18 Kopitiam Rice Bowls For Lunch

I'm at Rio again, this time just before noon, and I spot a cafe at a corner lot facing the supermarket. My hungry stomach signals me to step in, so I open the door and walk into 18 Kopitiam.

They have the usual local breakfast staples like soft-boiled eggs and kaya toast. Since it's almost lunchtime, I order a rice bowl instead. The nyonya kapitan vegetarian chicken is an interesting choice: it's a bowl of rice topped with a beautifully fragrant curry redolent of lemongrass, ginger and galangal, on top of the usual curry spices. Since it's a vegetarian dish, the meat is a wheat-based protein with a nice firm texture that also absorbs the sauce well.

I've also had the kam heong fish rice bowl here. That was a more workmanlike dish of lightly spiced strips of fried fish and dried chillies, with a fried egg on top. It packs a lot of protein into a sub-RM20 serving so there's that.

I'm a fan of the cham and kopi C drinks here. They're thick, not very sweet and plenty strong for a caffeine fiend like me. Service here is quick and efficient too.