Everyone knows the best food in Singapore is also the least expensive food around. Singapore’s culinary roots stem from a combination of Malay, Chinese, and Indian cuisine. Food stalls, also known as “hawkers”, have some of the tastiest, local foods available, and you can try curries, satay, noodles, and much more. Ignore the restaurants that try to serve mediocre western food, instead, if you want to experience the cultural cuisine of Singapore head to the hawker centers, where you can get lost in the hundreds of stalls, selling hundreds of different food, for very little money.
There are several hawker centers around Singapore, and the Cup page Food Court, is a large, low-ceiling mecca of food. Get a plate of hokkien mee, a dish that’s hard to find outside of Singapore, and is incredibly. This fried noodle dish comes with prawns and is a delicious blend of briny seafood, oil, noodles, a slight spritz of lime and some heat from chilli. Then grab a fresh fruit juice, squeezed right before your eyes, and a fried spring roll. This filling meal will cost you around $5.
If you still want to try more hawker food, but need to walk off your latest meal, head over to the Chinatown Complex Food Centre. This is one of the biggest and oldest of the food centres. Find a stall, from one of the hundreds, and purchase a beef or minced meat soup, served in a big bowl with egg noodles. Most bowls of soup can be about $2, and are very filling. Roasted duck served with rice, can be purchased for about $3 a plate, and has a mild flavour, with a hint of spices on the crispy skin. There are also plenty of stalls that sell desserts for only $1, like mochi balls, which are sweet, glutinous rice with a sweet paste in the middle, often served with a sweet sauce.
A Typical Singapore Eatery – Image
Another cheap food paradise is the East Coast Lagoon Food Centre. This is literally paradise because you can sit outdoors and enjoy the swaying palms trees, and beach. When you get there you will be greeted by the smells of burning wood mingled with grilled meats, and the sight of flames from stalls, as hawkers create mouth-watering dishes. Find the satay house that has the longest line and you will not go wrong. These barbecued skewers with marinated, tender meats are served with peanut sauce and vegetables. You can choose from seafood, beef, pork, or chicken, and get your fill from this delicious treat. It can cost you about $4 for eight skewers. Grab a sugarcane juice, dip your feet in the sand, feel the warm air of Singapore’s tropical climate and enjoy your cheap food.
Singapore’s hawker centres are a way of life and have been around for decades. Entering a hawker centre, it is hard to control yourself when you are surrounded by the smells, sights, and sounds of food being prepared in so many ways. If you are on a budget, avoid the big restaurants, and stick close to the locals. They can show you where the best stalls and the best prices are as well. By doing some research and talking to the people who eat there every day, you can keep yourself full on less than $10 a day, and with Singapore’s rich, cultural background and thousands of stalls, you won’t ever try the same thing twice.
This is a guest post by travel blogger Roxanne Bridger who writes about all thing travel. Ranging from the best places to dive in Mexico to how to get upgraded on your economy flights.
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