It’s the meal that sets you up for the day, especially when you have hours of sightseeing ahead of you. I am in my home town of Edinburgh and my breakfast of choice would usually be a longed-for Scottish morning roll filled with “proper” bacon from the butcher’s — Ayrshire cut, dry cured and cooked crispy.
But imagine my surprise (and delight) to discover one of my other favourite breakfasts on the menu in a tiny cafe in Canonmills, a 10-minute stroll from the city centre.
Based on the traditional kopitiams found in the Lion City, Singapore Coffee House dishes up authentic Singaporean food incorporating a fusion of Malay, Indian, Chinese and British flavours.
When I say the cafe is tiny, I mean it. There are only four tables of two in a very tight space. When my husband and two daughters arrive it’s full, so we queue in the street until a table becomes available.
Soon, the waiter tells us one table is free. I ask if we can wait until they can fit all four of us in. The reply is yes, but if someone wants the free table before us, they will have to give it away.
The girls graciously offer Andrew and I the free table and it’s not too long before they are ushered inside.
I’m amused by the list of house rules on the wall. Many are as you would expect in any restaurant — no running; no smoking; no littering. Some you would not be surprised to see in Singapore — no chewing gum; no durian. And some would be taken as read (and presumably written with tongue firmly in cheek) — no opium; no singing in public; no swinging of cats.
There are so many of my favourite dishes on the menu, it’s tough to pick just one. Nasi lemak, mutton keema and murtabak are tempting, and it’s hard for me to go past kaya toast and soft egg, but roti canai wins in the end.
And it’s a worthy winner. Two buttery twists of flatbread with the perfect amount of chew, flake and char, served with bowls of fragrant, spicy curry sauce and Nyonya archer — a spicy, sweet and sour pickled vegetable salad that brings great texture and zing to the dish.
I had expected Andrew to order the full cooked breakfast which features one of his favourite Scottish treats — haggis — as well as Indian accents of sambal chilli tomato, spiced potato dumplings, house masala beans and roti prata, alongside the usual bacon, sausage, mushrooms and fried egg. But he too has been swayed by the roti canai.
We are partial to a curry puff when we visit Singapore, and are excited to see a potato, paneer & pea version on the menu. They are obviously popular. As we place our order, we are told today’s curry puffs are almost sold out (they are freshly baked every day, available from 9am, and it’s now 10.30am). There is only one left.
We share, but the crispy spiral pastry, fragrantly spiced filling and generous accompaniment of mango chutney leaves us wishing we had one each.
A perfectly pulled teh tarik tops off an unexpected foray into South-East Asia, and we are now ready for a morning mooching around the Scottish capital.
The Edinburgh Royal Botanic Garden is just round the corner, and despite it being the depths of winter, it’s still worthy of a wander. There are pops of pink in some winter-blooming roses and rhododendrons, and bushes abundant with red berries will give the garden’s many squirrels a tasty treat. The Queen Mother’s Memorial Garden is mostly bare at this time of year, but the Shell House at the end of the garden, which was erected in 2006 to honour the late Queen Mother, is as pretty as ever.
We leave the gardens via the West Gate and make our way through Stockbridge, one of the capital’s best neighbourhoods. There’s a great selection of cafes and independent shops here. We pop into Independent Zebra which stocks interesting gifts, art, jewellery and homewares from artists and makers from across the UK.
Bookworms will love a browse in Rare Birds. The bookshop is dedicated entirely to women’s writing and we find a vast array of genres here.
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