Kaya Toast

Kaya toast is the Singapore and Malaysia kopitiam breakfast: two thin slices of bread toasted over charcoal or in a press, spread with kaya, a coconut and egg jam, and sandwiched with a slab of cold butter, served with two soft-boiled eggs in a saucer and a cup of thick, sweet kopi. Kaya itself is made from coconut milk, eggs and sugar cooked slowly into a thick curd, flavoured with pandan leaf for the green nyonya version or caramelised for the brown Hainanese one. The dish is credited to the Hainanese cooks who worked for British households and in ship galleys in the colonial Straits Settlements and later opened coffee shops, adapting toast and jam to local ingredients. Ya Kun Kaya Toast and Killiney Kopitiam in Singapore, both dating to the 1940s or earlier, built chains on it, and the set with eggs and kopi is now served from hawker centres to airport lounges.