Stuffed Crab Ball with pulled tea (Credit: Joshua Alvarez)
Kyo Pang, co-owner of the newly opened Kopitiam on Canal Street in Chinatown, is pulling off the rare and improbable. With remarkable concentration, she pours steaming Malaysian tea, teh tarik, from one aluminum pot to the other, lifting her hands above her head to extend the stream of tea. This is what is called “pulled tea” in Malaysia, which is something of a lost art in the Malaysian community in New York.
(Photo: Nicole Disser)
It’s a challenge to think of many communal places in the city where one can find absolute calm, and good luck finding peace and quiet at anything resembling a coffee shop. Someone’s inevitably going to waltz in and play some bad folk music or talk well above normal conversation level about their Master’s thesis in who-the-hell-cares. Enter the newly made-over Ran Tea House. Once mainly dedicated as a private event space, it’s now a very grown-up co-working space by day and venue by night and weekend, complete with a fine selection of teas.