The Hawker Centre

This is such a day-to-day and ubiquitous thing in Singapore and Malaysia, that it seems almost daft to write about it. But the fact is, nothing quite like this exists in Europe (and I suspect other parts of the world too..)

A hawker centre is an area of individual stalls offering no-frills local dishes at very reasonable prices. Alongside the stalls will be seating for the diners and sometimes toilets and handwashing facilities too. They can be open-air or sometimes with roofs. Most hawker centres started life in the mid-late 20th century, when the hawker stalls might be mobile / temporary affairs serving basic food to locals. But nowadays, you'll more likely find fixed stalls offering a variety of good food.

A hawker centre should not be confused with a Food Court or Hall - which is a similar-looking, but air-conditioned arrangement you will find in malls or the CBD. In Singapore at least, Food Court stalls offer inferior, franchised, 'fast food' local dishes at a higher price. It is not the same!

Hawker food will often offer some of the best examples of local dishes, perhaps even created by one family over a couple of generations - so listen to locals to find which centre and which stalls they recommend. And again in Singapore at least, most centres are unglamorous but given regular and stringent checks for hygiene by the government bodies who own them. So even for visitors, your meal will be safe as well as tasty (though perhaps not calorie free...)

East Coast Lagoon Food Village hawker centre

Typically, you wander the area to pick your dish, go and buy your drinks while you wait for it to cook, collect your meal - with which you will get chopsticks / cutlery, but no paper napkin (take tissues!) Find a seat, eat. Deposit your empty tray at the special stand. No glamour, no service or tipping, just food.

At most hawker centres in Singapore, you'll find these standard dishes: 
Chicken rice
Fried carrot cake (actually a savoury radish cake)
Roasted pork / duck etc
Char kway teow
Yong tau foo (a soup, and you pick items to throw in)
Other kinds of fried noodles! 
A 'Western style' stand
Shaved ice desserts
Freshly squeezed sugar cane juice.

If you're lucky you might also find: 
Oyster omelet (definitely worth trying!)
Satays (ditto)
Thai food, Vietnamese, any number of other styles! 

Western style dish & sugar cane juice

Some kind of noodle dish!

Satays & fresh coconut

Ice jelly sea coconut shaved ice

Another shaved ice dessert!

 My favourite Singapore hawker centres are:
Tiong Bahru hawker centre (it's upstairs from the market) for oyster omelet (there's just one guy who does them) and shaved ice desserts. 83 Seng Poh Road, Singapore

East Coast Lagoon Food Village for satays, seafood and a view out over the beach. 1220 East Coast Parkway, Singapore

Zion Food Centre for chicken rice. 70 Zion Road, Singapore

Maxwell Road Food Centre for late night something in a central location. 1 Kadayanallur St Singapore

The one I would actually avoid is Lau Pa Sat - which is the one normally sold to tourists. Yes, it's central but it's CBD prices and I have never yet had an even half decent meal in there.

Happy eating!