Behind every delicious hawker dish there is someone with their own story to tell. This year, hawkers got a chance to share their stories with the public on their journey to become who they are today through City Hawker Food Hunt’s “Singapore Hawker Style” video competition. Held annually since 2008, the closing ceremony for this year’s City Hawker Food Hunt was held at Boon Lay Food Centre.
The creation of 2 students from Republic Polytechnic, “Teochew Pau” was the winning video for the “Singapore Hawker Style” competition as it led the audience through hawker Richard Yeoh’s life as he took the road less travelled by. Driven by a promise to his deceased mother to look after his father, Richard made a decision to become a hawker to ease his father’s burden and eventually inject his own ingenuity into the business.
Acting Minister for Culture, Community and Youth Lawrence Wong was the guest of honour at the ceremony where he presented the grand prize to the winning team and more than 40 certificates to the winning stalls from the food categories of Kway Chap, Prawn Noodles, Nasi Padang and Oyster Omelette. Chomp Chomp Food Centre was unbeatable again this year as it came up tops in the public vote for the “My Favourite Hawker Centre” award for the third year running. Sub-awards including “Cleanest Hawker Centre Award”, “Most ‘Healthier Choice’ Award” and “Most Authentic Hawker Food Award” were also given out at the closing Ceremony as well.
Another new initiative that was started this year, “101 reasons why I love Hawker Food”, also saw enthusiastic response by the public. Far from being just affordable and delicious, it provided an opportunity to gleam into the cultural and emotional significance of hawker food to Singaporeans and foreigners alike.
This year also saw an unprecedented support for City Hawker Food Hunt by the public as the vote for Singapore’s favourite Oyster Omelette achieved a record 6,633 votes, the highest recorded since the event started.
At the closing ceremony, Mr Ng Yong Hwee, President and CEO of City Gas Pte Ltd said, “City Hawker Food Hunt began as a way to give back to our hawker community by appreciating and commemorating their hard work and effort. We have now grown to be so much more and it has been a wonderful way to bring us closer to our hawker partners. City Gas will continue to work towards the goal of preserving the unique experience of eating at hawker centres for generations of Singaporeans to come.”
A donation of $3,000 was presented to Mr Wong, for “Boon Lay Hawker’s Association” at the closing ceremony.
City Hawker Food Hunt is jointly organized by City Gas and Shin Min Daily News and supported by the National Environment Agency (NEA) and Health Promotion Board (HPB).