Everything about the food courts (hawker centres) in Singapore is amazing

In the distant past, both FavorFlav’s Sharon and Delilah visited a hawker’s centre in Singapore, where they were amazed by everything they saw and completely stuffed themselves with delicious food. A place like that is truly a paradise of Asian food, and it is also incredibly important for bringing the community together.

Saved from extinction

The late Anthony Bourdain had a fantastic instinct for food cultures and an inimitable approach and style, and he too was a huge fan of this phenomenon. Among other things, he said that Singapore had, in his view, street food from disappearing by moving all the stalls and stands into covered indoor spaces. Although it was no longer ‘street’ food, this did allow it to continue to exist under current hygiene conditions and requirements.

According to Bourdain, Singapore had understood well that these were often stalls that had been specialising in the same dishes for generations, were exceptionally good at them, and could be preserved in this way. In his view, it might be the only answer to the rise of ‘terrible, generic fast-food chains’.

Everyone is equal while slurping noodles

In addition, the food courts are a wonderful and convivial melting pot of all kinds of cultures. Countless people from different backgrounds come together here from breakfast until late at night, bonding over food, games and music. UNESCO has not overlooked this either, and because these are pillars of Singapore that in themselves form multicultural city-states, where Chinese, Malaysian, Indian and other cultures come together, the organisation has designated the hawker’s centres as official World Heritage. Hooray!

Make a list

So where should you go? In any case, follow in Bourdain’s footsteps and eat prawn noodles at Whampoa in Tekka Food Centre. Other highly recommended places include Newton Food Centre, Maxwell Food Centre, Chinatown Complex, Lau Pa Sat, East Coast Lagoon Village and Gluttons Bay. And be sure to read the FavorFlav article about the exact addresses featured in Netflix Street Food Singapore again!

Also read:

• These are all the addresses featured in Netflix Street Food Asia
• Is this Chinese? Well, no
• Corona hit: why bamboo shoots are going viral in Asia

Sources: The Lonely Planet, Mothership