Eat What? Seafood Steamboat Hawker Stall @ Serangoon Gardens Food Centre 食什么? 海鲜火锅

Eat_What?_Seafood_Steamboat_Serangoon_Gardens_食什么?_海鲜火锅

Buddy Jason has been going to this new, old school steamboat stall at Serangoon Gardens Food Centre. He liked it, so jio-ed us (rounded us up) to enjoy it with him. It's old school indeed, the way good steamboats were in the 1980s / 1990s. By old school I mean, the steamboat has no gimmicks, relying only on quality ingredients for flavour.

Stall name: Eat What? 食什么?

Address: Stall #43, Serangoon Garden Market & Food Centre, 49A Serangoon Garden Way, Singapore 555945

Nearest MRT: 15 minutes way from Lorong Chuan station

Hours: Lunch & Dinner

Eat What? 食什么? stall #43 is on your right as you enter Serangoon Garden Market & Food Centre. I like the open, airy, spacious design of this hawker centre.

Eat What? 食什么? is a humble, nondescript food stall selling fish soup, fish noodles, and their two signature steamboat sets.

The stall is new and isn't listed on Google Maps at the moment.

The set up is pretty spartan. Just a small canister type gas stove and a steel pot for base soup (only one type - I did say it is old school 😬 ). The base soup is made with pork stock bone, chicken, tee poh, tofu, and vegetables like carrots, tomatoes, etc.

Truth be told, the base soup without any additional ingredients added tasted umami savoury with a bit of vegetable sweetness but at a mild intensity, so it doesn't wow straightaway. It is what the Chinese call cheng cheng 清清 type.

Here's a parade of some of the ingredients we had. We were hosted by Jason, so I am not sure of the total costs eventually. The steamboat sets range from $38 to $98.

We had the $70 crayfish set and had lots of add-ons (at additional cost).

Enough. Let's launch! 🚀

We started by loading lots of stuff into the pot. Personally, I would have just kept to things like fish, seafood, fresh green vegetables, and perhaps fresh pork because the base soup changes taste according what we put into the pot.

A well known computer programming adage came to mind but I shan't mention it 😬

The stall is generous and responsive to requests for soup top ups. So, let it boil 🔥 😄

Five of us, we slowly worked our way through everything Jason ordered 😄 😅

The thing about steamboat is we cook and eat what we like at our own pace. Everyone has his / her different favourites and all can enjoy ourselves together.

Very soon from cheng cheng, the base soup became full bodied, super rich with savoury umami flavours from all the ingredients and seafood that passed through it in the last hour.

If you like old school steamboat, you can give Eat What? 食什么? a try. They have good soup base from natural ingredients and lots of fresh fish, seafood and meat. I like the very casual hawker centre ambiance which is airy and comfortable - perfect for steamboat for 5 pax per table. Prices are competitive. Beers available from the drinks stalls 🍻

Another of my favourite old school steamboat hangout is One Pot at Benaan Kapal hawker centre 👈 click

Of Steam Boats and Battleships

Image of Steam Boat courtesy of Flickr

There is an interesting anecdote shared by Singapore PM Lee Hsien Loong on Facebook in 2015. In 1958, former PM Lee Kuan Yew was on his way back to Singapore from Sarawak. LKY sent a telegram about his impending arrival in Singapore and mentioned "battleship".

LKY actually meant he would like steam boat for dinner but as telegrams at that time were charged according to the number of words used, he used the word "battleship" to represent "steam boat" to save money.

LKY didn't have "battleship" for dinner when he got home that evening as nobody understood what he meant.