for the benefit of those who do not live in singapore or those who do not frequently order tea and coffee at 'kopi tiam's and were wondering what in the world 'teh kosong' mean, here's a list of words used to order hot coffee and tea at our local coffee shop (aka kopi tiam, which literally means coffee shop). =)
root wordsteh (pronounced as it is) - tea with condensed milk
kopi (pronounced as
koh-pee) - coffee with condensed milk
add-ons after root wordsO (pronounced as it is) - black
si (pronounced as
see) - evaporated milk with sugar
gao (pronounced as it is) - thick
boh (pronounced as it is) - thin
siu dai (pronounced as
see-u tie) - less sugar
kosong (pronounced as
koh-song) - no sugar
peng (pronounced as like a ping with the 'i' replaced with 'eh') - cold [literally means ice]
the add-ons are listed in order of arrangement after the root word...
for example, if i say i want teh-si, i'm ordering tea without condensed milk but with evaporated milk and sugar instead. i guess that's supposed to be the healthier alternative to teh.
then if i order teh-si siu dai or teh-si kosong, means i'm ordering tea with evaporated milk with less sugar or no sugar respectively.
and teh-si gao kosong peng would be think tea with evaporated milk without sugar with ice, ie, cold. hehe. complicated order ay...
the same works with teh-o or kopi-o or kopi-si.
so as you can see that siu dai and kosong is used when there's a sugar component in the drink. teh and kopi is sweet because of the condensed milk and not because there was any sugar added into the drink. and so when anyone orders teh kosong... can you imagine what should be served? =P
anyway, short and sweet. hope you guys get a clearer idea. =)
oooo.. and i just discovered this recently... if you hear the drinks uncle go 'sua' eg. teh-o sua... it just means two cups. ;)
to order milo you could say 'kick ball' in hokkein.. coz the milo tin container always has the picture of someone kicking soccer (and so would the advertisements 10 yrs ago)
and to order chinese tea you could say 'fishing' in hokkein... coz they'll give you a chinese tea bag in hot water and you'd have to dip the tea bag up and down to get the tea diffused... haha
so the next time you come to singapore, you could use these terms to order your tea and coffee at the coffee shop next door ;)
{ Monday, September 18 }