Hawker centers, the reason why I'm going to lose all my cooking skills

I mentioned in the grocery store episode about how eating out is so much cheaper than cooking in. There is only one reason for this, and it's called a hawker center.


A hawker center is essentially a large food court, usually outside, filled with lots of picnic-type tables, surrounded by food stalls. There are some indoor food courts at malls that follow the same concept, but the authentic experience can only be had at the outside ones. Back in the day, they were just street cart vendors that would park all of their carts on one street corner in a neighborhood, much like hot dog guys in New York. The government decided to open the hawker centers to enforce hygiene and prevent food-borne illnesses.

Alright, so you've got easily about 50 stalls, each one selling Singaporean delicacies (which I will visit in depth sometime soon). One will have chicken rice, one will have roasted duck, one will have Indian, BBQ seafood, noodle guy, soup guy, juice, soda, beer, so on, so forth.

You walk along the path, and each stall has a picture menu along the awnings, and when you decide what you want, you find a seat, order, and the stall assistant will bring you your food.






Your whole meal is usually around 5 dollars. And trust me if it ain't some of the best and freshest food you've ever had.

You have to pay for napkins usually, and you eat on a styrofoam plate with plastic forks and spoons. It's very difficult to be ladylike with a plastic fork. I do my best.

They serve msg-laden broth with almost every dish, which i find strange bc it's so hot outside, I don't know why people even want soup. Don't ask me what kind of broth, because it's the water they cook everything in. It generally tastes like hot blah nothing water. Unless they add miso, then it's hot blah nothing umami water.

We live across the street from one of the most notorious hawker centers on the island, Newton Food Center. As you walk up, there are about 8 stall guys that jump on you to come sit at their table. They annoy you until you decide what you want. They don't do that at other hawkers, just Newton. Most of the stalls are all about seafood. There's a large parking lot attached, and I think every night is a car show- we've seen lambos and ferraris. Parking lots are not very common here, so I think thats why.

I've been a bit hesitant about eating some of the local seafood delicacies because they keep the heads on all the shrimps, and all the crabs are alive and you have to pick out the one you want to send to his death. I mean, I can see the chickens faces too, they hang them up with their heads still attached, but I didn't see them waving their little arms at me before I ate them. Poor delicious little guys.

I will follow up soon with an article about the food itself. Hold on to your antacids for that one, it'll be a doozy.


- Cheers to America! Jon & Nikki