Most people believe that the Michelin guide is all about very expensive meals in fine dining restaurants. But guess what! A hawker stall in Singapore, known as the Hong Kong Soya Sauce Chicken Rice And Noodle has made history earlier this year, when it became one of the first street food stands in the world to be awarded a Michelin star. The best part of all is that this street food stand in Singapore is the cheapest Michelin-starred restaurant in the world, where you can try Chef Chan Hon Meng’s signature chicken rice dish for just $1,42.
The Chinatown Complex is Singapore’s largest hawker center, where every kind of street food gets served at affordable rates. If you are traveling to Singapore, you got to visit this place, because there is always something for everyone. With countless street food stalls in this area, it’s only natural to see people queuing up to buy food. But one particular queue that extends across the heart of the Chinatown complex every single day, has prompted spectators to take out their mobile phones cameras, take photos and share them on social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram. If you are wondering, where this long queue leads to, it’s none other than the Hong Kong Soya Sauce Chicken Rice and Noodle, now proudly popular as the street food stall with a Michelin star.
This hawker stall with its lit-up sign and rows of cooked chicken hanging from hooks is not that extraordinary by Singaporean standards. In fact, it looks like any other chicken stall that can be found in hawker centers across Singapore. But the award from the most prestigious food guide in the world has catapulted the food stall and its chef, Chan Hon Meng, to immense popularity. Moreover, it is the price that makes Hong Kong Soya Sauce Chicken Rice and Noodle the most affordable Michelin-starred food stall. Here a plate of rice and soya sauce chicken costs just S$2, which is less than half of what a Big Mac at McDonald’s costs.
It’s a test of patience and endurance, not just for customers but also for the workers because the stall has no air-conditioning, and the heat and steam from the surrounding stalls just adds to the humid, hot atmosphere. The chef has two helpers who take orders, check on the cooking meats and serve rice.
