Or can you?
While I was eating my plate of roast duck and rice from a hawker stall I noticed that another hawker had an ‘A’ rating placard. The Singapore hawkers are graded A-B-C-D according to cleanliness with inspections every six to eight weeks. There is some dispute over whether the system is effective — 150 people got food poisoning in April from one stall — but as a foreigner my stomach is still fairly sensitive so I will take any assurances offered.
Posting grades is mandatory but widely ignored and many customers ignore the ratings as well. Some people claim there is a bias toward high-end shopping centers while other stall owners simply say they do not have the time. One man quoted in the news said that if his stall is dirty, he will be the first to die.
Lovely.
Dangerous . . . that duck is so dangerous. Along with the rest of the world, Michael Jackson is everywhere. The Navy Exchange is playing him nonstop, the radio stations are playing tributes and local nightclubs are giving free drinks to people who dress in all black or white.
I realized that I had not checked to see the rating of the stall where I purchased my lunch and groaned when I saw a C rating. And then my stomach really flipped when I realized that the ‘C’ belonged to the stall next door and mine had nothing posted.
Two days later I appear to be relatively normal.
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
Oh noooo! I stand corrected.
The duck was bad, was bad, you know it?