This self guided walking food trail takes you through historic sites from Singapore River to Chinatown with two delicious hawker centre food stops (plus an optional traditional pastry shopping stop).
We meet at Clarke Quay MRT station (NE Line) which is conveniently at Central Mall @ Clarke Quay.
When Raffles established the port of Singapore in 1819, he needed labour to run the port. It coincided with the last years of the dying Qing dynasty which was collapsing under the weight of its own corruption and incompetence. Millions of Chinese were leaving China to escape rebellions, wars, mismanaged natural disasters etc. Many came to Singapore between the 1820s and 1930s, mostly from Guangdong and Fujian provinces.
Raffles settled the migrants according to his Raffles Town Plan which put the Chinese in the "Chinese Campong" which stretched from the river westwards to Tanjong Pagar. Among the Chinese, they settled in enclaves according to their language communities - Teochew at Singapore River, Cantonese and Hakka at Kreta Ayer, Hokkien at Telok Ayer and Hainanese outside the "Chinese Campong" around Middle Road (more about the Hainanese later). Map courtesy of Wikipedia.
Clarke Quay, Central Mall and Merchant Court Hotel were once the site of the Teochew enclave of Singapore River. Life centred around Ellenborough Market which was Singapore's wholesale centre for fish, seafood, poultry, meat, vegetables, fruits, dried food, sundries, everything lah.
Street hawkers set up everywhere around Singapore River on every road, back lane, nook and cranny. These hawkers served Teochew dishes such as bak chor mee, bak kut teh, kway chap, lor ark (braised duck), Teochew porridge, orh chien (oyster omelette), and many more.
In the 1970s, the government rehoused these hawkers in three hawker centres at Singapore River - at Ellenborough Market (residential & commercial complex), Empress Place and Boat Quay. These formed the core of Teochew Cuisine in Singapore.
When these three hawker centres were demolished in the 1990s, the hundreds of food stalls were relocated, many across the island. This expanded the footprint and influence of Teochew cuisine on Singapore hawker culture. Hence, Teochew cuisine have a larger influence on the Singapore hawker scene than their numbers suggest, making up only 20% of the Chinese community in Singapore.
From the meeting point, we make our way to the starting point of our trail at Elgin Bridge.
Our walk starts from Elgin Bridge, through Boat Quay, South Bridge Road, Hong Lim Market & Food Centre (food stop), Smith Street, and ends at Chinatown Complex Food Centre (food stop). There is an optional diversion to Telok Ayer Street for traditional pastry shopping.
We start at Elgin Bridge, the first bridge across the Singapore River ordered built by Raffles and completed in 1820, a year after his arrival.
It was originally a wooden drawbridge. It went through four renditions, the current concrete bridge was built in 1929.
Looking northeast from Elgin Bridge, We can see the canopies of trees on Fort Canning Park which is partially hidden behind the Old Hill Street Police Station (today's Ministry of Communications & Information).
When Raffles arrived in Singapore in 1819, the locals wouldn't take him up to Fort Canning Hill which was known then as Bukit Larangan, the Forbidden Hill. The hill, considered sacred, was the seat of the kingdom of Singapura which existed from 1299 to 1398.
From many artefacts excavated at Fort Canning and Empress Place (by Singapore River), Singapura was a thriving sea port with trade links with Arabia, India, the Malay archipelago (today's Indonesia) and China. It ended in 1398 when Singapura was invaded and sacked by a large naval force of the Majapahit empire from Java.
Standing on Elgin Bridge we can get a majestic view of Boat Quay with the Central Business District skyline in the background. From here, we can see the exact spot where Raffles first stepped foot on Singapore in 1819. Singapore was then a fishing village, a part of the Johor-Riau sultanate based in the Riau Islands at that time.
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| Looking west down South Bridge Road from Elgin Bridge |
The Singapore River is the dividing line between Da Po and Xiao Po or "big town 大坡" and "little town 小坡".
Da Po refer to the main Chinese settlement where Cantonese and Hakka live in Kreta Ayer, Hokkien around Telok Ayer and Teochew along Singapore River.
Da Po is the "Chinese Campong" in the Raffles Town Plan of 1822. When the Hainanese arrived from the 1890s, "Chinese Campong" was already full house, so they had to settle elsewhere.
The Hainanese settled at the margins between Raffles Town Plan's European Town and Kampung Glam. The area east of Singapore River and where the Hainanese settled became known as Xiao Po or the "little town".
So this food trail is about Da Po 大坡, historically the main Chinese settlement in Singapore.
Pause a while outside Legendary Bak Kut Teh @ 46 South Bridge Road.
There are two main types of bak kut teh in Singapore, dark herbal Hokkien and clear peppery Teochew. Legendary Bak Kut Teh serves the peppery Teochew type.
Teochew bak kut teh is synonymous with Singapore pork bone soup now while Hokkien BKT is a vanishing dish.
It is not clear how Teochew bak kut teh came about. The mainstream view is that coolies picked up peppercorn that fell from the sacks and made a pork soup with it.
Another possibility is pepper plantation workers throwing in some peppercorn into pork soup and thus created Singapore bak kut teh. By the 1850s, there were some 800 pepper plantations all over Singapore Island.
Which do you think is more likely?
Hokkien bak kut teh requires herbs from China so it is likely to be a concoction prescribed by a herbalist or physician. There is a Hokkien bak kut teh stall at Hong Lim hawker centre where we will be stopping for food.
Personally, my favourite Hokkien bak kut teh is in Maxwell Food Centre.
Walking down South Bridge Road, we pass Hong Lim Park which was named after Cheang Hong Lim (1825 - 1893) who donated the land for the public park in 1876 and market in 1882. The wealthy Peranakan merchant made his fortune through then legal opium trade.
A short walk from Hong Lim Park, Hong Lim Market & Food Centre which is over forty years old has some 60 food stalls on 2 storeys. It is popular with residents and office workers who live or work near the complex, and foodies who come from all over the island for the famous food stalls here.
Taste more at Hong Lim Market & Food Centre 👈 click
From Hong Lim Complex we take the overhead bridge over to Nankin Street.
The two basket hawker is the proto-street hawker. The two basket hawker carries his pantry, kitchen, and even kitchen sink on his shoulders with two baskets slung across a bamboo pole.
So, our proto-hawker dishes were by necessity very simple. For example, bak chor mee was just pork soup, noodles and minced pork. Beef noodles was just beef soup, noodles and beef slices. Mee rebus was the same. Satay was the same. You got the idea.
As Singapore become more affluent and hawkers are better equipped, they added more and premium ingredients into the dishes to appeal to customers. Lobsters, banana size prawns, oysters, wagyu beef, Iberico pork....., the list goes on.
Personally, I still appreciate the original humble hawker dishes but these are rarely found nowadays.
Nankin Street used to have a very popular Hokkien bak kut teh shop known as Lee Ong Say. The shop has closed since the street's re-development in the 1990s but one of their former staff still carry on the legacy at Nankin Street Bak Kut Teh stall at Maxwell Food Centre.
Further up on Nankin Street is this sculpture of a rickshaw. From 1880s till the 1930s, hand pulled rickshaws were the main means of private hire transport in Singapore. At its peak in the 1920s, there were some 30,000 licensed rickshaw pullers in Singapore. Unlicensed rickshaws probably triple that number.
Rickshaw pullers bequeathed us rickshaw noodles which is rarely seen today.
Sold by two-basket hawkers, rickshaw noodles is a humble dish. It's just yellow noodles in a soup made with choy sum vegetables and dried shrimp for a bit of savoury-umami flavour. The noodles are snipped into short strands so the rickshaw man can scoop them up with a spoon or just slurp them up without chopsticks.
We walk through Nankin Street through to Pekin Street passing the historic original outlet of Ya Kun kopitiam, the quintessential Hainanese coffee shop of Singapore.
Ya Kun is popular for its trinity of bitterish Nanyang coffee with robust caffeine kick, sweet savoury combo of kaya and butter toast, and soft boiled eggs eaten with soy sauce and a dash of white pepper.
Loi Ah Koon came in Singapore from Hainan in 1926, worked 10 years as a coffee boy and founded a coffee stall with two partners in 1936. Ah Koon went it alone after his partners left and he registered Ya Kun in 1944. Today Ya Kun has some 50 outlets in Singapore and overseas such as in China and Indonesia.
From Pekin Street, we turn into Telok Ayer Street to Tan Hock Seng Cake Shop, a traditional Hokkien bakery.
Tan Hock Seng is a 90+ year old institution famed for its beh teh soh 马啼酥 though it makes at least a dozen other different traditional Chinese pastries. Beh teh soh has a flaky brown baked crust with maltose filling. (Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.)
After Tan Hock Seng, we walk along Cross Street to rejoin South Bridge Road.
After eating at Hong Lim Complex hawker centre, we get back onto South Bridge Road at the intersection with Upper Cross Street. The Chinese call this Hai San Street as the Hai San Cantonese-Hakka secret society was dominant here.
Soya sauce chicken clinched the world's first hawker Michelin Star. One of the pioneer hawkers serving this dish is Chew Kee at 8, Upper Cross Street.
Mosque Street at the intersection with South Bridge used to be the Hakka enclave in Chinatown.
If you are a Chinese tea enthusiast you might want to drop in at Pek Sin Choon Tea Merchants at 36, Mosque Street. Pek Sin Choon is one of the pioneers of Nanyang Tea.
You know the feeling. When you go overseas for any extended period, and needed a kopi fix, you will find coffee, coffee everywhere but no Nanyang kopi. That's because Nanyang kopi is roasted and brewed in our own way for that unique taste and aroma.
It is the same for Nanyang tea - it is only found in Singapore and Malaysia.
In the days of sail, tea took about a year to travel from Fujian China to Singapore. During the journey, some of the tea would inevitably be damaged by water or humidity. So, tea from Fujian need to be rescued (re-processed by frying) before selling. Merchants experimented with blending rescued tea with undamaged tea, mixing tea leaves from different regions of Fujian. The result is Nanyang tea with its unique taste and fragrance profile.
From Mosque Street, we continue on on South Bridge Road.
We will pass a wall mural of a street wayang at Temple Street by Singapore's top mural artist Yip Yew Chong.
Smith Street was the food street of Kreta Ayer, the Cantonese enclave. In 1983, all the hawkers here were relocated, many into Chinatown Complex Food Centre.
Tong Heng which is famous for their unique diamond shaped egg tarts was at Smith Street. They moved to South Bridge Road when Smith Street was redeveloped.
Smith Street is now run as a food court. Heritage brands from beyond Chinatown have set up outlets here, including the 100 year old Famous Eunos Bak Chor Mee.
Most Smith Street and Kreta Ayer hawkers were moved into Chinatown Complex and the food centre here remains Singapore's largest hawker centre.
Uncle Chow and his brother are among the original hawkers of Smith Street that are still running their stalls in Chinatown Complex. Their 雪花飛冷熱甜品 stalls (each brother runs a separate stall) was founded by their father in the 1950s.
Maxwell Food Centre is across South Bridge Road, 5 minutes' walk from Chinatown Complex. Opened in 1986, it was the last hawker centre built under the government's first hawker centre building programme.
Taste more at Maxwell Food Centre 👈 click
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| View of Tanjong Pagar Road from Maxwell Road Food Centre |
Three iconic buildings here from left to right - the former Metropole cinema, Pinnacle flats, and former Jinrikisha building.
The Jinrikisha building in particular housed the government office that managed rickshaws in Singapore when the hand pulled cabs were the main means of hired transport from the 1880s till the 1930s.
If you still have time and energy to explore Tanjong Pagar Road, here is the guide 👈 click
Enjoy your walk and food. Look out for traffic. Safety first.
Date: 13 Dec 2020
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