I would like to salute the Hainanese from coming to the shores of Singapore and bringing the Nanyang coffee culture to Singapore. Many Hainanese worked for the English during the British colonial days and in the process adapting the art of cooking beef and the coffee roast. Many of these business minded Hainanese started coffee shops which could be when our Nanyang butter roasted coffee was born.
Unlike, the espresso from Italy, the coffee seeds here is roasted with butter. There were flashbacks from pieces of my memories as a child, witnessing the roasting being done in a back lane of a shophouse coffee shop, opposite Sim Lim Towers. The coffee seeds are placed in a big wok, and slabs of butter is being added and then roasted over wok heat with a spatula, like roasting chestnuts. The roasted coffee seeds are spread out over a big shallow rectangular wooden tray and then sunned for some time before they were being "harvested" for use in the coffee shop. Nowadays, roasting are done in factories and the coffee seeds are readily available for order. Nowadays, most coffee shops do their own roast anymore.
YY Kafei Dian is a Hainanese coffee shop that is located in the corner of Purvis Street (junction of Purvis Street and Beach Road) and conveniently beside a Hainanese clan association along Beach Road. I have been tasting their coffee, not frequently, but already many times for the years I've been living near the area. They serve good Hainanese coffee that suits my taste.
This is the standard S$2.90 set of breakfast set. Two half boiled eggs, a bun toast with kaya and butter and the Hainanese coffee.
While many served the kaya toast that
Ya Kun had made famous around the region (Sliced of bread cut into squarish sizes), YY Kafei Dian did their toast with mini buns. The bun, itself, is slightly sweetened and soft. The bun without the kaya and butter would already be good enough for me to dunk into the half boiled eggs before plonking them into my mouth. In the photo, the bun was halved and then have the inside faces toasted to a slight brown and crisp. The kaya and butter were introduced and then sandwiched.
This is the "unstirred" half boiled eggs with a little drizzle of dark soya sauce and a sprinkle of pepper. The eggs are mixed up and then slurped with the little teaspoon that was provided or another way to enjoy the eggs is to take big mouthfuls while holding the saucer.
This is my way of savouring the kaya butter bun and the half boiled eggs. I like to dunk the bun into the egg mix and then eat it. The taste of the salty butter, the sweet kaya and the tasty egg all mixed in a slurry inside my mouth. My tongue capturing every individual taste as the ingredients contact my taste buds.
Apart from the breakfast set, during lunch time, you'll notice some office ladies asking for their homemade donuts. These homemade donuts are soft rings of dough, I mean very soft, sprinkled with a sugary coat. It's simple but "very softly" addictive.
Address : 37 Beach Road #01-01
Country : Singapore
