Where this at: Bedok Mall Hawker Centre

Hawker centers are the best, they really are. They sell inexpensive (well most of them) good food, and yes you can even find some healthier stuff like fish porridge or skinless/fatless chicken rice… if you can exercise enough self control to skip the mouth watering cha kway tiao (“fried noodles”) or the savoury, but spicy as hell, laska. But why would you?

Moving on.

Hawker centers might seem similar to coffee shops, but consider them the bigger and more varied cousin, with around 20 food stalls compared to the latter with around 4-7 stalls.

Thus, to account for the then larger number of crowds, you usually get a whole building dedicated to it, filled with rows of tables and chairs in front of the stalls. These stalls usually work on a “self-service” basis, with customers queuing up in front, and the really popular stalls have queues snaking into the sitting area.

The cooking is done within the little cubicles, usually manned by one person, and the cash till by another. They share the same space when it comes to displaying food, serving it and paying, and sometimes even cooking, though that would be done in the back of the cubicle if space allows. The environment is relatively well controlled with vents installed to pump the oily and sticky fumes away from the stall, upwards to the top of the building and into the air. Note: For some reason, it never really smells that bad, or too strongly. Just, y’know, yummy food smells. I’m guessing that the vents might have filters as well.

Most hawker centres have cleaners who tidy up tables after diners, and push around carts that are sectioned of by “shelves” and “bucket” that hangs on one side. Unfinished contents of the dishes and discarded tissues go into “bucket” and the dishes, now empty, go onto the shelves. They go to the back of the building, which is where the cleaning stations are situated, or sometimes, back to the stalls themselves for cleaning. However, in recent years, hawker centers have been trying to get diners to return their plates themselves, indicating one shelves for food from halal stalls and the other for non halal. This ensures that the cutlery and dishes do not mix, and makes cleaning up more efficient halal food stalls. Another thing to take note: dishes are usually of different colour and design to differentiate from one another, however some stalls might use the same bowls or plates, they either share them or they mark it out on the ends of cutlery or with indelible ink on the sides of their bowls and plates.

Finally, I would like to end off with a question: DOES ANYONE KNOW WHAT THIS IS? THE BLUE LIGHT THING BELOW THE FANS? I see it around at hawker centers, coffee shops and even some bakeries (the ones found below shophouses). I’ve asked the cleaners and hawkers about it, and even googled but no one knows for sure what it is. Some said it was for insects but like.. how?