Food courts

Food courts haven't featured much in  my life so far; they're crowded, noisy, and generally serve low-quality fast food that will only just about give me enough to allow for more shopping, but not enough to put me off the extra pack of iced buns at Tesco when buying food for tonight's tea. I'll admit that I'm not the best of shoppers, so my experiences may be dated, but the only decent food court I can think of is that in Stratford Westfields, and most of that food is just as expensive as GBK / Wagamamas / Nandos, which kind of misses the point of being a food court in my book.

 So why am I writing about food courts? For sure, some are better than others, but none come close to the quality, variety and value of food from hawker markets as exist in Singapore. It's clear from the number of eateries around town that food is important here, from high class right through to (the omnipresent) toast shops (which have amazing coffee carriers too...)..., and they even have normal food courts in their malls too (which are pretty good to be fair). Hawker Markets are distinct however, and probably wouldn't be on my itinerary but for the rave reviews in guide books and numerous mentions from friends. They're basically a whole load of stalls (i.e. hundreds) in one hall / square /market building, each selling freshly cooked food to order for a song.

 Tonight we went to the Tekka Centre. The Tekka Centre is a hawker market / mall / food market in Little India, which was incredible for number of Indian stalls selling traditionally Chinese food, and switching it around, also listing the traditionally Indian food names in Chinese!. We shared a mutton murtabak for $5 (£2.75), whicih was delicious with the side pot of curry, and washed it down with freshly made strawberry / mango lassis, each $2.50, meaning we ate out for 2 for just over five pounds. Yesterday we had two lots of hawker market food; lunch in Chinatown was charsiu pork, green veg with oyster sauce, steamed dumplings and noodles (total for two $12 / ~£6.50), dinner in Bugis Street was mee goreng, sweet & sour pork rice, and we  washed down with beer (total for two $13 / £7).


Food this good, this fresh, this cheap is amazing!