The book is a first in capturing the social history of an iconic Singapore landscape and way of life. It captures the development of this social institution, from the early days of street peddlers to the consolidated hawker centres initiated in the late 1960s and early 1970s, to the food courts of the 1980s and 1990s. The book outlines the physical circumstances of street hawking, hawker centres and food courts, and traces their changing appearance, design, planning, and architecture. Together, they highlight the uniqueness of place in crafting Singapore’s landscape identity. The book also examines hawker centres as nodes of community existence, and as a mirror to the rapid process of globalization that Singapore confronts. The changing histories, geographies and economies of hawker centre food are captured in lively prose and amply illustrated with archival photos and present-day scenes.
