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Along with shopping,
eating
ranks as the Singaporean national pastime. An enormous number of food outlets cater for this obsession, and strict government regulations ensure that they are consistently hygienic. The mass of establishments serving
Chinese
food reflects the fact that Chinese residents account for more than three quarters of the population.
North and South Indian
cuisines give a good account of themselves too, as do restaurants serving
Malay, Indonesian, Korean, Japanese
and
Vietnamese
food. The closest Singapore comes to an indigenous cuisine is
Nonya
, a hybrid of Chinese and Malay food that developed following the intermarrying of nineteenth-century Chinese immigrants with Malay women. Several specialist Chinese restaurants and a number of Indian restaurants serve
vegetarian food
, but otherwise vegetarians need to tread very carefully: chicken and seafood will appear in a whole host of dishes unless you make it perfectly clear that you don't want them.
By far the cheapest and most fun place to dine in Singapore is in a
hawker centre
or
food court
, where scores of stalls let you mix and match dishes at really low prices. Otherwise there's a whole range of
restaurants
to visit, ranging from no-frills, open-fronted eating houses and coffee shops to sumptuously decorated establishments. Most open 11.30am-2.30pm and 6-10.30pm daily.
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