Hawker Colours: Melamine Tableware in Singapore

They refer not to the green of chendol or the red of mee goreng but the riot of colourful melamine plates and bowls in which many hawker dishes in Singapore are served today. Red, green, yellow, purple, pink, and more!

These colours defy conventional aesthetic sensibilities, and yet they have become entrenched in local hawker centres and coffee shops. Hawker Colours retraces their origins and mass adoption, and asks what value they still hold as the trade adapts to the changing needs of the city-state.

— from In Plain Words

I find the bright melamine plates in singapore's hawker centres ((even back then, our canteen food!!)) hold more than just food- they hold memories of community & everyday life. As these colours slowly fade from the scene, I wonder what stories and moments we are letting slip away. it makes me realize how memory is a fragile balance between holding on and forgetting, shaping who we are both individually as a society.


— Aqilah, QUPL