00:12Sorry, seats taken.
00:19Hi, I'm John, and welcome to 9 to 12.
00:23You've eaten here, your parents have eaten here, your grandparents have eaten here,
00:27maybe even your great-grandparents.
00:31But the Hawker Centre almost never happened.
00:35Today, I'm going to find out how Singapore created one of the most beloved food cultures in the world.
00:45To understand hawker culture, we need to go back to the 1950s and 60s.
00:50Singapore streets were full of roving hawkers.
00:53Street food vendors who would set up wherever they could.
00:56Back alleys, sidewalks, and roadside drains.
01:01The food was incredible, the hygiene, not so much.
01:06No clean water, no access to proper waste disposal, and food cooked right next to open drains.
01:12Did you know, in the 1950s, Singapore had over 50,000 illegal street hawkers operating across the island.
01:19They were absolutely everywhere, and the government had no idea what to do with them.
01:27So, in the 1970s, the government made a decision.
01:32Get the hawkers off the streets and into organized centres.
01:35Clean water, proper drainage, hygiene checks.
01:38It wasn't about culture, it was about public health.
01:43But then something unexpected happened.
01:45When you have 50 food stalls under one roof, Chinese, Malay, Indian, all cooking side by side,
01:52you don't just get a food court, you get a unique melting pot.
01:56Just like my rojack here.
01:57Then, in 2020, Singapore Hockey Culture was added to the UNESCO representative list of intangible cultural heritage of humanity.
02:05And it started out as a government hygiene policy.
02:10Mmm, so good.
02:20Now, what started out as a solution to a public health problem soon became a national identity.
02:26Nobody planned for that.
02:27It just sort of happened.
02:29Because the food was that good.
02:31And the people behind it were that strong.
02:35Oh, thank you.
02:39Have you tried the rojack here before?
02:40No.
02:41It's really good.
02:43One hygiene policy, one unexpected outcome, and a food culture the United Nations decided was worth saving forever.
02:49So here's my question.
02:51Which hawker dish do you think everyone in the world should try at least once?
02:55See you next time on 9 to 12.
03:10Bye.
03:11Bye.
03:12Bye.
03:13Bye.
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