Chinatown Food Street Singapore

The Chinatown Food Street is finally back in business and reopened on Saturday, Feb 22, 2014. Last Friday, my friend and I went there for some tea break after visiting the Singapore Food Trail and Singapore Flyer.

The 100-metre street, located at Smith Street, has undergone a $5 million facelift which includes a high-ceiling glass shelter and a built-in cooling system. Glad that there's a roof so that we can still dine there on a rainy day but seems like the rain is absent for so many weeks in Singapore. Hope the rain will visit us soon.

There are 24 street hawker shops, six shophouse restaurants and several street kiosks on the food street which will open from 11am to 11pm daily.

There'a statue of the Samsui Woman at the top of the road sign infront of the food street. Majority of the samsui woman lived in Chinatown during the early days. They were a great contribution to the building of Singapore. You can read the history of them from infopedia.

There's still some minor construction works going at the street.

The first stall we hit must be the drinks stall, we were so hot and thirsty after a whole morning outing lol. I did not even remember to take photo of the food we ate lol.

There were still many stalls but too tired to go round taking each stall.

You can view the map of Smith Street from here.

Chinatown Chinese New Year Celebrations 2014 Street Light-Up Ceremony - Part 2

Every Chinese New Year, these dried goods are a must and favourite with all chinese, from chinese sausages, waxed ducks, pig's feet, etc.

These waxed pig's feet were made months before chinese new year and can kept for a long time.

They were so tough that the stall holder need a saw to cut them.

Red Raddish plant for sale, they are popular during Chinese New Year cause the radish is known as 菜头 in mandarin which proniciation sounds like (好)彩头 which means "good luck".

I think this is lily bulb (correct me if I am wrong)

Lucky bamboo for sale, it curved at the top.

Free sample of mochi

Saw this stall selling these cardboard crafts, hubby interested in the war ship.

If you have been to Macau, you will be familar with this famous Kok Kei Pastry Shop, they now have a branch in Singapore Chinatown. No need to travel to Macau to get these pastry anymore lol.

Handmade pineapple tarts spotted at one of the stalls.

This stall is popular but I think it helps to have on site a handy man to show the arts of making the shoes.

Cheong Sum or Qipao for sale - looked so pretty and inexpensive

Lanterns made from chinese new year red packets or ang pow.

If you are interested to learn how to make lanterns using the chinese new year red packets you can view the tutorial from You Tube. But needs lot of patience

Chinatown Chinese New Year Celebrations 2014 Street Light-Up Ceremony Part 1

Last weekend, I was at Chinatown to view the Street Light Up Official Opening for Chinese New Year 2014.

Chinatown was jam packed with so many people and I could not view the stage cause most gathered around the stage area to watch the performance.

It was better to be further from the stage where the crowd is thinner.

This year the decorations were very beautiful as compared to previous years. The many mascost of the horses were a welcoming sight to welcome the Year of the horse.

I took several photos and decided to head for dinner instead of waiting for the ceremony to start.

After dinner, I went back in time to witness the switching on of the street lights. It was so beautiful indeed.

Short video of the switching on of the lights - the lights come out somewhere in the middle of the video.

After watching the switching on of the steets lights, am not sure when the fireworks would start, so we went shopping at the Bazaar and around 9 pm we made our way back to the main road to try to catch the fireworks. We will so lucky that in less than a minute the firecrackers started as we were there, did not waste any time waiting lol. Following the firecrackers, the fireworks started so sudden and I have no time to adjust my camera so it explained the poor video of the fireworks. The auto focus was confusing with the motion of the fireworks as the fireworks were fired from the pedestrian bridge just above us. It seem so close to us as if the fireworks would fall on us, a beautiful sight and the mood of Chinese New Year was there. So sorry for the blur video.

Chinatown Heritage Centre Part 3

Living condition during the past were very poor, the corridor were narrow and dark and each unit can houses several cubicles of families.

They have to share a common kitchen and bathroom.

In the past, people cannot afford to purchase a refrigerator so they kept their food in small cabinet and hang them up to prevent rats from crawling in.

Can guess that this room belongs to a family who either makes or sell shoes.