We got up early and went to a Katong area. Katong is far apart from the central area of Singapore, and there are no MRT stations in the area. So, we used a taxi to go there. The taxi fare is cheap in Singapore, as described in the previous section, and you can use a taxi without concern.
When we reached Katong, we had kaya toast as breakfast. The kaya toast is a standard breakfast or comfort food for Singaporeans.
The kaya toast is a toast coated with butter and sweet kaya jam, which is produced from coconut milk, and people eat it by dipping it in soft-boiled eggs with soy sauce. The sweetness of the kaya jam matches with the salinity of the soy sauce and they made an exquisite combination. I bet that you must want to eat the kaya toast again after a while, even if you thought I didn’t want to eat it any more just after helping.
A drink drunk together with kaya toast is Kopi, which is a sweet and strong coffee with a lot of condensed milk.
Now, let’s stroll through the town!
Katong is an area where buildings of the legacy of the past, including bungalows and Peranakan houses built in the colonial period, stand; in other words, the Peranakan culture is deeply imbedded.
The buildings called “Peranakan house” are characterized by clear pastel colors and beautiful decorations. The Peranakan houses include a shop house having a store or office on the first floor and a residence on the second floor, and a terrace house used only for living.
The Peranakan houses, which are particularly famous as the terrace houses, stand along Koon Seng Road; I think some people may have seen the houses in magazines. People actually live there and so you can’t see the insides of the houses, but there were many tourists on the road and they took commemorative pictures in front of the entrance of the houses.
We returned from the residential streets to the commercial area. The Peranakan houses seen here are shop houses. There are, of course, modern buildings, but many old buildings remain and their maintenance is well done.
Sidewalks in the shopping streets are narrow but are beautifully decorated.
In Katong, we saw wall paintings drawn on the walls of various buildings as we saw them in other places. Further, we enjoyed funny signboards and decorations in show windows while strolling around the town.
The Peranakan houses is coated with not only pastel colors but also bright red.
In addition, there are Peranakan houses having wall decorations like a lace, of which we didn’t get tired.
Leave a Reply