A short five- to seven-minute walk from our hotel, and we were at our dinner location, Lau Pa Sat, a hawker center in the heart of the central business district. There’s no direct parallel to hawker centers in the U.S. It’s like a giant food court. However, unlike the ones in America, which tend to be part of a larger mall complex, this one is a destination in itself. Additionally, most of the shops and stalls appear to be small, mom-and-pop establishments, unlike the larger chain restaurants typically seen in the U.S.

We probably asked the concierge at The Fullerton Hotel for a recommendation of a nearby hawker center. What I didn’t know until I researched this post is the historic significance of Lau Pa Sat. It’s designated as a National monument of Singapore.

The facility began as a fish market and was relocated to its current location in 1894. It remains one of the oldest Victorian structures in Southeast Asia and one of the first to be pre-fabricated in Asia, of cast iron. You can see the wonderfully ornate green metalwork and the old-timey feel. A rarity in modern high-tech Singapore.

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