Isn’t there something beautiful in the simplicity of a Singaporean breakfast? Perhaps, nowadays, with the sudden surge of “all-day breakfast” establishments, one might be compelled to believe that breakfasts are extensive, lavish affairs, with eggs cooked exactly to 62 degrees celsius, with rashers of bacon and delicate, artisan bread, served with French Press coffee. But there’s something about a Singaporean breakfast, that I feel hails back to our humble beginnings in commerce and a self-made nation, with slight colonial influences.

The term “Singaporean breakfast” is very broad, it can refer to the plate of beehoon, or bowls of succulent chwee kueh at a kopitiam. For the working individual rushing to be in the office by eight, maybe a simple char siew pau can do the trick. But there is one kind of breakfast that I’d like to focus on. It is the breakfast commonly served in a set, the kind found in Ya Kun and pretty much most kopitiams scattered around the island.

Think about it. Black coffee, a couple of pieces of kaya toast, two soft boiled eggs. Each component is a testimony of a, shall I say, Singaporean touch to it.

The black coffee, for one, is made by straining the coffee through something that looks like a sock. Who came up with that idea? So simple, but yet so unique. No complex coffee machinery or elaborate setups. Just a sock, hot water, and that’s it.

The kaya toast. Created in a normal home toaster, layered with chunks of butter and kaya, which one would be hard-pressed to find overseas.

And the eggs. Not created by slowly bringing cold water to a boil, not created by using complex temperature-regulating saucepans, but by simply dunking raw, fresh eggs into a cup of boiling water and leaving it for seven minutes.

I dutifully wait out the specified amount of time before fishing the eggs out of the cup and cracking them open with a spoon, revealing the perfect egg yolk and white.

There’s something about it, really. Something that really binds us together as Singaporeans. Where we subconsciously unite as we partake in our Singapore breakfast. Made simply, unassumingly, almost slap-and-dash but working beautifully.

Perhaps the cheesy “Uniquely Singapore” was right after all.

One-off submission: Gordon Chia.