Hey Hive!
We're back with more of our hawker adventures! It's been a while but one of the things we do on dates is trying out different stalls in different hawker centers to find which are our favourites!
Source: wanderlustyle
If you've never patronised a hawker center before, they are typically non-air conditioned buildings that house all kinds of food stalls specialising in one or two signature dishes. They're ubiquitous here in Singapore and Malaysia and are known for delicious and affordable food - the perfect combination! They're definitely where you can find the best food in Singapore and is our go-to place for food!
I recently started a new job and I'm thankful that it's right near this hawker center called People's Park! This food center has been around for a long time and recently went through a remodel with a much brighter and bigger space with plenty of tables.
Source: Straits Times
Here's some history: People's Park Food Centre started as a hawker shelter in 1923 and was built to resettle hawkers from nearby Chinatown which later became so popular it was considered a model shelter-market. By 1940, it became Singapore's largest fresh produce and fruits market. In 1944, it became a distribution centre during the Japanese Occupation and in 1966 a huge fire destroyed the market. It was rebuilt in 1969 as part of a new multi-storey complex rehousing the original vendors.
Even now it's still a very popular spot for tourists and locals alike, and it's in a convenient location right near Chinatown train station. But I feel like this place gets overlooked since Chinatown also houses another hawker centre called Chinatown Complex which is arguably the biggest hawker centre in Singapore.
Regardless, this one is still fairly large with quite a number of stalls, including some famous ones! At least half the stalls here sell mainland Chinese cuisine though, which is a lot more than I'm used to seeing in other hawker centres. I think there's also not as many Halal options here as well because of that.
There are also some other stalls selling fresh fruits and juices which may be part of a market as well.
When I first started working in the area, there was a street market beside the food centre as well selling all sorts of goods from clothes to electronics accessories. I thought it was a permanent feature of the area albeit a little cramped but yesterday I saw them close up the market and the whole area looked so much more spacious but empty.
But People's Park Food Centre is still as bustling as ever, and I was excited to try the stalls here!
Although this place has a lot of mainland Chinese food, there are still quite a few stalls selling local dishes as well since those are staple to every hawker centre. The first stall I decided to try was this one called Boon Heng Atas Roasted Delight.
Just like other similar stalls in hawker centres, they specialise in Cantonese-style roasted meats selling chicken, duck and pork with either rice or noodles. You can see all the meats hanging in the storefront looking so tantalizing.
It'd been a while since I had chicken rice so I decided to try their Roasted Chicken Rice to see how it would fare.
It looked pretty normal and smelled quite good. The fragrant aroma of the rice was quite strong and made me hungry.
It tasted pretty good! I'm not sure if it was anything to write home about and I don't think this was one of the famous stalls I read about but it was still pretty decent. This plate costs $4 which is pretty average pricing these days, although I have seen it priced higher at less accessible locations so this is pretty good already.
I remember the soup being quite unique though, not like other chicken rice soups but it had a more peppery, slightly more gingery flavour to it? It was nice and comforting.
Overall it was a good first meal there and I'm definitely looking forward to trying more stalls while I work in the area.
Thanks so much for reading!
To find out more about me, check out my intro post here!
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