How to order, what to try first and where vegetarians eat well.
Singapore's best food is not in its restaurants. It is in the hawker centres: open-air food courts where a hundred small stalls each cook one or two dishes, as they have for decades. A full meal costs less than a coffee back at your hotel.
How it works
Find a table first. Locals reserve a seat by leaving a packet of tissues on it, and that claim is respected. Then walk the rows, order at the stall, pay in cash or by card, and carry your tray back. When you finish, return the tray to a rack. It is the law, and there are fines.
What to try first
Start with chicken rice, the unofficial national dish: poached chicken on rice cooked in its broth, with chilli and ginger on the side. Then laksa, a rich coconut noodle soup. Satay comes by the dozen with peanut sauce. For breakfast, order kaya toast with soft eggs and strong local coffee.
For vegetarians
Look for stalls marked vegetarian, which serve mock-meat versions of the classics. Little India's food centre is the easiest place of all, with dosa, thali and North Indian plates under one roof. Roti prata with dal is sold everywhere and is always a safe choice.
Follow the queue
A long line is the only review that matters. Stalls with a queue at noon are worth the fifteen minutes. Many close once they sell out, so eat lunch by one.
Where to go
The centre in Chinatown is the largest, with more than two hundred stalls. The one beside the business district turns its street into a satay market after seven in the evening. Near the east coast beach, the seafood stalls are best at dinner.
What to drink
Fresh sugarcane juice with lemon, lime juice, or iced milk tea. All cost very little, and all work well against the heat.
Plan one hawker meal a day. By the end of the trip you will have a favourite stall, and an opinion on whose chicken rice is best.
