Sometimes I sure don’t. There’s a buffet looking hawker stall near where we live. I’m sure there’s one in almost every hawker center. Anyhow, there is a wide range of choices, but there aren’t any labels telling you what the foods actually are.
You just have to look, guess, hope and point. Sometimes you make good choices, sometimes you don’t, but maybe that’s half the fun of eating the stuff?
What prompted this is that a few nights ago my wife and I were eating and I chose food from that particular hawker stall. When I sat down, my wife said, “Oh! What’s that!” And, I had to admit that I had no clue!
Luckily, most of it tasted good.
Bradley Farless 
I still have no idea what half the stuff they serve is, but I'm getting better at remembering which ones are worth eating. When I eat there now I tend to go for the same stuff every time, just to be safe.It's funny you should mention US Chinese dishes. I was not prepared for real Chinese food. At all. I miss the Americanized version of Chinese food more than I enjoy the real thing in a lot of cases, but that's probably because it's what I grew up with.Thanks for the compliments on the blog. I'm glad you're enjoying reading it.
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Sweet and sour pork on the right (bit like general tso's in the states)Chicken and onions in the middle (i think…)And bok choy is correct.Very interesting blog with a interesting perspective. I'm a Singaporean who lived in America for a while, so it's really fun to see how our perspectives differ on so many things. I'm going to start commenting here and there 🙂
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@Rowena: People in Singapore do generally understand English, but to varying degrees. Trying to discuss what ingredients are in each selection would be beyond their ability, as simple questions like “Is that meat or a vegetable?” often result in confused stares. Not to mention there's usually a line of people behind you. So, I just pick things that look somewhat tasty.@TC: There were two different types of meat in this. The one on the right was probably pork. It was sweet and spicy. The meat towards the left was somewhat salty, but I thought it tasted like chicken.@Anonymous: I've often been told that Americans consume more meat on average than people from most other countries. Typically, I eat more vegetables because after living in Singapore for so long my diet is changing. Sometimes I go nuts though. ^_^
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Wow, too little vegies on your plate. I'm feeling constipated by looking at the plate of food. Hehehe. 🙂
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That was pork (the kind I would order), plus “bok choy” and rice…Prok is prolly imported from Oz or Indonesia, veggies from malaysia or indon, and rice is thai 😛
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Arggh! Well I better brush up on Malay if I'm ever to visit there. Figuring that english is the official language, it would have been a snap for you to ask what those items were, but seeing that you didn't leaves me disappointed. They could just make cute animal signs of what protein is in there, but I'll admit that it would be upsetting if I saw something like…rat, dog or cat. :-o!
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