Our Singapore insider with some tips on the new, the kitschy and the just plain delicious on the city-state’s hawker dining scene.
For most Singaporeans, the hawker centre (an alfresco complex of individual stalls, each specialising in a single dish) is the ultimate foodie pit-stop to grab a quick, cheap but delicious lunch or dinner, or simply to refuel on the way home after work.
At last count, there were more than 120 centres dotted around the island in quarters like Tanjong Pagar, Serangoon Gardens and Tiong Bahru. But in recent years, a smorgasbord of air-conditioned, up-market hawker centres have opened in glossy shopping malls and hotels.
The latest kid on the block is the sprawling Food Hall in the basement of the new Ion shopping mall. Here, take your pick from a greedy grab of local and international street food – from Japanese seafood fritters and fluffy naans, to Cantonese barbequed pork and ice kachang (snow cones of sweet corn, condensed milk and rose syrup). Down the road, at the Meritus Mandarin hotel’s Chatterbox (333 Orchard Road), the best-selling item on the hawker menu is the silky Hainanese chicken rice. The greatest proponent of this new trend is the Food Republic group. Each of its hawker centres turns the hawker meal into an absorbingly kitsch themed experience from the décor right down to the crockery and uniforms of the service crew. Its outlet at VivoCity (03-01, 1 HarbourFront Walk), for instance, channels a charming nostalgic 1930s village vibe, while serving up creamy laksa noodles and crisp fritters filled with red bean paste.
Our tip: bypass the fancy restaurants and hit up your concierge for the nearest hawker centre.
Photo: "me gerong" from Flickr Creative Commons, user yummiec00kies.
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