How to do breakfast, Singaporean style

Coffee made with a sock might not sound like the most appealing start to the day, but breakfast in Singapore is full of quirks that you just need to go with.

Looking a bit like a tropical fish tank net, you might see a coffee (kopi) sock hanging on the wall of a Singaporean cafe like Killiney Kopitiam (coffee shop). The sock is filled with ground coffee and lowered into a tall silver coffee pot where it brews until it has a serious kick. Hailing from Hainan in the 1900s, the dark brew is poured from a great height to froth things up and dollop of sweetened condensed milk is added.

This standard brew is a kopi-o, but varieties include a kopi-c (sugar and evaporated milk), kopi peng (iced kopi-o) or a kopi guy yu with the addition of butter.

At most kopitiams you can get your coffee in a "set" with kaya toast. This traditional Lion City breakfast can be divisive but, like the sock, just do it. Kaya is sweet pandan jam and it comes sandwiched between super crisp toast with ice-cold chunks of butter. On the side you will get two barely boiled eggs on a small plate (some kopitiams will let you crack your own eggs) to which you add a liberal dose of soy sauce and white pepper. Take your sweet pandan toastie, dip it into the salty, peppery, runny yolks and have a sip of rich, sugary coffee. Repeat.

There are variations like French kaya toast or peanut kaya toast but it is hard to beat the original.

If you are after something spicier, other popular Singapore day-starters include a flaky, buttery roti prata (Indian flatbread) dipped in a small bowl of chicken curry and fried carrot cake (which is really radish cake), chopped on a griddle with egg and soy sauce or nasi lemak (rice and assorted condiments).

Then you just have to make sure you have room for the rest of the day's foodie tourism in a city that knows how to eat well.