Imagine an outdoor food court with dozens of stalls selling everything from noodles to roast chicken to stir-fry to steamed crab to authentic Indian curries. Imagine that it’s so cheap that $10 buys more food than you can possibly consume. Now imagine that it’s right next to your house. The only question is – would you ever eat at home again?
I’m talking about hawker centres, the marketplaces where the streetside eateries that are traditional across much of Asia are shoehorned into dozens of little stalls. They’re vaguely like a food court in an Australian shopping centre in that you buy from a counter and eat at communal tables. But at a hawker centre the shops are tinier, the food is often considerably more upmarket, and generic fast-food chains are nowhere to be seen.
are particularly associated with Singapore, where they seem to be found in just about every neighbourhood. Historically, the area had many street vendors, but as the city-state developed, the government relocated them into centralised covered facilities to improve hygiene. Furthermore, much of Singapore’s housing is public, and generally takes the form of high-rise apartment blocks, offering the perfect density to give hawkers a stream of regular custom.
Consequently, most Singaporeans have one of these centres within reach. There’s one at Changi Airport that’s popular with those stopping over – and there are even . The public can eat there, too, as long as you know where to look.
The most famous Singapore hawker centre, though, is surely , a glorious 19th-century edifice in the heart of what Singaporeans call the ‘Downtown Core’. Originally built as a market for uncooked food, its wrought iron filigreed halls now host the full spectrum of multicultural Singapore’s cuisine. Of course, given Singapore’s year-round warm climate, there are no walls, meaning that you can always enjoy an outdoor dining ambience.
The most fun way to eat at a hawker centre is with a big group so you can create your own fusion cuisine by mixing and matching from different stalls. For instance, you might like to try Malay-style kway teow stir-fried noodles or chicken satay, Cantonese roast pork, Thai or Vietnamese stir-fry, Indian curries with roti paratha flatbread, a Taiwanese hotpot and probably the most famous dish of all – Hainanese chicken rice. Just be aware that the ubiquitous ‘’ is in fact made of rice and radish – but it’s delicious nevertheless.
Other cities in Asia have similar facilities. Hong Kong visitors reeling from high hotel rates can visit the ‘’ across the island for a selection of cheap and cheerful stalls. These days some of them have reviews that many formal restaurants would envy. I’ve tried and failed to book for the ever-popular on a number of occasions – not an experience you’d usually expect in a food court! And neither is their menu of European classics.
Forget linen tablecloths and fancy service – if the food’s good, I reckon you can’t beat the atmosphere of a buzzing cooked food market, the kind of place where finding a free table is a lot like panning for gold and you can tell what’s best to order because it has the longest queues.
Wong Nai Chung cooked food market in Hong Kong. (Picture: Dom Knight.) Source: Dominic Knight
As Australians move into higher-density housing, I hope we too embrace the hawker centre. Our inner cities are full of restaurants that also do takeaway, and an increasing number of backpackers on bicycles deliver food. And noodle markets are popular at outdoor events. But the idea of permanent centres where you can duck out to eat delicious freshly cooked food on little plastic tables is still a rare one.
In Hong Kong and Singapore, the hawker centres are government-run, and have managed to foster many stalls that are famous across those small islands. Many locals dine at their local hawker centre several nights a week. Perhaps our own town planners could create some spaces where we can eat a cheap dinner alongside our neighbours?
