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The Astronomer, June, and I exclusively ate at Singapore’s famed hawker centers during our four-day stay in the city-state this past summer. The superb quality of the cooking, affordability of the prices, and incredible variety of the offerings made these multi-storied, open-air communal cafeterias the perfect place to dine at any time of day — we couldn’t get enough of them.
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All in all, we hit up seven hawker centers of different sizes and scopes spread across the island. Singapore’s world-class (and spotless) metro system made it easy to travel from one to another while fitting in the requisite sights, like Gardens By The Bay (meh), National Library (under renovation), Singapore City Gallery (amazing), Botanical Gardens (badass), Marina Bay Sands Hotel (like Vegas), and the Raffles Hotel (lovely in a colonial way).
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While we initially sought out “famous” food stalls at the start of our stay, we soon got the hang of hawker food culture and understood that it was nearly impossible to have a bad meal anywhere. From there, we let our bellies or geographic convenience lead the way, and we were never led astray. Singapore is truly a wonderland of culinary treasures.
Here’s everything we ate at Singapore’s hawker centers…
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