^
I think most people who are interested to start, don't have a proper or established venue to practise yet (assuming those who have actually started did at least this part of their homework already). That's why I'm wondering how are we gonna learn as well.

you dont have to have a state of the art facilities to learn how to cook, I am learning how to cook as well, since I stay in rented place and there is no kitchen facilities here(eat out everyday), so I bough a gas tong, a stove, few cooking equipments and thats it, I dont even have a fridge. and still these are some of the foods that I manage to cook.



there are still many more (30++) dishes that I manage to learn how to cook with simple equipments.

Worst case senario: learn in someone house's kitchen

Hey, bro don't waste your talent of cooking 30+ dishes may open mixed rice stall oledi. Are you interested to open up your own stall?

yeah I do plan to open up my own stall, still in consideration stage...

Very enterprising and wise to actually learn before starting. A start is better than no start. In commercial kitchens what type of food also depends on what type of heating appliances is needed. A normal stove can cook like those you are trying on. We were talking about roast pork, char siew and that takes different type of cooking technique. The marinating, the tenderising, which medium you want to use, charcoal fired or gas fires. Off course charcoal fired are the best tasting ones but will you be willing to sacrifice the extra effort needed to use that.

Then dishes like Char Koay Teow. Yes, we can learn and teach using normal kitchen stoves but the most important factor in a good CKT is the intense heat. It actually takes 2 minutes to fry a plate of CKT but you must be skilled to fry something in a flame that intense. When I see a hawker selling CKT frying with heat that I can't hear (high pressure stoves have whooshing sound), I will skip the CKT. If you intend to learn this, then it is worthwhile to buy the equipment and practice until it becomes second nature to you. You cannot start using such equipments on opening day or a few days before opening and then starts to fumble big time (I see this very commonly as they didn't anticipate the crowd) and spoils the quality of the food.

Even myself has experience this. I was a replacement for a restaurant and the restaurant uses a type of high presssured stove call 'cannon stove'. I know this stove but never uses them. I didn't do a good job because I kept slowing down the heat or taking the wok away from the stove while cooking as I was not use to those stoves. My point is, home kitchen is way way different from commercial cooking.

Do you know that even blanching noodle needs skill? It seems easy right, just take mee or beehon or kway teow, blanch it. Most hawker actually does it wrong but it does makes a difference if done correctly. This is why you see in some stalls, when the mother is blanching, it tasted differently when her son is blanching. This is especially true in wanton noodle but it does happened in other noodles.

Agree as what you said cause my mum make the Wonton noodle tasty than what I made at home.


Everyone are welcome to share your experience don't look down your own. Doesn't mean we must have experience wok in big big restaurant only can cook nice food. Small cook at home also can cook nice food. I believe more people can share here, we can gather and open our own kopitiam with successful result and long run in future not just limit to 1 shop it may be grow like mushroom this is what I wish and look for same idea people as me.

I use to work as cashier in a chinese take away shop while i was working in england...the chef cook our meal but for supper we cook ourself, so I got the chance to use the cannon stove..."wooofff wooooofff!!!!" the fire sound alone makes me scared..but after seeing the chef cook for few month...i know a little bit of dai chow skill also

I am a good observer

Talent in cook la don't waste it can earn penny if you really got plan. May be we can be partner who know.

I am in sabah tho...

well worse comes to worst if my plan to open here in sabah didnt work out...may be i will fly over there and we will work something out

When I was in the UK, I was learning to cook fried rice and noodles in Jap cum Chinese restaurant but not for long, changed job to fine dining open kitchen restaurant. Use high powered induction pula.

I know these wok stoves as well. You have to learn how to "tarik wok". Wok yang ditarik must not be noisy. If you tarik with loud "kiang kiang" sound whether the bottom of the wok hits the stove or your laddle ketuk ketuk the wok, you gonna get scolding from the head chef. Oh, I also learn to use the knee to control the fire.

This post has been edited by katopunk: Apr 1 2011, 12:51 AM

yeah the tarik skill is definitely fun skill to learn. still in england? how long did you stay there? work as legal or illegal?

Sounds fun right? Why shouldn't cooking be fun? Easiest way to practice 'tarik wok' , flipping the food is to place an empty plastic or melamine plate in the wok and start pulling and flipping until every pull, the plate must flip. The less pull you use to flip the plate, the better it is. As for the 'kiang kiang' sound , it depends. If you ask a street vendor to quiet down , they can never do it. I seen some who change wok every few months and sometimes you see their woks like being run over by a lorry. For those in the hotel and cafe, we have to learn to flick without the wok sitting on the stove support. So, it is quiet. Some cooks like to do some show, they like to display their 'fire skill' The customers will go 'waaaahh' but all this adds showmanship to a cook.

I must admire the olden day cooks. They never used woks with handles found so common nowadays. They always use cast iron woks which are heavy and at times 16 inches ones. They used folded newspapers to shield the heat on the wok's ear and they 'tarik' so fluidly.

Now like discussing skill before start up business. Interesting how I hope we can show it now like those days in the street lot of people surrounding in circle watching street kung fu acrobatic.

Good luck guys. Before I did thought of opening kopitiam but after considering long hours need to be spent on the shop and many headaches so decided to put my plan on hold. Still I believe kopitiam has the high margin and worth the time spent.

sorry to hijack your tread ya lol

but wished to know the budget required to open a very basic kopitiam.

other than chap fan, I just thought of trying to do mamak style kopitiam...something like SS2 murni...cooking a mixture of chinese and malay cuisine, roti canai, serve no pork, and have projector and screen for customers to watch footie and wrestling..

how much budget needed ah? kitchen equipment I can get by paying installment tho..2 partners working in the shop also..

initial capital

rental + deposit 10k
renovation 10k-15k
tables and chairs 5k
cookeries 2k
cost of raw food 3-5k

kitchen equipment 2k(monthly)

anything to add on?

I think you oledi calculated the amount rite and how come to KL to make big buck rather than at east coast. We can sit down and plan, more people can do big business. Just my 2 cent view.

I don't know about East Malaysia but if here, the renovation amount you planned is a bit short. First thing is plumbing and then wiring. You definately needs more fan points and lighting points. Maybe you have a friend or you can do yourself. Then tiling of the floor and the minimum 5 feet tiled walls. We take a 20' X 60' feet shop as example. That's 1200 sq.ft and plus another 600 sq.ft onto the walls, totalled up to 1800 sq. ft of tiling. Here the labour charges is RM3.50 to RM4 per sq.ft and even if we choose the cheapest left over tiles, let's say a bargain with mixing all colours, RM1.50 per sq. ft. That's RM9000 already. Your chap fan 'bain marie' will cost RM2000 second hand and another stall for mee goreng, another RM1,500. Then the 3 lobang stove cost about RM1000, another RM600 for the single lobang for your mee goreng. You might do a little painting after renovations, there's still the cost of the signboard, the menu to be displayed interior, a fruit juicer for fruit juice, a commercial rice cooker, a blender ( I am sure you are not going to use batu giling, ),even glasses cost RM2.50 each,100 of them is RM250, tea cups and saucer, etc etc and another thousand of little minute things that needs to be bought.

Initial stocking will go into the thousands, don't be suprised as everthing is zero. If you are selling beer and cigarettes then it is way way more.

I suggest you make those instalments in a one time thing. Buy cash on only what's needed. Compared to renovations their cost is lower. You buy equipments one after another when business is OK or better. 30 days comes very very fast when things are not going your way.

This post has been edited by etigge: Apr 1 2011, 04:09 PM

thanks for the feed back, as for start, every thing will be the most basic stuff, may be we wont put wall tiles first, and very basic lightings .( not so much on interior as we plan to have our main dining area out side wathing projectors) again, hows the rules and regulations regarding setting up tables outside premises? anyone knows? what if we set up tables on the parking space outside our shop? are we allow to do that? then if its raining how ?


what do you mean by "I suggest you make those instalments in a one time thing" ?
those chap fan/ nasi campur bain marie, roti canai station, water making station and other stand alone work and cooking station can be bought new by installment , better than fork out cash to buy 2nd hand stuff I think.

since its supposed to be halal so not selling any beers lol, but we do like the idea of selling beers, may in the future when we have different restaurant concept. labour charge wise we can get cheap because we hire those illlegal indons to do the job lol. painting we will do our self, wiring point we budget at less than 2k (no fancy lightings, just normal florescent lights and cheap ceiling fan), got friend open electrical appliances so can buy projector via installment as well.

KL is may rosy but for every successful restauranteur there are 100 of them paving the graveyard, as the chinese proverb says. We don't hear about them or see them but they are there. There are so many who did not plan properly, didn't forecasted well, started with no skilled and depending on others and hung in the end by them eventually. Even myself, failed a few times. Take a drive and visit those second hand stainless steel stall yards. Where did they get them? Bigs bucks means busy busy kopitiam, right, busy, busy kopitiam means ,many many workers. Many, many workers equals to big, big headache. Busy, busy also taxs the cook, the stalls, the coffee brewer heavily. The balance of nature is always there, nobody can change the equillibrium, no matter how good you are. When there is good, you bound to have bad. It is a matter of how do we handle the bad. Handle it well, then success is yours.

In small towns, it is a more laidback nature. Off course, meal times is still the main time but customers tend to flow in rather than pours in like here in KL. In places where there are factories and offices, only those well oiled operations can make it. When they have 150 seats, they make sure the workers can handle the 150 people at one time. I have witnessed so many understaffed restaurants failed to serve the guest. Once tempers fly, some workers even just walked off after getting a scolding. Temperament is also importnant, holding your cool. In small towns, the hours are longer, the variations of food is myriad (so we can hold on to the same customers twice or even thrice a day) but they are more relaxing.

Bigger doesn't mean better. I for one would rather earn steadily for a decade than to earn big bucks but 'can't tahan' for 2 years because too stressful and taxing. Understand food business, you are dealing with variations of personal taste as many as the numbers of customers you are serving.