The Pinnacle@Duxton – the bird’s eye view at Singapore
Lego-like containers are piling up in a tiny port. Mini-cars speed up in webs of mini-roads. Red roofs of...
It is still early. Too early for the crowds gathered tightly around all available tables. It is too early to reserve a table with a packet of tissues.
It’s still early, and just a few stalls are open, yet under the roof of the hall already flows a pleasant aroma of strong coffee and evaporated milk.
I take place at the table under the ceiling fan. Its wings stir the hot air, making it slightly more bearable. Before me, there is breakfast. Coffee in a sticky with condensed milk glass. Eggs, in a metal cup full of hot water, reach their perfect, half-boiled consistency. A pile of sweet kaya toasts towers on a plastic plate. I start to peel an egg and struggle with a seemingly easy task, trying simultaneously to pour a drop of salty soy sauce inside. Behind my back ‘an auntie’* – a stall owner – is shouting something in Hokkien. She yanks breakfast out of my hands, pours the content of an eggshell on the separate plate, adds soy sauce and vigorously mixes everything together. Amused, she looks at me quizzically: ‘You see how it’s done? You see?’ Crash course on how to prepare a breakfast – checked.
Types of coffee in Singapore kopitiam
Kopitiam in Malay/Hokkien: kopi – coffee, tiam – shop) is a shop offering drinks and a simple breakfast. As the name suggests, the shop is undividedly ruled by coffee prepared in all possible ways. You can ask for your favourite glass of kopi in kopitiam:
- Kopi Peng – ice coffee
- Kopi Si – with evaporated milk,
- Kopi Siew Dai – less sugar,
- Kopi O – black
- Kopi O Kosong – black without sugar,
- Kopi Kao – thick,
- Kopi Poh – thin.
Those who must set caffeine aside can order “teh” – tea. It also is served in all the ways mentioned above. Both drinks are available as ‘takeaways’ where a liquid is poured into a plastic bag with a stylish handle, made of an elastic cord. Just grab a straw and you can enjoy a portable coffee or tea.
Standard breakfast in kopitiam consists of half-boiled eggs and toasts with kaya jam, made with a coconut milk base with eggs and sugar. Some shops offer other snacks like:
Rojak – a type of fruit and vegetable salad with croutons, bean sprouts, boiled potatoes, cucumbers, apples, pineapples – anything that can be found in the fridge; served with sweet peanut sauce; locals use a term ‘rojak’ to describe Singapore – a mixture of many different ‘ingredients’ (culture, ethnic groups, languages) forming one ‘dish’ (perfectly functioning nation).
Popiah – a kind of spring rolls filled with boiled soy sprouts, turnips, carrots, tofu, shallots, nuts and sometimes pieces of omelette; served with a sweet sauce, chilli or shrimp paste.
* Auntie – a very informal term used in relation to an elder lady. Similarly, uncle is a term related to a male. You can address a female from a hawker stall as an ‘auntie’ – especially the one who serves beer, ‘uncle’ – a taxi driver, especially the one who discuss foreign history and politics. Highly not recommended to address your boss as auntie/uncle.
Know before you go
Before the visit to the food court, you should invest in a packet of tissues. In Singapore, it is a standard tool to book a table.
Even in the most crowded hawker centre, no one dares to take place reserved this way.
Hawker centre / Food court – smaller or larger, semi-open halls which house few food stalls, offering cuisine from different countries: Malay, Hokkien, Indian, etc.
They characterise with good quality, generous portions and ridiculously low prices.
Monday to Friday; early morning till pre-lunch time – 06:00 – 10:30.
Some remain open throughout the day. Some are closed on weekends.
Breakfast set: coffee, eggs, kaya toasts – 3.50SGD (2.50USD)
Rojak / Popiah – 3SGD (2.20USD)
Prices may vary slightly depending on location.
![[English below]
Trzydniowa Japonia w pigułce rozniosła nam głowy. Kilka lat później przeprowadziliśmy się do niej na sześć miesięcy. Kraj przez pół roku konsekwentnie i nieodwracalnie przepalał nam styki. Dlatego nie zdziwiliśmy się wcale, kiedy kilka lat później w Wołgogradzie po meczu Polska-Japonia kibice naszych rywali zabrali się za porządkowanie stadionowych trybun. Co kiedyś mogłoby wywołać uśmiech politowania i wymowny gest posuwisto-zwrotny palcem wskazującym w stronę czoła, dziś było tak oczywiste, że aż trzeba się było dołączyć. Wcale nas nie zdziwiło, że przed stadionem rzesze japońskich fanów gratulowało Polakom tak żarliwie, jakbyśmy wcale nie grali o pietruszkę. Przy tym wszyscy byli tak urzekająco szczęśliwi naszym… hmm… szczęściem, jakby sami właśnie wygrali puchar. Wymianom szalików, koszulek nie było końca. Andrzej wrócił chyba z trzema. W tym jedną vintage z rozgrywek w latach dziewięćdziesiątych ubiegłego wieku. Co prawda juniorska, ale przynajmniej na jedno z nas pasuje.
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Three-day Japan, in a nutshell, blew our minds. A few years later, we moved in there for six months. The country has been consistently and irreversibly frying our brains for half a year. That's why we weren't at all surprised when, a few years later, in Volgograd, after the Poland-Japan match, our rivals' fans started cleaning up the stadium stands. What once might have caused a smile of pity and a back-and-forth gesture with the index finger towards the forehead was now so obvious that we had to join in. We were not at all surprised that in front of the stadium, crowds of Japanese fans congratulated the Poles as passionately as if we were not playing for honour at all. And everyone was so charmingly happy with our… hmm… victory as if they had just won the cup themselves. There was no end to the exchange of scarves and T-shirts. Andrzej came back with at least three, including one vintage from the 1990s. It's a junior size, but it fits at least one of us.](https://www.peryferie.com/wp-content/plugins/instagram-feed/img/placeholder.png)