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Telok Ayer Market – The historic hawker centre in downtown Singapore

April 15, 2015 By James Clark 9 Comments

Telok Ayer Market - The historic hawker centre in downtown Singapore

Telok Ayer Market - Singapore

One of my favourite hawker centres in Singapore is the Telok Ayer Market. This food court – also known as Lau Pa Sat – is in a heritage building that is worth a visit in its own right.

While a Singapore foodie might tell you there are a dozen other hawker centres that are better, for me I like this market for the combination of food, its location, and the building itself.

The Location

In downtown Singapore the transformation of the city into a global business hub is complete. Here you will find canyons of tall buildings, with financial institutions from around the world represented here.

Even though the city has made a point to preserve any historical architecture that remains, in the downtown area nothing has been spared except for this one corner which is home to the Telok Ayer Market.

Telok Ayer Market

The market is close to the Raffles Place metro station, which is on the EW line that goes to the airport. On my last trip to Singapore I had an afternoon flight so instead of transferring metro lines at Raffles Place, I got off and went for one more lunch.

The Building

Inside the market

The building was constructed in 1894 and still retains its original cast iron pillars. It’s a little slice of Victoriana stranded in modern Singapore.

Along with its location, another anomaly of the market is that it’s not air conditioned. Lee Kuan Yew – the esteemed first prime minister of Singapore – hailed the air-conditioner as one of mankind’s great inventions. In a city where everything is air conditioned, it’s unusual to find a place that doesn’t rely on air conditioning. Instead, this old building has on an open-plan floor with no walls, and giant ceiling fans. Somehow this is enough to keep you from not sweating, and it’s a welcome change from feeling like you need to put on a jacket.

Ceiling Fan

The Food

What I like about the hawker centres is that there are few brand stores. Instead you will find independent stalls that are literal in their branding, such as “fish ball noodle soup”. Some hawker stalls will inevitably become well known and add the prefix “Famous [insert food here]”, but for the most part the stalls are named after exactly what they sell.

Case in point, here is Pig’s Organ Soup. No fancy names here, just a name telling it like it is.

Pig's Organ Soup

If organs aren’t your thing, this Indian Vegetarian place is selling…Indian vegetarian.

Indian Vegetarian

Having spent so much time in Saigon I rarely eat Vietnamese outside of Vietnam now, but it is good to know the choice is there.

Vietnamese

They even have Filipino food here. Don’t let anyone tell you that all Filipino food is bad.

Authentic Filipino Cuisine

As with the food stalls, the drink stalls have matter-of-fact names.

Beverages

No fancy pub names here either. If you want beer you go to the stand called “BEER”. And you can have any beer you like, as long as its Tiger, Heineken, or Guinness. Singaporean prices still apply.

Beer

Once upon a time Singapore had actual street food, where vendors were serving food from carts, like you still see in Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam (to name but three countries). In Saigon you still see stalls selling freshly-pressed sugar cane juice on the street.

It is probable that the street food of Vietnam will eventually be moved off the street as the country modernises. This is what Singapore did, but instead of closing down the vendors businesses, they retained the street food link by placing vendors in designated hawker centres.

I will be sad to visit a Vietnam that doesn’t have street food, but on the other hand I would much rather visit a hawker centre than go to a mall that only has chain restaurants.

Sugar Cane

After wandering around and narrowing down my choices I opted for an Indian lunch. I forgot to take a photo, but it was delicious. I left satisfied that I squeezed in one more Singapore food experience before getting on my flight back to Australia.

Indian Food


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Filed Under: Travel Blog Tagged With: market, singapore

About James Clark

James Clark is the founder of Nomadic Notes. He has been a digital nomad since 2003, and Nomadic Notes features trip reports, train travel articles, and where to stay guides. He writes about transport and urban development at Future Southeast Asia. Subscribe to the weekly travel newsletter.

Comments

  1. Escape Hunter says

    April 18, 2015 at 8:19 am

    It’s an alluring place – one of my favourites for hanging out in Singapore. At night it gets so jam-packed with people, the tables and chairs and the entire eating frenzy gets spread out onto the streets around!

    Reply
    • James Clark says

      April 18, 2015 at 8:28 am

      Good to know! I was wondering if there was life after office hours as it seems to be popular with workers.

      Reply
  2. Escape Hunter says

    April 18, 2015 at 9:07 am

    Life at Lau Pa Sat starts long after office hours, during the dark hours :)))

    Reply
  3. Brian Hill says

    May 8, 2015 at 11:43 pm

    James, what a great looking place. It looks to be well kept. I would definitely hang out there! Brian.

    Reply
  4. Oliver Jayasingh Daniel says

    October 29, 2016 at 10:26 am

    Weren’t there any other Indian food stalls?

    Reply
  5. HCorver says

    December 27, 2016 at 1:11 pm

    Excellent information! Sitting in the market right now !

    Reply
  6. Mia Oury says

    February 23, 2017 at 10:01 am

    Looks like a great place to eat and visit!

    Reply
  7. Noah21 says

    August 15, 2018 at 3:33 pm

    what time does it open and closes?

    Reply
    • James Clark says

      August 16, 2018 at 4:58 am

      It’s open 24 hours, but different stalls are open throughout the day and night.

      Reply

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Hi, I’m James Clark, and I've been travelling the world since 2003 while running a location independent travel business. Nomadic Notes is a travel blog featuring travel guides and notes from my travels.

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