Malaysian Kaya Butter Toast with White Coffee

Toast with Kaya and Butter

by Old Town Coffee, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

It was an early morning at Kuala Lumpur International Airport, and I was on the hunt for some breakfast and coffee. I decided to stop in at Old Town Coffee, a popular Malaysian coffee chain, for my breakfast.

I ordered toast with kaya and butter and a white coffee, but since I had no idea what "kaya" was, I was in for a bit of a food adventure!

Malaysian white coffee and kaya butter toast in Kuala Lumpur

Kaya, it turns out, is a type of traditional Malaysian jam made from coconut, egg, and sugar. It's a popular Malaysian spread, and is sweet and rich, and tastes great on toast.

What was super interesting to me was how they served the butter. I was expecting it to be melted or spread on the toast. Instead, small strips of cold butter were sliced and sandwiched between two pieces of toast. The texture was odd; I'm really not used to eating cold butter. However, the salty richness of the cold butter did go really well with the sweet smoothness of the coconut jam.

kaya butter toast in Malaysia

And of course the breakfast was made complete by a delicious cup of sweet and rich iced white coffee!