GEORGE TOWN, July 9 — When a hospital cook retired back in 1974, he started a small stall selling soft, sweet, fluffy apom at a coffee shop along Gottlieb Road.

Today, his son Ravindran Subramaniam carries on with his father’s legacy — selling soft, sweet, fluffy apom — but at a different location.

Ravindran’s stall is well-known among locals and other visitors; very often you will see a long queue lining up for the apoms at his stall along Lorong Kucing in Pulau Tikus.

"We have been selling at this location for over 25 years and now, my son is also selling apom manis at the One Corner Café in the mornings and at the Pulau Tikus market at night,” he said.

The Sai Ram apom manis stall, located just outside the New Cathay Coffee Shop, is open every morning from 7.30am until noon.

Ravindran and his wife, Devi, have been manning the apom manis stall for over 25 years at Lorong Kucing.

Ravindran and his wife, K. Devi, man the stall and take turns cooking the apom, or coconut milk pancakes, on mini non-stick woks.

The couple works efficiently as one will take the orders and pack the apoms or serve it to customers while the other does the cooking.

Ladles of the thick, creamy mixture of flour, coconut milk, sugar and eggs are poured into five woks consecutively and then the batter is swirled around to form a thin layer with a soft, spongy centre.

The apom special with an additional egg on top.

The woks are covered for a few minutes and then the apoms are flipped over. It is done when it’s a nice brown colour with crisp edges.

What’s different about their apoms is that they use clay charcoal stoves to cook the apoms.

"We don’t use gas, a lot of other apom sellers have switched to gas but we prefer to use charcoal,” he said.

The stall sells these traditional-style apom plain without any additional flavours or modern fillings.

"Our son, Devan, tried with a few different fillings but he found that our customers prefer the traditional plain apoms so we continue with our traditional recipe,” Ravindran said.

The only extra "filling” they offer for their apoms is to add an egg on top. If the customer is having the egg apom there at the coffee shop, they will serve up it up half cooked with just the right runny consistency for a rich and savoury experience.

"For takeaways, we make sure the egg is fully cooked so that it doesn’t spill over when we pack it for them,” he said.

All the apoms are served on banana leaves and for takeaways, the apoms are placed on banana leaves, wrapped in brown paper before being placed into plastic bags.

Sai Ram Apom Manis Lorong Kucing, Pulau Tikus Time: 7.30am-12pm Closed on Sundays