Singapore hawker centres: Where to find Singapore’s oldest, most authentic flavours
Generations of family recipes keep Singapore’s food culture alive, and with hundreds of hawker centres serving the city’s most authentic flavours, Helen van Berkel suggests tucking in
If it’s good enough for Barack Obama, it’s good enough for me. The former US President created a minor food riot whenever he lauded a dish and rojak is a salad that Obama saw as a “harmonious whole” of Singapore’s racial harmony. So, a serving of rojak was top of my list on a recent visit to the intriguing city-state.
And the best place to find rojak seemed to be a hawker centre. Our guide explained that selling food from a cart on the street was a great way for people to support themselves in a society that has no social welfare safety net. Singapore has about 120 hawker centres, which evolved out of the state’s recognition of the need for hygiene and food safety while encouraging its citizens to be self-sufficient.
Hawker centres are where everyday Singaporeans eat, choosing their favourite dishes from the vast collection of food outlets that edge a forest of tables. Chinese, Indian, Malay and Eurasian – the main cultures of Singapore are reflected in its food as well as its architecture.
Across the road from downtown Singapore’s striking Buddhist tooth relic temple is the Chinatown Complex Market & Food Centre, where we joined other Singaporeans enjoying a Michelin-star-winning cup of coffee from the 1950s Coffee outlet. It was early morning in the complex, but many vendors were already hard at work, including at the Chai Wee stall where we watched thinly sliced cuttlefish being deep-fried and packaged and bought traditional crunchy pig ear biscuits for morning tea.
Many of the stalls specialise in a single dish, usually a closely guarded family recipe brought from the old country and handed down from generation to generation. We learned that “in 1947 grandpa sold ah balling in peanut soup” and today “the grandson continues this craft”. I love that a favourite family dish cooked generations ago now helps to build a better life for sons and daughters. The irony is that those better lives usually involve university degrees and the next generation working elsewhere in the world, rather than continuing the family tradition of running a stall in a hawker centre. The beauty is that the grandchildren often return to the tiny stalls and save the ancient and very closely held recipes from being lost.
From Singapore’s Indian heritage comes fish head curry; the Banana Leaf Apolo on Race Course Rd has been the home of this legendary dish since 1974. The meal is easily big enough for two, but after only a few mouthfuls of the complex savoury, sweet red snapper and gravy, I was pleased not to have to share. It has a pleasant heat to it, balanced with chunks of pineapple and a layered blend of herbs and spices that characterises all of India’s various cuisines. Like so many traditional dishes in Singapore, the exact recipe is a closely guarded secret. Serving the meal on fresh banana leaves was a nice touch.
Inexpensive, convivial and with a smorgasbord of dishes on offer, hawker centres are a big reason why only about 20% of Singaporeans regularly cook at home.
But tourists and locals alike seeking the choices offered by a menu at a sit-in restaurant are also spoiled for choice at Singapore’s many top-rated restaurants. One of those is Gilmore & Damian D’Silva, tucked away in the National Gallery.
When Damian D’Silva was a little boy, he would hang out at the Singapore Supreme Court where his grandfather Gilmore was caretaker. He also grew up watching his grandfather prepare recipes hundreds of years old and handed down from generation to generation. Now, Damian D’Silva is a chef, serving family recipes in a Eurasian fusion restaurant in the heart of the spectacular former Supreme Court building – now the National Gallery. Outside are the classical cupola and imposing pillars of a colonial structure of state; up the broad steps, our footsteps tip-tapped on marble floors and echoed in the vast lobby. Gilmore & Damian D’Silva retains the heavy wood detailing of the old court – check out the original cells on the way to the bathrooms – matched with tasteful lighting and simple modern earthy tones and clean lines. From the a la carte menu, we start with the chicken soup, which comes served in an earthen dish and a broth of Chinese herbs. We share clay pot har cheong pork belly and a French poulet cooked with dried chilli, lemongrass, shallots and other spices, enriched with coconut milk. Each dish is exquisitely created, each ingredient deserving of its place.
During our stint in Singapore, we often finished our nights at a bar. The most intriguing of which was Bar Stories in Haji Lane, where you won’t find your drink on a menu because it doesn’t have one. What do you feel like, mixologist David Koh asks me. Nothing too heavy, I say, cool given the humidity outside, maybe sparkling, a hint of ginger perhaps, or lemon. Others in our group make their requests: sweet, rich, gin, Negroni. And out came a parade of individually styled cocktails: mine was topped with half a mango, set alight with a sprig of rosemary.
But I still hadn’t found my rojak – until we stopped for lunch at the Changi Hawker Centre near the airport. It arrived with chunks of pineapple, green apple, cucumber and turnip, all mixed in a spiced sauce of tamarind and chilli, each ingredient knitting together the threads of Singapore’s heritage.
Unesco recognises hawker centres as “intangible culture heritage” and, as Obama observed, it is through food that Singapore reveals its soul.
Checklist
SINGAPORE
GETTING THERE
Fly direct from Auckland to Singapore with Singapore Airlines.
DETAILS
Tribe Tours: https://tribe-tours.com/product/disappearing-trades/
New Zealand Herald Travel visited Singapore courtesy of the Singapore Tourism Board.