"Makan Time" Singapore by Yijie

The best way to discover Singapore is through your stomach. :) I won't tell you the history about Singapore here simply because there are too much info available. What you need to know are Hawker Centres and a bit of Singlish. Since I haven't been to tourist or cultural attractions for so long (when you live in a city herself, you will think only about the world outside), I'm not really in a good position to write about them. So I can only give tips if by any chance I visit them again. :)

A hawker centre is a collection of food stalls operating under one shelter. There will be several ones located in each town and where there is a huge demand for it like in business districts where people will flock there during lunchtime. One can taste the cuisines of the major ethnic groups in Singapore at these places. Food Courts are the medium-sized equivalent of hawker centres usually found in shopping centres and coffee-shops the small-scale ones in general. Nowadays, japanese cusine such as teppanyaki and ramen, italian cusine such as pasta etc. have also found their way into these eating places, especially in food courts.

Simi si Singlish?! Singlish arh, the most easy is to explain it as broken English dosed with a certain amount of "vocal" punctuation marks lah. << You catch any ball? ^_^" Chinese dialects, the Malay language are also added in as well. Interestingly, this language is self-evolving and you can read more about it on: talkingcock.com. And by the way,

Makan is Malay, meaning: Eat
Simi si is Hokkien, a form of Chinese dialect meaning: What is
Arh, lah are some "vocal" punctuation marks
You catch any ball simply means: Do you understand

"San Low Hor Fun" from Hong Kong Street Zhen Ji

'Cze char' stalls are no frills Chinese restaurants that are usually housed in coffee-shops and hawker centres. They are only open for business in the evenings. Cze char is a Hokkien word, which can be translated as cook and fry in English. Some of these stalls boast delectable signature dishes that attract a loyal crowd of Singaporeans from all over the island. Over the recent year, I have visited quite a few popular cze char stalls for dinner gatherings and thanks to that, my waistline has been expanding. :p I will slowly compile a list of individual cze char restaurant tips so remember to drop by now and then for my updates.