Do you know that Singapore’s oldest hawker retired only recently at the age of 90, while the average age of new entrants is 34? 

These were among the findings that emerged from my second extended exploration into the world of hawkers in Singapore. In 2007, I was the happy author of Singapore Hawker Centres: People, Places, Food. I had always wanted to chronicle this evolving institution, and the National Environment Agency (NEA), in inviting me to write the book then, had given me just the opportunity to turn hawker centre trips into “field work”.