Beancurd with Taro Was passing by Maxwell Food Centre and noticed yet another couple of new stalls that seemed to have moved into the food centre rather recently. One of the newest additions to the food centre would be One Soy 一豆 which had moved into one of the rows closer to the exit of Maxwell MRT Station that leads up to Maxwell Food Centre. Located in the row across from the iconic Tian Tian Hainanese Chicken Rice and also being situated right opposite of Welcome Ren Min (which is best known for its craft beers on tap), One Soy takes over the former premises that is left vacant from the now-defunct SweeT.Rex before its move to International Plaza (this new location of SweeT.Rex has also since closed its doors; its social media pages points towards an address in Clementi instead). Being an establishment that specialises in soy beans products, One Soy’s stall front does seem to suggest that the establishment may not be entirely new — a search on Google seems to suggest an existence of another stall at Sims Vista Market & Food Centre. One can find the usual suspects of similar stalls here at One Soy; these include soy-based and grass jelly drinks albeit with an interesting twist (think Taro Soy Milk, Watermelon Soy Milk etc.), as well as soy beancurd-based desserts that also includes a Grass Jelly Bowl as well. Patrons do get to opt for their preferred level of sweetness for their drinks and desserts and One Soy, though the number of types of toppings available at One Soy are a little bit on the limited end.
One of the reasons why we had decided to give One Soy a try right after finding out that they have opened at Maxwell Food Centre is due to the fact that the stall does serve up a Beancurd with Taro — there are quite a number of soy beancurd stalls located near or within the Central Business District; that being said, we had only comes across soy beancurd that is served with taro paste at one other location, being the Whampoa Soya Bean that is located at Chinatown Complex Food Centre which is not to be confused with the more commercially-run and similarly-named establishment all around the island. We visited One Soy slightly before noon to avoid the lunch crowds at Maxwell Food Centre, though it does seem that the stall has yet to prepare the taro paste; we were told by the staff at the stall that there would be a waiting time of around 15 minutes before they could serve the Beancurd with Taro up.
When we returned to collect our order, we were asked on the level of sweetness — we specified it to be at normal level. Digging straight into the Beancurd with Taro, we did notice how the Taro is being drenched above the soy beancurd here. The soy beancurd’s texture is on-point; smooth, silky and soft — the plastic spoon effortlessly gliding through the beancurd with every scoop. At the usual level of sweetness, there seems to be enough sugar syrup to go with the entire bowl of soy beancurd of this were to be the Traditional Beancurd that comes with simply syrup and beancurd. With the taro paste added though, we would probably recommend opting for less sugar instead for the earthiness of the taro paste to better pull through along with the sugar syrup and the beancurd — the taro paste here being sufficiently dense and smooth, and interestingly features chunks of taro that is soft-to-the-bite that provides a textural contrast. Considering how the prices of the all the items are below $4, One Soy does seem to be one stall serving up a refreshing take of soy-based drinks and soy-based desserts in town!
