Initially started as a hawker food hunt competition, City Hawker Food Hunt has evolved over the past four years to become one of the forerunners in campaigning to raise awareness of the hard life of the hawker. The overarching theme of the food hunt competition, “I Love Hawker Food”, which started last year, will continue be used in this year’s City Hawker Food Hunt. This theme aims to rally Singaporeans who love and appreciate hawker food together, as well as raising awareness of the hard life of a hawker. Last year, responses from the public hit a record high of 20,000 voters for “My Favourite Hawker Centre” category.
This year’s opening launch for the City Hawker Food Hunt took place at Block 117 Aljunied 117 Hawker which saw Host Adviser Ms Tin Pei Ling, Member of Parliament for Marine Parade GRC, and City Hawker Food Hunt committee distributing “I Love Hawker Food” decals and City Hawker Food Hunt customised aprons to the stalls as tokens of appreciation. These tokens of appreciations are distributed to these hawkers in recognition for their effort in cooking up tasty local favourites that are uniquely Singapore.
For the fifth consecutive year, City Gas and Shin Min Daily News are co-organisers of the 8-month long search for Singapore’s best Hawker food, and will also crown the public’s Favourite Hawker Centre. Since the launch of the event in 2008, many hawkers have been eagerly contacting City Gas and Shin Min, to find out the following year’s food category as they were keen to participate. One of the winning hawkers for the “coffee and toast” category printed the “City Hawker Food Hunt” logo on to each and every coffee cup he served to his customers signifying his pride in receiving the awards.
This year, the public will get to vote which hawker stall serves up the best Nasi Briyani, Fishball Noodles, Vegetarian food and Lor Mee. Each month, one food category will be up against other hawker stalls selling the same hawker food. Public will vote for the respective “King of the Kings” among the hawker stalls selling this food category accordingly. On top of the food categories, the public will also be rallied to vote generously for their Favourite Hawker Centre.
Mr Ng Yong Hwee, President and CEO of City Gas Pte Ltd, commenting on this year’s City Hawker Food Hunt, “When City Hawker Food Hunt was first started in 2008, we never expected this humble food hunt to evolve into such magnitude. Now, City Hawker Food Hunt no longer is simply just a hawker food competition, but it is also the only campaign in Singapore that raises awareness of the hard life of a hawker and champions their choice of livelihood.”
In their steadfast dedication in giving back to the community, City Hawker Food Hunt invited 60 senior citizens from Geylang West Old Folks Home and senior citizens residing in the Macpherson neighbouring estate to join in the opening ceremony. These senior citizens are given goodie bags with essential household items as a token of appreciation for coming down to join in the opening ceremony.
The campaign has received support from Members of Parliament who attended as Guest-of-Honours to previous years’ opening and closing ceremonies. They are Dr. Amy Khor, Minister of State, Ministry of Health, Mayor, South West District & Deputy Government Whip, Mr Lim Boon Heng, previously Minister in Prime Minister’s Office and Mr Zainudin Nordin, Member of Parliament for Bishan-Toa Payoh GRC and Mr Sam Tan, Senior Parliamentary Secretary, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports & Mayor, Central Singapore District.
City Hawker Food Hunt is supported by the National Environment Agency (NEA), Health Promotion Board (HPB) and the Singapore Tourism Board (STB), Singaporeans will vote for their favourite food categories via SMS or online through a dedicated website (https://www.cityenergy.com.sg/).
Additionally, a collection of the past 4 years’ winning stalls will be published into a book which includes recipes on how to cook the various food categories healthily. The book, supported by the national event partners is targeted to launch during the closing ceremony of the event in November this year