Of Kaya buns and Hainanese cusine

Posted by Sonic under Food, Lifestyle, Reflections
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Vickoo’s post on the Heritage Road Show got me thinking about kaya and growing up in the Beach Road/Liang Seah/Purvis Street area. The corner coffee shop which he mentions is, in my dad’s opinion, the best kaya roti left in Singapore. It’s a hangout that he and his older siblings or our relatives from Anambas Isle go to at least once week. I used to try and have brekkie there at least once a week when I was working around the City Hall area. According to Dad, the kaya kopi junkie (which I have sorta become), the kopi shop is relatively new but always reminds him of a time when the area was teeming with similar styled coffeeshops. He also reminiscences about how the best kaya was made with duck’s eggs.

Image property of the National Archives of Singapore

I grew up in the area; while we didn’t live at Beach Road/Liang Seah/Purvis St itself, my dad’s office (an old shophouse that has since been torn down) was in the heart of it all. I remember hanging out at the shop/office he ran with his 2 older brothers, with its long terrazon counter, being brought to the coffee shops for a tea time treat of piping hot, charcoal grilled kaya toasts by my 4th Uncle. Somehow my mom’s homemade Peranakan kaya just didn’t cut it. The rich, brown Hainanese version by Ah Kao, on Liang Seah Street,a right turn away from the office was the best.

There I had my first taste of Teh-O in a saucer at age 8. It was a big day to be allowed to drink a grown up’s beverage, a rit of passage. Before that, I was known to be the kid from next door who had Green SPot for breakfast or Milo, which where NOT my favourites.

After Ah Gao and the ah kos closed shop, the other alternate spot was a kopi tiam along Mackenzie Road, callled ‘Kang Guan Cafe’. The coffee shop is still there but the original owners have retired and given up running the place. My dad remembers being a teenager and eating there too! Take note, my dad is 79 this year.

Until the Purvis St joint Vickoo mentions came along, there was something missing on the kaya scene. We’re just glad that the kaya revival is back and hope that’s a sign of more yummy old-fashioned Singapore treats coming back!

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