One of the latest additions to the UNESCO’S list of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity isn’t a dish or a custom. It is a culture that is as intrinsic to the country it represents as yoga is to India: Singapore’s Hawker culture.
According to the UNESCO, Singapore’s Hawker culture represents “community dining and culinary practices in a multicultural urban context”. This simply means that the street food stalls serve as a space where people from diverse communities and cultures sit and eat together alongside other activities such as chess-playing, busking and art-jamming.
Initially, the vendors catered to the less affluent. In the 1960s, the government moved them to specially-built hawker centres to address the need for hygiene and regulation. There are 114 such centres across Singapore serving people from all walks of life and are also major tourist attractions.
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Every stall has its own speciality. Like Singapore’s own Chilli Crab — spicy, sweet and sour crab served with steamed or deep-fried buns.
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In 2016, Liao Fan Soya Sauce Chicken Rice & Noodle run by Chan Hon Meng at the Chinatown Complex Food Centre became the first hawker stall in the world to be awarded a Michelin star for a deceivingly simple-looking chicken cooked in soy sauce and served on fragrant rice. It is also “The Cheapest Michelin-starred Meal In The World”.
Over the years, several community and non-governmental organisations and educational institutions have played a significant role in promoting and sustaining this hawker culture through training programmes, events and documentation projects. The decision to include this unique culture to the UNESCO Intangibles list was announced at a virtual ceremony on December 16, 2020, giving a boost to the street vendors, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Fun facts
Gordon Ramsay tried his hand at a challenge against hawkers whose dishes were Chicken Rice, Laksa and Chilli Crab. He won the Chilli Crab challenge but lost the other two.
Packs of tissue and bottles of water are used to book tables and seats and customers are advised to carry small change as the dishes are inexpensive.
Apart from the usual food that is served, there are are food with a twist like fried carrot cake with cheese slices , paratha paired with a spucy sambal and taro sauce.
With English menus, there is also Singlish (short for Singaporean English). This slang spoken by locals consisting of, Malay, Hokkien, Teochew, Cantonese and Tamil words mixed with English. It is spoken in casual situations, including around food.
The Singapore Government rates the stalls for Hygiene, awarding an ‘A’ for ‘super clean’ and a ‘D’ for not acceptable. However, the locals joke that A means ‘avoid’ and D is ‘delicious, as the cleaner the stall, the less delicious the food.