Olivia Lee of The Guardian notes that Singapore’s hawker culture, recently added to the UNESCO list of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, encompasses the community of vendors cooking and selling meals across the city-state’s 114 hawker centres. In 2019, out of the 58 eateries in Singapore listed on the Michelin Bib Gourmand, an impressive 33 were hawker stalls, further showcasing the significance and popularity of this culinary tradition.

The food halls are considered the nation’s dining rooms, where people from all walks of life mingle and eat cheap, freshly cooked dishes from morning to night. Hawkers sell many things, from whole roasted ducks and steamed pork buns to pig’s trotters and fish-head curry. As Anthony Bourdain wrote during his 2017 visit: “The hawker centers are wonderlands of Chinese, Indian, and Malay specialties. It’s like shooting fish in a barrel making food porn in Singapore.”

Several of the stalls even have Michelin stars, which makes Singapore home to some of the cheapest Michelin-starred food in the world.

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