Firsthand: Community is a new series by Mothership, where we explore the spirit of community in Singapore through in-depth articles and videos.
From Tampines to Tuas, we’ll investigate the untold stories of the different neighbourhoods in Singapore — firsthand.
Just past the gleaming Singapore Sports Hub and its towering spotlights lies a small part of Singapore that's been largely untouched for decades.
In a small, gated compound smaller than a football field, you'll find a row of two-storey shophouses, a tiny parking lot, and what might be Singapore's smallest food centre.
The entrance from the main road of Jalan Benaan Kapal, leading into the Jalan Benaan Kapal Food Centre. Image via Lean Jinghui
The Jalan Benaan Kapal Food Centre. Image via Lean Jinghui
It takes less than one minute to walk from end to end, and the surfaces of its low ceiling are scruffy and off-white – what you'd imagine of a place from a bygone era.
Image via Lean Jinghui
Image via Lean Jinghui
According to Remember Singapore, the Jalan Benaan Kapal Food Centre was constructed in 1968 to cater to the area's hundreds of shipyard workers.
The shipyards have relocated, and while nearby warehouses have been converted into popular futsal and floorball courts, they do not attract a similar volume of customers as before.
The Cage and RED Quarters. Image via Lean Jinghui
Yet, the food centre continues to receive a pretty regular stream of loyal visitors.
About half of the 10 food stalls within the food centre are open when I arrive one weekday morning, and already, the centre has drawn a healthy breakfast crowd.
Image via Lean Jinghui
Image via Lean Jinghui
The customers there comprise a mix of office workers, taxi/Grab drivers, and even a few CISCO security officers. Most seem to already know what they want to order before they arrive – which makes me think that these are regular patrons.
I spoke to two of the younger-looking customers I saw – Luke, 22, and Shawn, 20 – who shared that they have been visiting the Jalan Benaan Kapal Food Centre for the past three to four years.
Both national triathletes, the duo explained that they enjoy having their breakfast at the coffeeshop after training at the nearby Singapore Sports Hub.
For Luke, the appeal above all lies in the coffeeshop's affordable prices, "a lot cheaper" than other nearby options.
Despite the impact of inflation over the years, the prices of the kopi and breakfast sets have been kept more or less the same, elaborated Shawn.
Even after a recent price increase, the kaya toast set with hot kopi is priced at just S$2.80 (up from S$2.50). The same set with iced coffee is now S$3.30 (up from S$2.80). Image via Lean Jinghui
The food centre's mode of operations is clearly old-school – not just in terms of its wallet-friendly prices, but also through the bond the hawkers appear to share with their patrons.
At Kang Siang Coffee Stall, Quek Soon Kok, the genial owner, and his son, Robin, recognise their regulars and know their orders by heart.
They're so familiar that they can begin to prepare orders once they see those customers arrive.
Uncle Quek and his son, Robin. Image via Lean Jinghui
The surrounding area has undergone a massive facelift over the years, but the coffeeshop still looks the same.
Quek's stall is one of two coffee stalls in the food centre, and is one of three stalls that has been around since the food centre's inception in 1968.
Uncle Quek
Quek, the second-generation owner of Kang Siang Coffee Stall, has worked at the Jalan Benaan Kepal Food Centre for most of his life – over a 55-year period.
The 70-year-old started helping out at the stall at age 15.
Back then, there were a lot of shipyard workers who would patronise the food centre.
Sometimes, in order to boost business, Quek shared that he would hawk kopi along the ships docked at the shipyard for repairs, and even climb on board to sell kopi to the workers.
"It’s scary because you’re standing on these wooden planks as you sell the kopi, and below the ship – five to six floors down – it is just all steel. It was very dangerous."
Image via Remember SG website; Photo credit by NewspaperSG.
In the early 1980s, the Jalan Benaan Kapal ship repair companies were then relocated to other sites following their lease expiry, and business died down for several years.
During this period, Quek went elsewhere to make a better living, but returned in the early 2000s when business picked up again following the construction of the KPE, to help his parents who were getting older in age.
Quek then decided to take over the family business so his parents could retire, rejecting the option of shutting down the stall because it had been the "first and only stall" that his family had ever set up.
Quek added that they had also grown close to many of the stall's regulars over the years, with some customers having visited the stall for decades.
"So I stayed. They have eaten here since young, after playing around in this neighbourhood. They drank our kopi growing up, and they still come back to eat here now."
Keeping affordable prices for regular customers
Quek has thus tried to keep the prices of his kopi-o (now S$0.80) and kopi (now S$0.90) as low as possible over the years, to ease the burden for his long-standing customers, a lot of whom are older in age.
Milk, in particular, is now very expensive, said Quek, with the cost having increased by three times compared to last year.
“So no choice, we increased the kopi cost lor,” he said.
According to Quek, some customers had actually been nice enough to ask if he would be increasing his kopi prices since January. At that point, he decided against it.
Quek eventually increased his kopi price by S$0.10 in April after finding it hard to sustain the business with the most recent increase in cost of ingredients.
Quek and his wife earn just enough to tide them over each month – about S$2,000-S$3,000 a month, before factoring in their monthly rental cost of around S$700.
"Can survive can already lah. Now that our kids are grown up, we have less of a financial burden already.
Because most of our customers are old, we cannot increase our costs too much. They are working too. "
12-hour work days
The kopi stall's operations are still anchored by Quek and his wife. Their son, Robin, 39, also frequently heads down after work to help out too.
The elderly Quek usually comes in as early as 6am in the morning every day, so that he can open the stall at 6:30am and greet the stall's first customers.
Throughout the morning, it's then non-stop toiling at the back of the stall for Quek – until he knocks off at about 6:30pm in the evening.
A believer in hard work, Quek rarely has rest days.
But he quipped that working at the drinks stall actually used to be a lot tougher back in the past: "We'd need to ride our bikes here about 4am to boil water with coal gas. It was hard waking up."
Now that Quek is older, the challenges lie more with the physical stamina needed for the job, which involves standing for hours on end.
I later learn it's why Robin was around when I first visited the stall, as Quek's usual assistant – his wife – had recently undergone a leg surgery to treat varicose veins due to prolonged standing.
Working at the drinks stall is swelteringly hard work.
Robin explained that the back of the stall can be very stifling, as one has to continuously brew kopi or teh in close quarters to boiling hot water within a confined environment.
"So you go in sauna for two hours then come out. Sure sweat a lot one."
Quek making a cup of iced kopi.
Maintaining the kampung spirit
What keeps Quek going every day seems to be the familiarity of a work routine honed over 55 years, and the close relationships formed with his regulars.
Even on Sundays when business gets a bit slower, Quek still opens his stall, as he very much enjoys getting to catch up with his longtime customers even if he only ends up earning about S$10+ for the day.
Quek explained that the food centre is very much "like a kampung".
"Everyone is great. Sometimes, our customers will even dabao food for us, because we're so busy, and they scared we have no time to eat. Our customers very good one."
According to Robin, who has been helping out at the stall since age eight, a group of private hire drivers host weekly meet-ups at the food centre, and can sometimes be seen sitting around and chatting till the wee hours of the morning.
Robin added that there was also a traffic police officer they had been particularly close with, who would regularly make trips down from as far as Jurong, in order to continue drinking Quek's coffee.
The officer had patronised their stall for 40 years before he eventually passed on.
Robin shared that the officer had always looked after him, and would often bring him out when he was younger too.
"I miss him lah, it was good memories."
This sense of community also extends to the hawkers that occupy the Jalan Benaan Kapal Food Centre.
Robin has fond memories with the children of other stallholders — of swimming in the Geylang River as a child, as well as catching prawns, crabs, and fishes for dinner together as their parents manned the stalls.
"It's quite fun over here. All the people here are quite kind," he said.
One customer who happened to be drinking kopi when we visited told us that he has been visiting Quek's stall for over 50 years.
"I'm already almost 70 this year. I used to work in the shipyards, and now I work in the area as a cleaner.
I still cycle over to drink their kopi. I'm used to it already."
An uncertain future
Quek told us that he will probably retire once the Jalan Benaan Kapal Food Centre shutters for good.
Although the Jalan Benaan Kapal shophouses have been spared from redevelopment works for now, Quek observed that the surrounding Stadium area has already been significantly reworked over the past few decades.
It's why he speculates that it will not be long before his coffeeshop gets gazetted for redevelopment as well.
This makes sense, given that the government has also announced plans to transform Kallang into a sport, entertainment and lifestyle precinct by 2030 — plans that are well underway.
Like many other second-generation hawkers, Quek does not hope for Robin or his other child, a daughter, to take over, pointing to the challenges in sustaining the business.
Quek at the food centre, before closing, at the end of the day.
While the future is uncertain, Quek shared that he continues to hold on to a few key "philosophies" to live life by.
In running the 55-year-old business, Quek shared that he has learnt that the most important thing is to "be nice and treat other people well" — in particular, one's customers.
"But we also must make coffee that tastes decent enough. If you anyhow, one day the kopi so thick and another day it is so thin, who will want to drink?"
It is perhaps this consistency and dedication, toward both operating the kopi stall and connecting with his customers, that keeps the quiet food centre so popular and well-loved among its loyal customers.
@firsthand.ms One of the smallest hawker centres in Singapore. #tiktoksg #fyp #storytime ♬ Ocean View - Gregory David
Have something even more interesting going on in your neighbourhood? One-up us at firsthand@mothership.sg.
Firsthand is a new content pillar by Mothership, featuring in-depth stories about people and their issues.
Top images via Mothership