I make a pot of kaya ever so often when I feel like it or when I have a couple of hours to kill, which I call Haley’s Comet kaya - rare. But I had to make about 4 litres of that eggy pandan Nonya manna on my recent food promo trip to New York. It was work – slaving and stirring at regular intervals over a pot mixture with an unbelievable amount of eggs, a pile of sugar, thick coconut milk enough to moisturize a whole extended family or to regenerate hair follicles, and a whole bunch of frozen pandan leaves. One stir of the mix every thirty seconds initially, then one every minute eventually, all over low heat, for about two hours! Stir, stir, stir..observe observe, not very different a technique from what these free wheeling Gordon Gecko Wall St types does with their layman customer’s life savings. The difference is, in making kaya, you know exactly when to stop, there is an unspoken regulation on this. One- difficult to overcook, the other, easy to over-rate.

Byron shows off his thick pandan kaya.

And former economist Byron Shoh can vouch for this. As a living example of a banking and business strategist (with stints at Schroeders and Hewlett Packard), turned roti kaya shop entrepreneur, he knows about the market, churn rate, when to hold and when to sell - his own made kaya. When HP decided to merge with Compaq, he gave in to the “tao tiah”(headache) and decided to pursue his Cantonese heritage love for makan. And as there are no rules, he ventured into Hanianese kopitiam territory – he peddled roti kaya in Chinatown as “I observed there were a lot of aunties and uncles just milling around all day long with not much to do. It was a market opportunity and there were not enough roti kaya specialist around”, analysed like a true analyst that he is. So, with a former partner from Seremban, Malaysia, he journeyed there and unashamedly asked an old master at the famous Nanyang coffeeshop how his kaya is made. The old master saw them as strangers but acceded to his request anyway as he has a son happily working in Singapore”. Byron just switch from his gula melaka style to a pandan and cane sugar version for a Nonya twist. The kaya trick - done. Next he asked coffee suppliers how a good local brew is done and they happily, in anticipation of business, shared their secrets with him. He just had to figure out the water temperature and sugar milk infusion trick. The kopi story - done.

So it’s down to the eggs and he methodically arrived at a “cool boiling water for 4 minutes then roll eggs in it for about for 4-5 minutes.”. It works, the yolk was perfectly runny and creamy. The perfect egg - done.

His best-selling orange peel ciabatta

Now, to stand out with a gilt-edge concept. “I think some people may be bored with the regular bread so I introduced Italian ciabatta bread for an added difference.”, so he layered butter onto the hot and crispy Italian bread which absorbed it so well and creamed it with his thick rough green pandan kaya ($2.20 for four pieces). The whole thing comes thick, crusty outside and soft inside, very shiok to eat, unlike the usual thin toast ($1.50). But what I really fell off the chair for was his orange peel ciabatta version ($2.60). The butter, the generous kaya – become mere teasers when the sharp bits of citrussy skin kicks in the mouth. This version comes a little thinner and just as crusty and soft. His ciabattas now accounts for 40% of his bread orders. His coffee, and he admits “must be done by the cranky old man or myself.”, he has come across regulars who will skip the coffee if they are not on duty. “It is very hard to teach a younger generation or foreign staff the “feel” of local coffee.”, believing that if you did not grow up with it, you can only follow the recipe and wonder why. His come minus and any hint of sourness, due to over-brewing, and is smooth and has that nice body of savouriness and roundness.

His regular sets, with coffee, two eggs and toast starts at $3.50 and the ciabatta sets at $4.20 and $4.60 (orange peel ciabatta), way cheaper than the popular competitor’s sets touted at $4.50 for a regular set. And, just for “fun” he also offer Nigella Lawson recipe scones (except I loaded up on the butter department) – all, great food for thought for the budget Shenton Way bankers and traders today.