牛车水 - niú chē shuǐ - Singapore's Chinatown. The name means "Ox Cart Water" and is a name that is held over from a time when this area was a watering ground for oxen. Chinatown is a storied, old neighborhood now full of delicious food, shops, and many temples, like quiet Thian Hock Keng.
Once a notoriously dangerous neighborhood, Chinatown has been cleaned up like the rest of Singapore. In the past the iconic three-story shophouses had a very dark purpose. Often, the top floors held opium dens and gambling halls owned by rival gangs or triads. The second floor held "dying houses" where the superstitious would leave sick and dying relatives. On the ground floors were the coffin workshops. Now these cheerfully colorful little shops sell souvenirs and trinkets along the clean and very atmospheric streets. The "Food Street" is a stretch of pedestrian road set up with stalls built to look like old food carts. Like the rest of Singapore, it is efficiently organized.
Singapore's most famous food isn't actually found along Food Street, but at the nearby Maxwell Food Center, the city's most popular "hawker center" food court. This is where you can find Singapore's favorite unofficial national dish: chicken rice.
Although it doesn't sound like anything special, chicken rice is the country's most popular dish for a good reason. Cheap and filling, this no-frills hawker dish is a local favorite, and I came back to have it more than once during my week in Singapore.
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