Makansutra: Steamy goodness at One Pot
Jalan Benaan Kapal hawker stall offers affordable, restaurant-quality steamboat
I'm reviewing One Pot with a mind to share my thoughts on this retro, forgotten hawker corner of Singapore.
Not just for the nostalgia but also for a seriously good steamboat.
Jalan Benaan Kapal is near the road leading to the Singapore Indoor Stadium and if you are an arena football fan, you'll be familiar with the indoor football halls there.
It faces a green field and is framed by a longkang leading to the Kallang River.
This little 10-stall hawker centre amazes me in so many ways.
Firstly, it is not run by the National Environment Agency (the folks behind more than 110 hawker centres in Singapore) but by the Singapore Land Authority, whose rules differ from NEA's.
Rents are so last century that hawkers there can offer a 50-cent cup of kopi and there is even a young hipster ITE culinary-trained Muslim chef, who hawks crispy chicken rice.
No cleaners are hired and all the hawkers cooperate, to clear the tables and clean the place themselves.
Now that is something to emulate, NEA.
Also noteworthy is skating instructor Brent Tay, who recently set up One Pot, a restaurant-class steamboat stall minus the frills.
His prices are half of those at the fancy places.
A former DJ, Brent sells steamboat meals simply because he likes steamboat.
One Pot is the only stall there that opens at night and he literally has the whole hawker centre to himself.
BASIC SET
There are a mind-boggling 16 items in the basic set, which starts at $28 for two people.
The $48 version, which we had, was good for five and included fish slices, prawns, snow crab sticks (one of the best versions I've had, bought from a Malaysian supplier), beef and pork slices, plus the stall's own hand-made minced meat rolls packed in a plastic "bamboo" holder.
This is how you would make them at home, if you knew how to.
Their fish and pork dumplings in the a la carte menu are supplied by one of the top eateries in Singapore, and are chunky and packed with filling.
This is one of the hawker steamboats to beat in Singapore.
Then there's the soup, which looks milky and ready to be slurped up all on its own.
Brent uses a Japanese bone stock paste to make the broth, and finishing off the collagen-rich soup at meal's end is like an extra-time goal that seals the game.
One Pot
Stall 4, 56 Jalan Benaan Kapal
Opens 6pm to 10pm, closed on Mondays
Tel: 9007 7959
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