26 comments so far
I agreed with you… Roti Bakar sure tastes delicious with charcoal and toasted that way. I used to eat at one kopitiam (now closed down because the old man passed away) at the traffic light junction of Ayer Itam & Perak Road, near a Chinese Temple of some sort. The owner used the same style of clay stove embedded inside a large used tin drum as in your picture. He said it’s special made and there’s even a flap to cover the gap at the grill compartment. I can assured you it tasted better than French Toast in Toaster! The bread must be Roti Bengali laaaa 
In Europe where to find Roti Bengali such as this version from Malaysia? Only way I can toast the bread a la Kopitiam is over the fireplace and only in Winter… and have to use Pain De Mie bread or ask the bakery to cut at certain thickness for me. Oh, must use Kaya also and do the ‘Roti Kahwin’
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Wow, I didn’t even realize there’s such a shop in good old Penang! Thank you for the introduction to a newbie like me 
Certainly haven’t tried charcoal toasted bread before!
iamthewitch´s last blog post..Wholesale market in Beijing
wow, we dont see much of those charcoal toasted bread these days. am glad that the tradition lives on! hope to visit someday! 
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I also like food cooked with charcoal. Besides the taste, it also brings back a lot of my childhood memories.
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CK Lam, Toh Soon is one of my fav place when it comes to toast bread.. but at times, it test my patience as the Indonesian-girl cudn’t remember what I have ordered, and thus I keep waiting and waiting! There was once I went there at 7am, and waited fr 30++minutes.. sigh.. At times, I observed that ppl who came later was served 1st before me.. not fair 
*sob sob*
For toast bread lover, you guys cud check out a small little stall next to Eu Yan Sang, Kapitan Keling area (same row as Kuan Yim Theng temple), closed on weekend. Cud chk it out!
Bris77 – Sometimes orders can get mix up especially when its crowded but that happens once in a while. In the end when you eat the tasty food, everythiing is forgotten…haha, right?
Will try the stall that you recommend…thks.
BH Tan – Iced coffee should be nice on a sunny hot day… good idea
the hai nan bread + charcoal bake is nice I think cant get at town area btw I don’t like the tau keh soh ..who 1st order then found that she didn’t follow the turn
Thanks for sharing the gorgeous pictures. I love with this little corner, and can’t wait to go back for a cuppa of Kopi O and toasted bread! The last time there was at least a year plus ago: http://www.asiarediscovery.com/malaysian/98-penang-george-town-campbell-street-toh-soon-cafe-toasted-bread-roti-bakar
CK Lam Reply:
May 6th, 2010 at 1:13 am
Everything is still the same as it was a year ago…the ambiance and the quality of the bread and coffee.
Thanks for sharing your blog with me too
[...] of the late morning heat, this time we didn’t go that far. We stopped for tea and toast at Toh Soon (yummy!), packed Char Siew Rice for the girls from Jit Seng (girls gave thumbs up); had char kuey [...]
[...] Toh Soon Cafe (Lebuh Campbell). We had their iced coffee two days in a row and we’re pretty sad that we can’t have it anymore! I’m not sure why it’s so appealing, but to me, it’s strong yet light, which means it goes down easily and doesn’t make my stomach churn, unlike our local coffeeshop versions. [...]