If you have considered visiting Singapore, an island city-state in Southeast Asia, there are many things that you should know. First of all, the city isn’t nicknamed Garden City for naught; it’s definitely a green place to visit, literally speaking. Also, it’s extremely clean. If you were to litter, spit or forget to flush a public toilet, you’d likely be fined and might even have your photo published in the newspaper. As a result, the city is probably among the cleanest in the world. Finally, the street food in Singapore is amazing. While you might hesitate at eating something called “street food” in a foreign country, you don’t have to fear while in Singapore.
Street food is no longer sold on the street; instead, merchants sell their food from market buildings, which have electricity and running water. The industry is highly regulated, and the food is served fresh. Hygiene standards must be met, and the government itself has upgraded the markets, called hawker centres. In each of the 120+ hawker centres, you’ll find many stalls; there is a total of about 16,000 stalls, each selling its own delicacies, scattered around the city. As a result, a visitor might find it to be quite overwhelming. After all, how can you decide where to dine?
Here are some tips on how to make these important decisions:
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Ask the locals. Looking for satay, which is mutton, beef, pork or chicken on a skewer, or some other specific food? If you’re also hoping to stir up some potentially controversial conversation with the locals, then turn to the person closest to you and ask for advice. (Almost everyone in Singapore speaks English, so you’ll have no problem with this.) You will undoubtedly get an earful about the best hawker centre stalls to visit! If anyone else is listening in on your conversation, you’ll get their opinion, too.
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Look for the longest line. The theory here is that the stalls with the longest lines must have the best food. Otherwise, who would want to wait in line? If you aren’t sure what you want, just get in the longest line and assume it will be good. Consider visiting the Changi Village Food Centre, Maxwell Food Centre or East Coast Lagoon Food Village.
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Choose one section of one market and see what looks good. With literally thousands of options in the city, you’re going to have to just make a decision at some point. Go into the nearest market, and check out the first half-dozen stalls you see. Take a look at the menus and just pick something. Street food tends to be very inexpensive, so don’t worry if you find that you haven’t chosen a favorite; you can just pick something else next time you’re hungry.
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Utilize technology to help you out. There are websites and even smartphone apps designed to help you make good choices in Singapore street food. One such site, ieatishootipost.sg, is written by a doctor in the city. An app that you might consider downloading onto your iPhone is iEat Hawker, which will help you find specific foods and will even explain what the foods are that you are likely to encounter.
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Be adventurous. At home, you’re not going to have the opportunity to eat frog porridge or fish head bee hoon. You might as well try it while you’re in Singapore! True, you might not like these local culinary delights, but then again, you might!
Popular dishes to try include Hokkien Hae Mee (egg & rice noodles in a stock served with prawns and shrimp, pork belly fried shallots spring onions and fresh lime) Hainanese chicken rice (just as you would expect it is steamed or boiled chicken served on white rice with sliced cucumber;) satay (flame grilled meat skewers served with a spicy peanut sauce, chopped onion, cucumber and rice cakes; Chai Tow Kuay) (carrot cake made with white radishes and rice flour made into cakes and then cut into pieces and servie with soy and fish sauce, eggs, garlic and spring onions) Char Kway Teow (flat rice noodles stir fry with soy sauce, bean sprouts chives and prawn;) and Xiao Long Bao (steamed dumpling soup.)
If you are visiting Singapore, you will not want to miss this part of the experience. You’ll be contributing to the local economy and just might find some new southeast Asian favorites to try to replicate once you get home. Be sure to leave plenty of time for exploring the hawker centres in Singapore.
