KOPI THAT!

How to order coffee Singapore-style

There are more than 3,000 kopitiams (coffee shops) in Singapore, where a coffee will set you back only a little over a dollar – especially if it’s in a heartlands market or housing estate. At big chains such as Killiney Kopitiam and Ya Kun Kaya Toast, you’ll pay more.

How it’s made

In traditional style, the beans are wok-roasted with sugar, margarine and sometimes pineapple skin and maize, to a dark black brown, then ground and brewed with a sock-like cotton strainer in watering can-sized pots.

The aforementioned Killiney and Ya Kun were both started by Hainanese immigrants, in 1919 and 1926 respectively. Today, they have dozens of outlets across Singapore.

A kopi-C is typically made at both venues by heating a cup by pouring hot water into and over it, then adding evaporated milk and sugar, pouring in the brewed coffee, topping it up with a little hot water and serving it with a teaspoon on the side.

How to order

By default, a coffee or kopi (“ko-peeh”) comes with condensed milk and sugar at the bottom of the cup. Or you can ask for:

• Kopi-C: coffee with unsweetened evaporated milk (the C is for Carnation); but they’ll still add sugar

• Kopi gah dai: extra sweet, with both condensed milk and evaporated milk

• Kopi siew dai: less sweet, with less condensed milk

• Kopi gau: for a stronger coffee

• Kopi-O: black, with sugar

• Kopi-O kosong: black, without sugar

• Kopi peng: sweet white coffee with ice

• Kopi-O peng: sweet black coffee with ice

• Kopi-O-kosong peng: unsweetened black coffee with ice

To really sound like you know the lingo, order: • Kopi sua – two regular coffees

What to eat

A standard breakfast accompaniment to kopi is the Hainanese-Western hybrid of half-boiled eggs and kaya toast. The idea is to break your own very runny eggs into a bowl and season them to taste with soya sauce. Kaya is coconut jam made from coconut, eggs and sugar.