'People were literally staring at me': French woman heads to Chinatown for first hawker centre meal

When in a new country, many people want a taste of local flavours. 

In the context of Singapore, that often means a trip to one of the many hawker centres or coffee shops around the island.

Juliette, who goes by _yuyumee__ on TikTok, headed to one of the old-school hawker centres in Chinatown to have a taste of Singapore food. She only recently arrived in Singapore for an internship with a luxury company. 

Right out of the Chinatown MRT station, she arrives at People's Park Food Centre. The dish she's looking to try is the fiery mala hotpot.

On Wednesday (Aug 9), Juliette posted a TikTok video of this first hawker centre experience.

@_yuyumee__ Réponse à @cake_is_notmyname People were litteraly staring at me there, I guess I didn't have the dressing code adapted to Hawker Center 😂 Any recommendations for restaurants or food places in SG are very welcome🙏☺️ . . #Singapore #hawkerfood #lifeinsingapore #foodtrying #singaporelife #新加坡 #外國人 ♬ Ghibli-style nostalgic waltz - MaSssuguMusic

Initially, she was keen on giving the mala hotpot stall a go since many had recommended it to her.

While ordering mala may seem simple enough to those who've done it countless times, Juliette found it to be a bit of a challenge and eventually decided against getting food from the stall.

Instead, she opted for another dish that's "[easier] to order" at a different food stall.

Juliette seemed intrigued by the braised duck porridge and opted for it to be her first hawker centre dish. She even placed her order in Mandarin!

While she got the ordering etiquette right, Juliette may have been overdressed as compared to others in the hawker centre.

"People were literally staring at me there, I guess I didn't have the [proper] dress code [for the] hawker centre," she wrote in the caption.

Apart from that, she did not seem to have any regrets about her first hawker centre experience. 

"I was really surprised because the taste was really good," the French woman said.

Besides the taste, the portion of the dish also took Juliette by surprise. For $5, she received a hefty bowl of porridge and actually struggled to finish it all.

After such a positive first experience at a hawker centre, Juliette asked for recommendations from netizens on where else to go in Singapore for a tasty meal.

Some others were simply thankful that a foreigner was open to trying hawker food. 

"Thank you for going to our local hawker centre for food," a TikTok user commented.

Last month, there was another similar case of a foreigner giving local cuisine a go.

TikTok user Unicornheatt recently moved to Singapore from San Francisco and went all in by trying the king of fruits.

After one bite, she was convinced by the smooth and creamy texture of the Mao Shan Wang durian.

ALSO READ: Polish woman stuns internet with her Singlish and love for bak kut teh

amierul@asiaone.com

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