Kaya

This is the third Cabramatta supermarket we’ve been in… surely this one will have kaya?

Trying to think of the advice I was given in the Masterchef chat. Look for it in a jar, not a can… or was it the other way around? Brown is better than green, because the green is just food colouring. And that’s all I’ve got.

I’d never even heard of kaya before reading food blogs. I may not be able to eat it in Malaysia – and I’m not willing to spend so much time cooking something I’ve never experienced – but shopping in Cabramatta? That’s fun!

Browsing the shelves… dried foods… teas… noodles… canned vegetables… where is this kaya?

“Is this it?”

Turning. The Husband points to a jar I just walked past. A jar, score! But the insides are decidedly green.

Pick it up, look at the ingredients. Lots of coconut… no pandan in the list. Just chemicals.

Well, tasting the fake version will get me on my way at least.

***

Spreading it thick on toast. Super thick. I should have thick gobs of butter with it… but I can’t quite stomach that! Also, no eggs. I’m in a hurry!

The green paste is thick and grainy, as if there are tiny crystals mixed inside. It looks like lemon butter and moves the same too. It smells headily strong of coconut, fresh rather than dried.

Bite. The crunch of the toast is muffled by the thick mattress of kaya. It tastes new. Not just coconut, though that’s the primary flavour (particularly in the after taste). Not just sugar, even while being sweet. Can’t be pandan, since there isn’t any in the jar! Perhaps it’s the egg that turn it into something else. Whatever it is, it makes my mouth water at the next bite.

Normally I just eat two slices of toast. With kaya, I eat three.

***

Time for a white-girl method of eating kaya. With vanilla ice cream.

Two big spoonfuls of the kaya, plops of translucent green against the creamy pale dessert.

Mashing it all together into a soft-serve of coconut kaya swirl. The gritty texture spreads into the milky smoothness until it is all as one.

Resting it on my tongue to melt. The extra sweetness of the ice cream dials the coconut down. I find the combination of cool and wet more pleasurable than the hot crunch of the toast.

This sugar rush is going to keep me up for hours! I don’t care. Forget kaya for breakfast, give me kaya for dessert!

Rating:

Specifics: Glory brand kaya, bought in Cabramatta