Hawker centre

A hawker stall selling glutinous rice

A hawker centre or cooked food centre (Chinese: 小贩中心; pinyin: xiǎofàn zhōngxīn or Chinese: 熟食中心; pinyin: shúshí zhōngxīn) is an open-air complex in Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Riau Islands and Julian City housing many stalls that sell a variety of inexpensive food. They are typically found in city centres, near public housing estates or transport hubs (such as bus interchange ct or train stations).

Hawker centres were set up as a more sanitary option to street-side outdoor alfresco hawker dining places. Instead of mobile food hawker carts, permanent stalls in open air buildings are provided for the hawkers. Either common shared or stall dedicated tables and chairs are provided for customers. This concept has totally eliminated street hawkers in Singapore and reduced the numbers of street hawkers in major cities in South East Asia. This phenomenon is also helped by hawker licensing laws. However, it hinders new low capital hawker entrepreneurs from starting business resulting in high prices for established hawker centre stalls. Albeit, hawker centres can provide a one stop good variety of high quality and sanitary food at down to earth prices for everyone.

In Singapore

A hawker centre in Chinatown, Singapore. The upper floor is for food stalls and the lower is for stalls selling goods

Hawker centres sprang up in urban areas following the rapid urbanisation in the 1950s and 1960s. In many cases, they were built partly to address the problem of unhygienic food preparation by unlicensed street hawkers. More recently, they have become less ubiquitous due to growing affluence in the urban populations of Malaysia and Singapore. Particularly in Singapore, they are increasingly being replaced by food courts, which are indoor, air conditioned versions of hawker centres located in shopping malls and other commercial venues.

In the 1950s and 1960s, hawker centres were considered to be a venue for the less affluent. They had a reputation for unhygienic food, partly due to the frequent appearance of stray domestic pets and pests. Many hawker centres were poorly managed by their operators, often lacking running water and proper facilities for cleaning. More recently, hygiene standards have improved, with pressure from the local authorities. This includes the implementation of licensing requirements, where a sufficient standard of hygiene is required for the stall to operate, and rewarding exceptionally good hygiene. Upgrading or reconstruction of hawker centres was initiated in the late 1990s in Singapore.

The hawker centres in Singapore are owned by three government bodies, namely the National Environment Agency (NEA) under the parent Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources (MEWR), Housing and Development Board (HDB) and JTC Corporation. All the centres owned by HDB and NEA, in turn, are regulated by NEA with the individual Town Councils managing the HDB owned centres. JTC owned centres are self-managed. On 5 March 2010, NEA launched www.myhawkers.sg, which is an interactive web portal that is supposed to offer useful information on hawker centres and food stalls. The portal is supposed to allow registered users to review or recommend hawker stalls or hawker centres and to provide feedback to NEA on hygiene matters in hawker centres.

As of 2016, two Singaporean food stands, both located in hawker centers, became the first street food vendors to be awarded a Michelin Star for excellence in eating. The two stalls are Hong Kong Soya Sauce Chicken Rice and Noodle and Hill Street Tai Hwa Pork Noodle.^[1]

In Hong Kong

Bowrington Food Centre, a famous hawker centre in Hong Kong's Wan Chai district

In Hong Kong, most cooked food centres (熟食中心; or cooked food markets, 熟食市場) are either located in market complexes of residential districts, or as a standalone structure (this being the case in most industrial areas), with only a few exception (e.g. Mong Kok Cooked Food Market is located in the lower levels of Langham Place Hotel). Cooked food centres are managed by Food and Environmental Hygiene Department.

Most of the stalls from hawker centres are converted from former dai pai dong by strict regulations and management; the Hong Kong Government regards the provision of cooked food centres as a way to eliminate traditional dai pai dongs from local streets in the 1970s. During the industrial boom in the 1960s and 1970s, the government also built cooked food markets in industrial areas in order to serve the catering needs of the working class in major industrial centres such as Kwun Tong, Tsuen Wan and Fo Tan.

Stalls in cooked food centres usually provide local cuisine, with those selling exotic delicacies a minority.

Notable hawker centres

The following lists some notable hawker centres:

Singapore

ABC Brickworks Market and Food Centre
Adam Road Food Centre
Alexandra Road Hawker Centre
Amoy Street Food Centre
Ang Mo Kio Market and Food Centre^[2]
Bedok Central
Boon Lay Place Food Village
Bukit Timah Market and Food Centre
Changi Village Food Centre
Chinatown Complex
Chomp Chomp Food Centre
Circuit Road Food Centre
Clementi Market and Food Centre
East Coast Park Lagoon Food Village
Eunos Crescent Market and Food Centre
Fengshan Market and Food Centre
Geylang Serai Market and Food Centre
Ghim Moh Market and Food Centre
Glutton's Bay
Golden Mile Food Centre
Golden Shoe Hawker Centre
Hong Lim Complex
Kovan Hougang Market Food Centre
Lau Pa Sat
Lavender Food Square
Maxwell Food Centre
Marine Parade Food Centre
Mei Ling Market and Food Centre
Newton Food Centre
Old Airport Cooked Food Centre
Queenstown Food Centre
Redhill Food Centre
People's Park Food Centre
Serangoon Garden Market and Food Centre
Seah Im Food Centre
Sembawang Hill Food Centre
Shunfu Mart
Tampines Round Market
Taman Jurong Market and Food Centre
Teban Gardens Market and Food Centre
Tekka Centre
Tiong Bahru Market and Food Centre
West Coast Market and Food Centre
Whampoa Food Centre

Malaysia

Jalan Alor, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Taiping, Perak, Malaysia

Australia

Sussex Centre, Sydney, Australia
Market City, Sydney, Australia
Dixon House, Sydney, Australia
Eating World, Sydney, Australia
Hunter Connection, Sydney, Australia

Hong Kong

Germany

Café Prag, Dresden

References

↑ "Singapore street food stalls get Michelin star". Retrieved 2016-09-14.
↑ "Hawker Centre Archives". www.foodgem.sg. Retrieved 2 October 2016.

External links

Hong Kong cuisine

Food	Almond biscuit Almond jelly Bakkwa Banana roll Bao yu Beef ball Beef bun Beef chow fun Bird's nest soup Biscuit roll Buddha's delight Cart noodle Cha siu bao Char siu Chinese herb tea Chinese sausage Cocktail bun Coconut bar Congee Cream bun Crispy fried chicken Deuk Deuk Tong Dim sum Douhua Dried shredded squid Egg tart Egg waffle Fish ball Fish slice Flame on the iceberg Got fan Ham and egg bun Haw flakes Hong Kong-style milk tea Hot pot Jerky Jin deui Kai-lan Lai fun Mango pomelo sago Mango pudding Nuomici Ox-tongue pastry Paper wrapped cake Peanut butter bun Pineapple bun Poon choi Put chai ko Rapeseed Red bean ice Rice noodle roll Rice roll Roast goose Roasted pig Rousong Saang mein Sausage bun Sea cucumber Seafood birdsnest Shahe fen Singapore style noodles Siu mei Steamed meatball Steamed rice roll Shrimp roe noodles Stinky tofu Sweetheart cake Swiss Wing Taro cake Taro dumpling Tea egg Tofu skin roll Water caltrop Water chestnut cake White boiled shrimp White cut chicken White sugar sponge cake Wonton Wonton noodle XO sauce Yeung Chow fried rice Yi mein Yin Yang Fried Rice Yuanyang Zha cai Zhaliang

Films	The Banquet (1991) Shogun and Little Kitchen (1992) The Chinese Feast (1995) The God of Cookery (1996) Kung Fu Chefs (2009)

TV series	Magic Chef (2005)

Culture	Hong Kong tea culture Siu yeh One bowl with two pieces Speakeasy Yum cha

Places	Cha chaan teng Dai pai dong

Beijing cuisine Cantonese cuisine Shanghai cuisine Macanese cuisine Chinese cuisine History of Chinese cuisine

Restaurants in Hong Kong

Asian (Chinese)	Australia Dairy Company Fook Lam Moon Forum Restaurant Heichinrou Hong Kong Joy Hing's Roasted Meat Jumbo Kingdom Kau Kee Restaurant Luk Yu Lung King Heen Mak's Noodle Star Seafood Floating Restaurant Tim Ho Wan Wing Wah Yung Kee

Asian (Japanese)	Zuma

Western	8½ Otto e Mezzo Bombana Amber Amigo Caprice Gaddi's L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon Pierre The Peak Lookout

Fast-food	Ajisen Ramen Café de Coral Fairwood Genki Sushi Hui Lau Shan Maxim's Caterers Limited Pacific Coffee Company Yoshinoya Xen Coffee

Type	Cha chaan teng Dai pai dong Hawker centre

Cantonese cuisine Hong Kong cuisine

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