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The pat of butter didn’t stand an opportunity because it slid throughout the floor of the coconut-custard-slathered toast, surrendering to the heat of the bread beneath. “This is among the few locations left the place they nonetheless toast over charcoal,” my information, Desiree Koh, instructed me as we crunched our kaya toasts at Chin Mee Chin Confectionery.
Opened a century in the past by Hainanese immigrants, who got here to Singapore to work as cooks for the British, this kopitiam ( “nook diner”) is a beloved fixture in Katong-Joo Chiat, Singapore’s most underrated meals neighborhood.
From left: Courtesy of Haig Street Putu Piring; Courtesy of Kway Guan Huat Joo Chiat Popiah
Guests usually skip Okay-JC, as the realm known as. However Koh, a lifelong resident, invitations them to remain awhile and sit right down to Singapore’s greatest breakfast: wobbling soft-boiled eggs, kaya toast, and a frosty “iced Milo dinosaur” (a preferred malt-style chocolate shake).
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A food-obsessed journalist, Koh has been going to the diner since she was a child, “when the grumpy aunties can be barking at us to eat and get out.” Regardless of the forces of gentrification at play within the metropolis, most of the culinary companies alongside the 2 essential drags, East Coast and Joo Chiat roads, have been in the identical households for generations.
From left: Courtesy of Hjh Maimunah; Courtesy of Desiree Koh
“Folks come from throughout,” Koh instructed me. “A 30-minute street journey to eat at a specific place is considered one of our nationwide pastimes—until you reside in Okay-JC, as a result of why would you ever depart?”
Listed below are a few of Koh’s prime spots:
Haig Street Putu Piring
At this 40-year-old stand, within the out of doors hawker heart of the identical identify, caramelized palm sugar is pressed into heat, fragrant rice truffles.
Hjh Maimunah
Head right here for lunch, the place burbling pans of turmeric-gold curry, butterflied fish strewn with pink onions and inexperienced chiles, and dozens of different vivid Malaysian dishes line the triple-decker counter. The workers will heap your picks onto a plate of rice, which you’ll be able to garnish with 5 completely different fire-breathing sambals.
Courtesy of Peranakan Museum
Kway Guan Huat Joo Chiat Popiah
Based by Fujianese immigrants in 1938, this one of many few retailers in Singapore nonetheless making popiah from scratch. They’re full of seafood or greens and numerous condiments (sambals, peanuts, pickled pineapple), and rolled up like burritos.
Chin Mee Chin Confectionery
A basic spot for kaya toast with eggs, and different breakfast delights, open since 1925.
Quickly Quickly Huat
The ultra-flaky, seashell-shaped curry puffs at Quickly Quickly Huat are lifeless ringers for Italian sfogliatelle, although their precise inspiration is the Cornish pasty, from Singapore’s colonial British period. The pies have savory fillings like rooster curry and, my favourite, chili-spiced sardines.
Courtesy of Chin Mee Chin Confectionery
To additional discover the culinary and cultural melting pot of the town, go to the Peranakan Mansion by Straits Enclave. Set in a 1928 shophouse, it shows a group of ornate furnishings, embroidered costumes, and antiques. It gives a window into the tradition of the Chinese language-Malay-Indonesian folks (referred to as the Peranakan) who settled in Okay-JC within the early twentieth century.
A model of this story first appeared within the April 2025 subject of Journey + Leisure below the headline “Savoring Singapore.”
