Blog

I am sitting outside now...the sky is a light, duck egg blue. Sitting under the fig tree where so often I pass the time between the busy lunch and hectic evening rushes. We are on a hill here...the street runs up and down to the Mesjid (Surau) at the bottom. At this time of night many people are beginning to walk home from work. Many in suits and ties. Others are coming out for the evening. For us its still not busy...but for sure on a Friday night it will become busy. Bangsar is a nicely elevated suburb that used to boast dense rubber plantations. Today its the centre of expatriate and middle-upper class local lifestyle. Cafes, reatsurants, spa's all compete for the ringgit

After a bus Friday lunch I am waiting for Karl to join me so we can talk about the plan for the weekend. We have been busy today, into the end of our second week of business. The mornings have been spent roasting...sweltering conditions that make me think roasting in Indonesia was like spending a day in the snow. The humidity, the sheer searing heat of Kuala Lumpur is incredible.

At this time of evening, 7pm, the sky is turning...a silver tint, turns to gold. The wind just starting to blow gently carries on it the sweet, smoky tandoori...and the pungent, rich smell of cuban cigars being smoked in a cafe or a pub on the street. Its the perfect time of day- the long dusk...the transition from a street of coffee cafes into a rainbow collage of lights and noise- the noise of the night.

The street is filled with characters- people who have lived in this area for years. Westerners, Asians,Indians...and the newer breed of immigrant- Pakistani, Bangladeshi...the culture is a blurred mesh of style and substance. There are also beggars from mainland China- trying to get enough money to survive, working girls from Indonesia, China, Thailand- subtly plying their trade. There are hustlers, salesmen and fortune tellers. It is an interesting place to have a cold beer to take off the caffeinated edge of a days roasting, cupping and pulling shots behind the +4U.

Looking forward to seeing my local BX collegues here- but not tonight. I arrived at 6.30am...9pm is home time. A quick snooze and back into a busy roasting schedule tomorrow. I will sleep as the revellers of Jl Telawi 2 party late into the evening.

Cheers everyone

When Karl casually told me that he reckoned it was a good idea to open Antipodean in the flash, upmarket suburb of Bangsar (KL, Malaysia), I didnt know whether to laugh or cry. Malaysia, unlike Indonesia, has a very developed level of food appreciation- from eating the variety of delicacies on offer- to critiquing them via live blogs and other web media. In all honesty Merdeka Coffee has its hands fairly full with Indonesia, the cafe in Sydney, the roastery in Auckland and some plans for something in Penang and Bangalore. Because of these various excuses, I was not 100% sure what to do with Karl's invite.

4 months later we are open and trading. The comments about the coffee, especially from the very fussy and pretty knowledgeable expatriate community, are uniformally excellent. Cracking the local oppinion of coffee- for better or for worse- is a little more difficult. Mostly good comments peppered with "its bitter", "its sour", "its bright", "its dull"..."its too Indonesian" often prickle me. After all I am the roaster and our pretty large customer base outside of Bangsar would not use any of these terms to describe the espresso blend.

The adventure in getting Antipodean open included using a contractor with a sense of humor which would have won him an Oscar (in any language), part of the roof falling in and squashing the bench, sink and undercounter chiller. A debate with some local authorities about whether the word "antipodean" in anyway was associate with "PORNOGRAPHY" (it was a difficult one to get my head around)....

Anyway we are open and once again I am enjoying working 7am till midnight...ahhhh the joys of cafe retail work....keeps us young no???

Anyway a few reviews after the first 10 days make the work worthwhile>

http://goreng.my/chill/article/a-coffee-place-with-heart

http://eatdrinkkl.blogspot.com/2011/02/antipodean.html

Enough to keep me focused on working harder to meet the expectations of this notoriously tough market!