One of my favorite things about living in Singapore has been eating local. Almost everyday I work, I get lunch from a "hawker center" across the street from my office. Hawker centers were created by the Singapore government after they decided they could never be a 1st world country if there were many street vendors selling food on the streets as you still see in many SE Asian countries. So, Singapore built "hawker centers" where people can rent stalls and sell food. These are great places to get really cheap, and really good food. They are graded for cleanliness by the government (notice the B grade on the stall in the pictures). They tend to specialize in a particular food and each hawker center typically has many stalls. The one near my work is known as "The Golden Shoe" and has two floors of stalls. Some of the food you can find include wanton noodle soup, chicken rice, nasi padang, briyani chicken, mee goreng, and most importantly the local coffee and tea.
In the pictures you will see my two favorite stalls and they happen to be right next to each other. One is the stall where I get my tea each day. The coffee and tea in Singapore is a bit different. First of all, it is called Kopi and Teh (both Malay words). The Teh I order is called "Teh-C Siew Dai". Teh-C is a powdered tea made with carnation evaporated milk (the "C" stands for carnation) and sugar. It is quite sweet, but very good. I order it "siew dai" which means "less sweet" so they put less sugar in it. Lauren loves the "Kopi bing" which is iced coffee. Again, it is very good. This couple that runs this stand have become good friends, although I can not always understand what they are saying. In the picture you see their two daughters because it is currently school vacation here in Singapore.
The other stand is the best wanton noodle soup stand in all of Singapore. I get this for lunch about once a week. They always have a long queue. Often I order in the morning when I get my Teh-C and they have it ready for me, so I can skip the queue. By the way, the Teh-C costs SGD .90 which is about USD .65 and the wanton noodle soup costs SGD 3.70 for take-away, which is about USD 2.70.
I often say that the two national sports of Singapore are eating and shopping. Those who know me know that I don't like shopping (I am my father's son - a cheap yankee), but the eating is great in Singapore!
1 comment:
Jed, I like that you included some pictures of the local people that you see every day. I am not surprised that you have become a friend to many. We certainly enjoyed the hawker stands when we visited.
Bonnie
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