Singaporean chef Chan Hon Meng of Liao Fan Hong Kong Soya Sauce Chicken Rice in Singapore. / AFP
Singapore has announced plans to seek UNESCO world heritage status for its street hawkers, a dining tradition the country’s prime minister called “a cultural institution.”
During a speech at the National Day Rally over the weekend, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong described Singapore’s street hawker culture as unique to the country’s heritage and identity, and said inscription on UNESCO’s List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity would help safeguard and promote the tradition for future generations.
In the last few years, Singapore has seen the opening of seven new street hawker centers, and another 13 are set to open throughout the city-state.
About 6,000 licensed street hawkers cook in 110 hawker centers.
The flurry of openings reflects the modern household in Singapore, he added: dual-income families who have no time to cook.
Food stalls offer busy Singaporeans an affordable convenient and authentic dining alternative. Meals average about $3 (about P160) or less.
“Hawker centers are our community dining rooms. Singaporeans of all races — Chinese, Malay, Indian and Eurasian — and of all dietary faiths and income groups, are able to eat together in hawker centers and enjoy our nasi lemak, char kway teow and roti prata,” he said in his speech.