2011 Hawker Centres

Singaporeans love food, and hawker centres are places where very affordable popular and indigenous cuisines are found. These 4 stamps, issued on 16 May 2011, features 4 iconic hawker centres in Singapore - Lau Pa Sat, Newton Food Centre, Maxwell Food Centre and East Coast Lagoon Food Village - places where tourists may find snippets of authentic Singapore.
Lau Pa Sat means old market in the Chinese dialect of Hokkien, was Singapore’s first wet market where fresh produce was sold. was Designed by James MacRitchie and built in 1894, Telok Ayer Market as it was originally called, is located in the middle of the city and is an octagon looking from its top. Its Victorian cast-iron frames with intricate filigree ornamentation were shipped all the way from Glasgow. In 1973 it was renovated and converted into a food centre offering a wide variety of local food. In that same year it was gazetted as a national monument.
The Newton Food Centre, opened in 1971, is located at Newton Circus, and is usually the food centre featured in tourist brochures to sample authentic Singapore cuisine. Currently it is also the nearest major street food centre to the shopping belt of Orchard Road. Because of its high touristy profile, the food offered has biased towards the pricier seafood, overshadowing other reasonably priced Singapore cuisine.
Located between the northern fringe of the business district and the southern fringe of Chinatown, the Maxwell Food Centre which began its roots in 1935 as a vegetable produce wholesale centre in the city. In the 1980s it was converted into a temporary premises for food hawkers from China Square along China Street, it remained a hawker centre since then, closing for a year in 2000 for renovations. Today it serves many iconic Singapore dishes and is one of the cheapest eating places in the area.
The East Coast Lagoon Food Village is not to be confused with the East Coast Seafood Village that is a congregation of pricey seafood restaurants. It is a favourite haunt for affordable street food among sea and beach sports enthusiasts, a perfect place for a meal after a tiring afternoon of cycling, rollerblading, swimming, kayaking or sailing.