Singapore’s Love for Kaya Toast
Considered one of the components of a traditional Singaporean breakfast, kaya toast goes well with kopi (coffee) or teh (tea).
Kaya toast is basically two slices of soft white bread, toasted crisp and sandwiching the magical kaya spread and two slices of butter.
Kaya toast was originally sold by Hainan immigrants (yes, the same folks that we credit for the Hainanese chicken rice). As most of these Hainan workers worked as cooks for the British, they served what the British preferred – toast. However, fruit jams were quite expensive, so the locals replaced the spread with kaya.
What is KAYA, you ask?
Kaya is basically a glorious concoction of coconut milk, eggs, pandan and sugar. There are two major variations of kaya.
One is brown (or orange) in colour. This variant is the original Hainanese kaya that is made with caramelised brown sugar. Hainanese kaya is normally sweeter. Another variant is the green kaya, which is the Nonya-style kaya, which has a strong pandan taste due to pandan liquid.
The ingredients may be simple, but creating kaya is no easy feat. Eggs and sugar are whisked into the coconut milk, then the mixture is cooked with pandan leaves -- while constantly stirring at that.
Kaya Fix
On circuit breaker but want to have that Ya Kun Kaya-toast? Why not try making your own kaya toast. This is of course, with the assumption that you have a kaya in a jar (and not have to make the ingredients and cook the spread for an hour and a half).
Ingredients:
- bread
- kaya
- butter
Preparation:
1. Toast your bread. You may keep or cut out the crust. Your choice.
2. Cut the bread into 2 rectangular pieces.
3. Spread a generous heap of kaya jam on the bread.
4. Add a slice of cold butter.
And there you go. Pair it with kopi or kopi-c if you like and enjoy your traditional Singapore breakfast (or snack).
