Jalan Benaan Kapal Food Centre

I cannot feature this stall without mentioning their kway.

Unlike other stalls, their kway comes in larger sheets but is super thin, making it super easily to slurp up with the light, herbalicious broth.

The kway is usually secondary to me but I never fail to order a 2nd bowl whenever I am here. And here's a tip, you can actually order a large bowl of kway for $1. If you think it's just a few more slices of kway in the same bowl, you will be in for a surprise as the large bowl is the bak chor mee sized bowl topped the brim with kway and broth.

Their kway chap is tasty, delicious and affordable - the epitome of a hearty excellent meal.

Make kway chap the reason for the trek to this ulu food centre and you definitely will not regret it.

Runned an elderly couple, they serve economic beehoon in the early morning and their kway chap is only available from around 10 am. You can choose specific ingredients or combo sets based on the number of pax.

For approx $20, you get a kway chap set for 3 with an extra portion of big intestines and bowls of kway. Be prepared to wait though as the auntie takes some time to nicely cut up and plate the innards. Each combo set comes with generous servings of big intestine, pork belly, tongue, skin, egg, tau pok and fish cake.

The soy sauce based braising sauce is savoury, hearty and comforting with a nice hint of spices such as star anise. I was actually surprised by how clean and light it was as most stalls would use a saltier and heavier chap to cover the gamey aftertaste of the pork.

Tbh there is no need for a heavy chap here because the innards were really well cleaned, allowing you to focus on the different textures of the various cuts. The big intestines were one of the best I have ever heard - it was clean tasting with a nice chewy bite and a soft fatty inner lining. The pork belly was tender with a good mix of fatty and lean meats. The tongue is a criminally underrated - it has slightly coarse texture but is chewy and kinda bouncy.

The star of the show for me though is their pig skin. It is glistening, gelatinous and chewy all in one. I suspect this is in part due to how they score the pig skin before cooking. This is without a doubt the best pig skin I have ever had!

Jalan Benaan Kapal Food Centre is a relic lost in time. Located somewhere around the Kallang Sports Hub (it ain't easy to find tbh), it initially catered to the workers in the shipyard nearby which subsequently relocated. It is now located in a gated compound surrounded by futsal and floorball pitches.

It is probably the smallest hawker centre in Singapore and apparently the only one which is not run (but still regulated) by the NEA. The hawker centre has approx 10 stalls and is bookend by two kopi stalls which serve some of the cheapest kopi in Singapore.

We were there in the morning to check out the much raved kway chap but ended up spending the entire day checking out most of the stalls there. The tea and kaya toast pictured here is from Stall 1, the left most stall in the FC which purportedly serves the cheapest cup of kopi in town.

For 70 cents a cup (if memory serves me right), you can 3 cups of decent tea from here for the price of one from any of the big chains in town. The tea is simple, no fuss, old school and a little on the milky side. I'm not a big fan of the kaya toast as the spread is a little thin and bland. That said, I ain't complaining at this price point!

Each toast is grilled over charcoal, and a nice smokiness is apparent in every bite.

Read more: https://www.misstamchiak.com/cheapest-coffee-in-singapore/

Although my firm favourite is #fengjikwaychap at Jalan Batu Hawker Centre, I do make it a point to try “kway chap” from different stalls. More so when they are operated by older hawkers.
Such is the case for this one located inside the not-many-know-it-exists Jalan Benaan Kapal Food Centre. If you go during peak hours, do note you’ll need to exercise patience as the elderly couple takes pride in how they serve their food but are, quite understandably, a little slow in their movements.
I always order a mix of everything for @huatkaliao and myself. Their style of “kway chap” is decidedly “gao” (thick) and that applies to the “zhup” (braising sauce) and bowls of “kway” (rice noodles). The mouthfeel they’ve seemed to aim for is the opposite of Feng Ji’s which is light and clear. I must admit, the heavier textures of stickiness and starchiness have their own old-school appeal which is hard to find these days.
If you enjoy “spare parts”, don’t miss out on this stall’s pig’s tongue and very bouncy pig skin. They do them exceptionally well, in my opinion.

The open-air food court at Jalan Benaan Kapal was somewhere that I have been wanting to visit for years; a spot that is located away in the Stadium/Tanjong Rhu neighbourhood that seems to be a little bit in the middle of nowhere, and carries a vibe that is more Malaysia than in Singapore.

Most people are in here seemingly for the cheap coffee which we had also tried — our bill at Kang Siang Coffee Stall for a Kaya Butter Toast and 2 cups of Kopi and 1 Teh Siew Dai came up to only $2.90; a price that is pretty much unheard of elsewhere. But considering how we had made a special trip into this spot (because a friend drove), we thought it would be good to give another stall a go.

Reading up some reviews, we went for the Nasi Lemak from Warong Mak Esah (Stall No. 9); the Nasi Lemak came with basmati rice, while we opted for a fried egg and chicken cutlet instead of the chicken wing because it was easier to share. The Basmati Rice comes perfuming of a coconut-y fragrance; liked how the grains were not too moist — fluffy, yet fragrant without being heavily “creamy” in terms of the flavour, which we found to be really alluring and not particularly jelak, and all paired well with the sambal which was balance of sweetness and spiciness that is rather manageable for those tolerable to moderate levels of spiciness — carries a rather distinct note of the fragrance of fresh chili that runs at the back of the tongue as well. We were also impressed with the sunny-side-up; nothing of that “plastic egg” (as some may call it) nonsense here, but a proper fried egg with a molten egg yolk that oozes as one pokes through with a fork — pretty much attention-to-detail here that even some economic bee hoon stalls tend to miss. The chicken cutlet may be a little generic; using the garlicky breading that may seem a tad commercial to some, but comes with that satisfying flavour and crunch whilst not being too dry within, while the Ikan Bilis still retains its crunch whilst being just so ever slightly saltish, and without feeling as though it was absorbed in grease.

The Nasi Lemak from Warong Mak Esah is not the best, but it delivers at its price point at $3.50 — each of the elements seemingly being well taken care of, and certainly beats quite a number of other variants offered at other stalls at this price range. The place may take quite a bit of effort to get too if one does not drive — but I do really enjoy that idyllic vibe of the open-air food court; does really bring one back to those simpler times.