Common Spaces #3: the Hawker Center

Singaporeans love food. It's a truth of the universe, like how the Japanese love sakura and the British are obsessed with their tea. Our love for food permeates our everyday life, to the point where the ubiquitious hawker center becomes a Singaporean landmark and the act of eating turns into a national identity. Perhaps the children of Singapore living abroad, deprived of hawker food, can best appreciate this unique culinary culture:

No stranger from absence They come to see New streets, pick hawker Food, soak the crooked Equatorial heat. Orchids, hibiscus, Greens of weeds and grass Throw up, bruising Eyes accustomed to less.

Chewing satay Dripping kuah, they watch Gula melaka leach Chendol’s peaks; Ask for rojak: hot-salt-sweet-sour Aftertaste of past aches Assorted on a plastic plate.

- 'Exiles Return' by Leong Liew Geok -

The hawker center is like an assault on all the senses: the smell is strong, the heat is intense, the noise of chit chat and of cooking is loud, the flavor of the food is rich. To the average Singaporeans, this might just be an ordinary meal at the foodcourt, but to an outsider, or even a citizen away for too long, the hawker center is overwhelming. This intensity and diversity stands in stark contrast to the blandness and rigidness characterising the two common spaces that we have discussed previously: the HDB flat and the MRT. The foodcourt and hawker center shows a fresh side of Singapore, more active, more conversation, more interaction, less rule-abiding. Maybe people do let go of their inhibition when eating.