Hui Lin Tan

I grew up in Tiong Bahru — the oldest public housing estate in Singapore, and the neighbourhood with the best hawker culture in a city that invented hawker culture. Singapore has more Michelin stars per capita than almost anywhere in the world and two of them are hawker stalls — a char kway teow wok and a chicken rice shop. I know which hawker centre at 6am has the best bak kut teh, which laksa stall in the Katong area uses the specific fresh cockles that make the difference, and why the Singapore chicken rice is a completely different dish from Hainanese chicken rice and why that distinction matters.