friends to the restaurant. I stopped going after my son and father in law had food poisoning after eating the Nasi Lemak with Chicken Rendang. They suffered for 2 days. Later I heard from my daughter whose friend suffered for 5 days after eating at O’mama Kopitiam. So if the owner is reading this please take note.
Before I begin, just for your information, the picture of nasi lemak on this site is outdated. The serving I got looks nothing like that. Absolute disappointment is more like it! Worse of all, I have never met a lady boss who is so rude and obnoxious. Why bother to go into business in the first place. What really piss me off is when we ask for a little bit more chili paste(sambal) to go with the rice and she goes on and on about how expensive the chili paste is, and it cost money …blab…blab….blab.. ….and refuse to give anymore chili paste. Wow….I did not know that the price of chili has gone up like gold. Unbelievable! What planet are this people from?? How can you call it nasi lemak when there is almost no chilli paste(sambal) in the serving? How do you eat a plate of nasi lemak without sambal?? A plate of nasi lemak with a teaspoon of chili paste?? And the tiny piece of fried egg is paper thin the size of a fifty cent coin!! with bits of ikan bilis, peanuts and cucumber. And the Hainam coffee and tea we ordered, are from 3 in 1 coffee and tea instant mix. Disgusting! The first time there and it will be my last. I would recommend eating at Chilli’s nearby if you are in the area. What a unpleasant experience.
Karen,
This is a blog. This post was published back in October 2010 and as such, dishes and prices may have changed since then. This is true of any blog you may read, not just this one. You are free to express your opinions and share your experiences here in the comments. Please remember that I write about my own experiences and do not speak for everyone – and everyone’s comments about their experiences of a restaurant, good or bad, are valid, as long as they’ve written about their experiences honestly. I am not affiliated with Omama, so a little less aggression in your tone would be appreciated.
The kopitiam food is not worth trying. Can make do if h need to eat
You should return to this place and do another review; there’s been a huge line of complains of this place and your article is giving them much coverage from a quick search.