We got up exceptionally early on a Saturday to attend the hawker event. After much deliberation we decided that to give the organizers time to get their act together, we should not arrive first thing but give them about an hour to get ready. It seems everyone had the same idea and we could see a long line snaking outside when we arrived. Luckily for us, it was a gorgeous day and after the spell of horrible cold and wet weather we had, being in line outside on a nice warm day was not too bad. Even better yet, a couple of our friends who lived right by the park were in line 45 minutes ahead of us and we managed to join them right at the entrance and saved ourselves a long wait. All the Singaporeans got a goodie bad which turned out to be quite disappointing - mostly stuff we played as kids and write-ups on how those games are played - zero point and five stones etc.
Needless to say, the place was really crowded with long lines in front of every single food stall. We were previously given strict instructions that only one portion would be given per person. Since we have different interests and have no intention of spending the rest of our day in a line, Doremon's group went to her hokkien mee stand and the rest of us lined up at the laksa stand. Our line was moving much faster so we got Doremon to join our line, played nice to the hawkers and managed to get extra portions! We then re-joined the hokkien mee stand and through the same process, managed to eat 4 things in an hour and a half. It's not the best food we had and we did not eat what we set out to try. Hokkien mee was not served yet and we got Char Kway Teow. The chicken rice and the nasi lemak lines were crazy long so we did not even bother trying.
Even so, I was really happy. We left just when the entertainment was starting to get annoying, with bottles of Hainanese chicken rice chili in hand, to a patch of grass, and a relaxing afternoon reading and playing five stones. Pure bliss. Dare I say, I heart New York too.
