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The Story Of Caramel Custard - Thean Chun Coffee Shop
The history of Thean Chun Coffee Shop
The story of Thean Chun Coffee Shop began with a Hainanese man who came from China, Mr. Wong and his wife. According to Mr. Yip Yoon Chong (man in the 3rd photo with the Caramel Custard), the current tenant who is continuing the tradition of making ‘Caramel Custard’ at Thean Chun;
Thean Chun started off as a bar in the 1930’s. The steamboat restaurant Sin Yip Hing (currently where Lou Wong is located), used to rent the place outside Thean Chun to put tables to run their business as they were very popular in those days.
However before Thean Chun or even Sin Yip Hing came to be, the whole row of shops used to be barber shops, which explains the mirrors in the coffee shop, hence the nickname the ‘House of Mirrors’. There used to be even larger mirrors throughout the shop but as the wooden frames started to rot and give way, the shop owners at the time (believed to be Mr. & Mrs. Wong) reduced the size of the mirrors and replaced the wooden frames with aluminum frames for safety reasons.
From the business license that Mr. Yip managed to look at, the Thean Chun was registered as a coffee shop in the 1960’s where business under Mr. & Mrs. Wong continued till an unfortunate event took place a couple of years ago. One morning when an elderly Mr. Wong (in his 80’s) was opening up the shop, he had a fall and after about 20 days his children persuaded him to sell the coffee shop in which he did in the end to the current owner of the shop, Mr. Chang.
Caramel Custard – How it all began
According to Mr. Yip, the first account of caramel custard being sold in Ipoh was by an old man on his tricycle which had a mobile stall.
This led to the couple’s initiative to experiment with different methods in making the perfect caramel custard that was to be sold at Thean Chun. With that, Thean Chun became the first coffee shop in Ipoh to sell caramel custard with other coffee shops following suit in the later years.
When the couple first started they were in their 50’s and 40’s respectively, as they also stayed in the shop house (upstairs), preparations would start from the moment they closed the shop and work till 4 in the morning just to make enough custards for the next day and on weekends they would work a little harder to make a bit more as the weekends would usually bring more people to the coffee shop.
The couple would usually take turns to take naps after working till the wee hours of the morning, the husband would open up the shop while the wife takes a nap and after everything is set up, the husband would then take a nap and the wife would take charge of the coffee shop.
Back in those days they would use the round ovens, place them out on the Panglima Street (Jalan Panglima) and started baking them. One round oven could only fit about 8 to 16 at one bake, which would explain why they had to work till the early hours.
Caramel custard was sold at 90 cents when it was first sold at Thean Chun. The couple continued making and selling the sweet dessert till they decided to sell the shop to its current owner who has been renting out the shop to Mr. Yip, who took over at the age of 41 continues making caramel custards today but uses a larger oven instead of the round ovens that were used by the couple in those days.
He tells us that he enjoys making the sweet dessert and has retained the staff of Mr. & Mrs. Wong as they are familiar with the way things are done. The only concern / problem he has is the short number of staff he has, to help out as the coffee shop can be really crowded on weekends and the holidays.
He makes the caramel custards at home after he closes the shop at about 5pm, lets it cool down first otherwise either the custard wouldn’t turn out as it should or worst case scenario damages the fridge. He then brings it back to the shop once everything is done by about 11pm to chill.
When he took over in 2011, he was also given the original recipe Mr. & Mrs. Wong used to make their famous Thean Chun ‘Caramel Custard’.
The simple process of Caramel Custard making
The ingredients used in making this sweet dessert are mainly eggs, fresh milk and caramel, when cooking the caramel one must be careful not to burn the caramel otherwise the whole thing would be spoilt. Some places would separate the caramel from the custard and only put them together when served but Mr. Yip says that they put the caramel and the custard together to bake.