FOOD CENTRE ETIQUETTE

10 January 2021 | A unique part of the hawker centre culture in Singapore is that people will leave a packet of tissues near their seat and go off and get food. When you see this, you know that someone has claimed that seat.

Some foreigners have come in and just assumed that those tissues were placed there as a courtesy and will sometimes accidentally take the seat (our colleague actually did it on his first trip to Singapore 😜)

Because the country is so safe, you can also find all kinds of other things left on the table, mostly commonly a mobile phone or a backpack or bag. When we first arrived in Singapore, it made me uncomfortable at first to ‘reserve’ the table in advance prior to getting food. I’ve quickly adjusted and learned how to be a Singaporean.