Digital Guidebook

The tour, minus the tour guide’s schedule.

We’ve walked Chinatown with hundreds of travellers. This guide is what we tell them, written down, mapped, and in your pocket whenever you’re ready to go.

Nine dishes, explained properly: not just what they’re called, but who brought them here and how to eat them right. Dip the toast in the egg. Don’t queue for claypot rice, it’s cooked to order. Mix the nasi lemak; don’t pick it apart.

Four food centres mapped, and nearly forty stalls, cafés and bars and restaurants sorted by time of day, exact address, live map links, dietary marks, and price bands (so “$” never turns into an unpleasant surprise). 

You will learn how Chinatown got its name from a 19th-century water cart, why a neighbourhood built for Chinese immigrants has a mosque, a Hindu temple and Buddhist shrine on the same street. More importantly, the practical stuff : cash, chope-ing a seat, sharing a table, all the practicalities that a first-timer won’t think to ask about.

No sponsored listings, no stalls that paid to be in here. Going to hawker markets can be a little intimidating with the sheer variety of food on offer. At the end of it, we want to share great food with people who need a little help finding the real deal.