A guide to Singapore hawkers

Recently, I had a chance to see a culinary arts exhibit in Singapore with my son, Gino. And in our little time, we explored the local flavors by checking out various hawker centers. Here are some tips that we want to share with our traveling foodies out there.

Maxwell Food Center. From its humble beginning in the 1930s, this food center is now totally spruced up and is the icon of Singaporean hawker fare. It has over 100 food stalls, which many consider to be the country’s best. In fact, this was one of Anthony Bourdain’s featured stops in his show on Singapore food centers.

Best buys are the tiantian chicken rice and the stall called Hainanese Chicken Rice, both having juicy and deliciously flavorful Hainan style chicken. There’s also a stall which sells oyster cakes, but more of beignets or big doughnuts filled with oysters. The curry puffs are delightful with their freshly fried bubbly crust.

Lau Pa Sat. A historic old market made of Victorian filigree in cast iron, it is one of the most beautiful food courts I have seen, much like the one in Uruguay, which was also a converted old market. Lau Pa Sat features 24-hour dining and has a reputation for good noodles such as ba cho mee. This is a favorite of Oscar Ong, who together with his wife, Angel Kitchen’s Chef Marnie, took us there while they were having a gastronomic weekend.

The ba cho mee had flat egg noodles topped with chicharon, fish balls, fish cake, X.O. sauce, and slices of pork innards with minced pork. We also tripped on mixed plates of saté on the side street (Boon Tat St.) run by Malays over pitchers of Tiger Beer and bites of freshly cooked and puffed roti prata dipped in curry sauce. It was a multi-cultural table for that evening.

Newton Food Center. Though a little touristy and quite pricey, Newton’s variety also showcases the traditional flavors locals love. Chef David Fajardo, who is now a resident, took us one night to his suki and had an amazing array of sambal dishes.

There was the chili crab with fried mantou buns to sop up the sauce, crispy glazed baby squid, grilled stingray in banana leaf, and fried rice perfumed with dried shrimp. Of course I couldn’t resist buying those scrumptious roasted chicken wings lightly glazed with sweet aromatic soy sauce.

Tiong Bahru. This is our favorite hawker center, especially for breakfast. The steamed chih kueh or rice cakes made by the old sisters near the famous Tiong Bahru steamed buns are a must. These freshly steamed rice cakes, topped with a mix of ground chili paste, preserved radish, toasted onions, are totally inexpensive. The Tiong Bahru char siu pao with its smoky pork asado filling is probably one of the best in the world. Best noodle buys are the lormee or thick flat egg noodles on a thick dark sauce topped with fish cake and sliced pork belly, Hokkien mee with a seafood white sauce, and spicy coconut soup-based rice noodles called laksa.