Before it’s gone:
Chong Pang Market & Food Centre

Hawker centres are the backbone of a community in Singapore, to many of us in the country, it is a place of nostalgia, bonding, and our everyday life.

Started as an initiative to remove illegal hawking in the 1960s, hawker centres were created to improve hygiene and remove street congestion caused by illegal hawking. Wet markets were included in this program to integrate it into a part of a neighbourhood centre.

Hawker centres have become an integral part of Singaporean culture and identity; it is our weekend family breakfast where your mom asks you to order 50 plates of food at different stalls as a 10-year-old kid, and our dinner when we head home after a long day at work, and a place to lepak (Malay for chill) with our friends for supper.

In this series, the Depths content team introduces a Hawker Centre and Market that is close and dear to our hearts – Chong Pang Market and Food Centre. Due to be revamped into a new integrated development in 2024, this development encompasses many new facilities, like an Olympic-sized swimming pool, gym and a community centre, creating a new place and more opportunities for friends and family to spend time together. The improved infrastructure would make shopping in the markets more comfortable and would improve the lives of the people in the area. But what is lost is the nostalgia, and the sights many in the area grew up with. The warm sounds of the noodle stall auntie calling you handsome/beautiful, the not-so-warm sounds of uncles having a loud conversation with beer at 10 am in the morning, and the nostalgic rugged old-fashioned look and the warmth of the weather and food. We have a lot of memories we associate with this place. We have the go-to stalls that we always frequent and stand by and overly exaggerate how good the food is. Though we are excited that the new development would increase the quality of life for the community, we are just upset that many of our childhood sights and even the soul and draw of this place would be changed to something that is unrecognizable. Therefore, we would love to introduce and bring you around this place near and dear to our hearts for you to visit and experience.

Walking here you can’t miss the iconic look of a hawker centre in Singapore – unapologetically rugged with amazing aromas that fill the air.

The sights of the crowds of people enjoying their food, living their daily lives, is a very common scenario that plays out daily, as coming to a hawker centre to fill their stomach can be a daily routine for many. It may look uninteresting but still a very beautiful sight in Singapore.

People order their food and drinks from hawker stalls like these. Hawkers serve affordable food to the people daily and are the backbones of the hawker culture, as they continue to provide delicious and affordable food to the people that come in for their daily meals.

People order their food and drinks from hawker stalls like these. Hawkers serve affordable food to the people daily and are the backbones of the hawker culture, as they continue to provide delicious and affordable food to the people that come in for their daily meals.

Some of the unique foods that can be found here.

Michael Jackson, a mixture of soy milk and grass jelly drink is a local favourite drink combo.

You Mian is a comforting noodle soup dish that is perfect for cold weather or to just satisfy your noodle cravings.

Fried Carrot cake, ironically made from radishes instead, is a popular comfort food among many, usually eaten for breakfast.

Markets are the hustle and bustle of many around the world. It is crowded, filled with people getting their daily necessities, their ingredients for tonight’s dinner or even gossiping with their friends as they shop together.  One visits markets while travelling to fully experience and understand the culture of a country. It allows you to know more about a country based on the interactions and the goods sold. It allows you to interact with the vendors and ponder about what is used in the daily cooking for the locals.  Personally, I love to take walks at markets, even locally in Singapore. I practically visited when my parents came here for their weekly groceries when I was a kid, usually for the fruits and fish. Markets in Singapore show the immense diversity of races and cultures in this country. It showcases how many cultures are mixed into one huge melting pot. It is common to see an Indian and Chinese stall side by side, and a Malay auntie buying from a Chinese shop and vice versa. It is a good way to see and understand what a culture has to offer.

An Indian vendor in the market selling many Indian spices

A variety of vendors are present in the market which allows people to get their daily ingredients for their meals. 

A vendor cutting a vegetable known as petai, which can also be called smelly bean, has a very foul smell and taste and is widely used in local cuisine.

Besides livestock and produce, Chong Pang Market features various stalls providing other sorts of goods and services for a Singaporean’s lifestyle and cultural needs.

Clothing stores are quite common in this market and usually provide affordable clothing options targeted toward the elderly. 

Pop-up stores selling electronics are pretty common in a bigger residential market like Chong Pang.

Cooking essentials like cookware are sold in the markets as well, providing for the kitchen and cooking needs of the locals. 

Having a huge Chinese population, many stalls offering religious goods and offerings are very commonly sold to cater for the religious needs of the Chinese population that still believes in a mix of Taoist, Buddhist and Chinese folk religion practices. Candy and tea are offered in prayers as a form of a treat for the deceased. Offerings made from paper such as clothing, money or even houses and servants are burned to be provided for ancestors in the afterlife. 

A childhood snack of many locals, Ice Gems, a small biscuit with royal icing are usually sold in such religious stores for offering to deceased kids. But can be bought for enjoyment and snacking. 

To end this short trip back to our childhood, we would love for you to come and see the sights and hear the sounds of what many in the area grew up with. Come down and take a short walk around and feel the nostalgia, get scolded by the food stall auntie for taking way too long for your order, enjoy the food that you got scolded for or buy your necessities from the various stall owners.