Original subtitles

Spotless...

efficient...

safe...

protected...

controlled.

♪

A utopian city-state

run like a multinational company.

Welcome to Singapore, Incorporated.

♪

♪ I took a walk through this ♪

♪ Beautiful world

♪ Felt the cool rain on my shoulder ♪

♪ Found something good in this ♪

♪ Beautiful world

♪ I felt the rain getting colder ♪

♪ La, la

♪ Sha la, la, la, la

♪ Sha la, la, la, la

♪ Sha la, la, la

♪ Sha la, la, la, la

♪ Sha la, la, la, la, la

♪

Singapore.

One could be forgiven for thinking

it's a giant, ultramodern shopping mall.

♪

An interconnected, fully wired,

air-conditioned nanny state

where everything is beautiful

and nothing hurts.

And those things are kind of true,

especially if you read the papers

or the carefully-monitored Internet.

♪

You look around the litterless streets

where everything seems to work just fine,

and you think... or you could be forgiven for thinking...

"Gee, maybe a one-party system is just what we need."

♪

You look at all the social problems and ethnic strife,

street crime, drugs,

that Singapore has managed to avoid,

and you could think,

"Is this the life we want?"

It ain't my system.

It's not the world I want.

But damn, it...

has its appeal.

♪

Hi.

This is Singapore.

Jam-packed in between

the carefully feng-shui'd architecture,

the skyscrapers and office blocks,

are rich, deep, very old,

and deliciously funky remnants of the old world.

Chinese, Indian, Malay...

And a culture that still cherishes the joys

of a simple good thing.

A lot of national foods you can get in Singapore.

What's your favorite?

My favorite is, in Malay,

we call it mie goreng.

That's your favorite Malay dish.

What's your favorite Chinese dish?

- Chinese, [indistinct] - [indistinct]

- Sometimes chicken rice. - Chicken, of course.

Yes.

How about favorite Indian dish?

Definitely nutty biryani. You know that?

- The biryani. - Yeah, biryani, right.

You got it.

- [indistinct] Road, right? - Yes, yes.

That's the best laksa is on [indistinct] Road.

Funny, I recognize every place here by food.

- Tony, how are you? - Good, good.

My brother.

So what blows you back to Singapore?

You know why I come here. I come here to eat.

I live here to eat, too.

♪

I come here mostly to eat

because that's what they do here.

And they arguably do it better

with more diverse, affordable food options

per square foot

than just about anywhere on Earth.

♪

My godfather and mentor for Singaporean street food

has always been, and remains, KF Seetoh,

the guru behind the Makansutra food guides

and an advocate for the kind of democratic,

affordable, casual chaos

of the hawker world.

- So this is the dry lamb. - Thank you.

- Thank you. Enjoy. - Thank you.

Okay, so wet and dry? Wet and dry.

The heat gets you a bitter broth.

545 Whampoa Prawn Noodles for prawn mi

seemed a good place to start.

You are here because Ruifang, this girl who served us,

she is one of the new heroes,

the new generation heroes... Right.

That's out to protect and preserve our food culture.

You know I've been talking about

continuity for the longest time.

I mean, I know you want to see traditional recipes

and preparations preserved.

I'm here to preserve what's traditional.

What's progressive... Progressive heritage food

has a space, but if you're too creative

with your stuff... You start putting truffle oil

and this kind of stuff...

Well, that's wrong always.

Here's my thing... creativity is not a flavor, Tony.

Most hawker stalls are family-run operations.

And Whampoa is no exception.

What's unusual is that Li Ruifang

left her white-collar job to work alongside her parents,

bucking a trend that has left the hawker centers

with an aging workforce,

unable to replenish generations of expertise

with new blood.

If you look around, Tony, you look at all the hawkers,

more than 70%, 80% of them are 50 and above.

So the tipping point will come where everybody just give up.

They're stalled, because their children have gone

to university.

They have told them, yeah, go... Go be a doctor, lawyer.

Go be something else other than a hawker.

But the Singaporean government wants to build more stalls...

More, better, modern.

20 more hawker centers, actually.

20 more hawker centers.

Which I say, where the hell are the hawkers coming from?

- Well, that's a good question. - Yeah, yeah.

Where are they gonna come from?

There's a lot of insinuations of an answer but no true answer.

I mean, the answer's not from Singapore, right?

They're gonna have to come in from China.

For the 15,000 or 20,000 food stalls

I guess we have in Singapore,

if it's public-run like this,

you can't hire foreigners.

It's meant for Singaporeans.

But isn't the beginning of all of this...

Was people from China, India...?

That's why I keep saying

our food came from...

- Somewhere. - The rest of the world.

Yeah, we had nothing.

And in that tradition, I say,

we must continue.

Ah, "For Rent: Cooked Food Stall."

We should do a... do a pop-up.

Get my apron.

♪

Stamford Raffles arrived in Singapore in 1819

with the British East India Company,

establishing it first as a trading post

for the British empire.

♪

Soon thereafter, Singapore grew,

quickly becoming an economic hub

and regional capital for the British empire's

new colony on the Malay Peninsula.

After World War II,

Singapore clamored for independence,

first becoming a part of the Malaysian Federation

then a fully independent state in 1965.

Helmed by its first prime minister, Lee Kuan Yew,

tiny Singapore famously went from a third-world outpost

to a first-world nation in a single generation.

♪

- In Singapore... - Yep.

Rules of negligence in Singapore is very strict.

We have to follow them.

Like, I'm... I drive taxi. Right.

I can't break any law.

So the camera catches you?

Yeah, everything's in camera.

It's very important everywhere.

We have to follow the laws of negligence.

That's the reason Singapore is very good.

♪

Singaporeans are very hard-working persons.

As human beings, what we need...

Food to eat, clothes to wear,

place to sleep.

You can get in Singapore.

So, in other words,

we have to continue work.

You working, you get something. Once lazy, we're out.

By some measures, Singapore is a welfare state,

taking care of the less fortunate.

But at its heart, it's a cold-blooded meritocracy.

You follow the rules (and there are many),

work hard, and you will have a good life.

That's the message.

♪

We are starting to define the definition of success.

I mean, before, we are very clear with the five C's:

car, condominium, a credit card,

uh, cash, and career.

Wow, that sounds awful, dude.

- Yeah, dude. - I mean...

I grew up in that idea. I grew up in...

- That's not good. - Yeah, exactly.

It sounds kind of depressing.

I know, but that's... That's the past, I think.

The Muslim quarter, just following afternoon prayers.

I'm here with Najip Ali,

the Singaporean-Malay entertainer and producer.

Ah, okay.

- Oh, looking good. - This is it.

- So this is... - Lontong.

- Lontong. And this... - This is mee siam.

Wow. We're having lontong:

rice cake, coconut gravy, vegetables and a hardboiled egg.

And mee siam: fried rice noodles

with chili paste, prawns, bean sprouts,

and a spicy, sweet-and-sour gravy,

fried bean curd, and an egg.

- Mmm. - Delicious.

I mean, we like to make fun of Singapore in the West...

Call it Disneyland with the death penalty.

And we're... we're skeptical, of course, of one-party rule.

We're skeptical of constraints on freedom of the press

or with the things you... Can't do.

- Can't do. - Yeah, you can't, yeah.

Do you think that young, creative Singaporeans

feel those constraints and suffer from them?

I think some of them who travel knows better.

Most of them are overeducated and under-exposed,

meaning they are... they have very little experience

in what they know.

And I think that's what we are lacking.

They are looking for things to do.

And the problem with this is always that we're living

in a small country, and we have nowhere to go

and where to experience these things.

If you're in New York and you don't like the city life,

you say, "Shit, I'm..." You say, "I'm not gonna..."

You can say "shit" on the show.

I'm gonna say this.

I think we have two more on this hour.

That was one.

"I'm going to get out of the city."

So you go to Minnesota, you go to Texas.

- Right. - You take time to think about.

And even in Malaysia, when you are in Kuala Lumpur,

and you go to, like... you go to Terengganu, you go to Kuantan.

We have nowhere to go.

Not only is Singapore a small city-state

a little more than half the size of LA,

but there's also a pressure of a kind

from a Big Brother government who's always watching,

however benevolently one might think.

Every day as an entertainer,

as a producer and director, we are reminded what not to do.

Don't insult other races. Don't insult other religion.

There are some parameters that we always need to stick by.

- Right. - I think, as a creative person,

I think we are always trying to work out.

And I think that's challenging for us,

and again, most of the things that I do on television

is funded by the government.

So, you know, so what...

You're biting the hand that feeds you.

But our job is basically, as entertainer,

just to purely entertain.

And we know there a line that we can't cross.

Religion, our ancestors, our parents.

You know, things like that. So it's...

You can't make fun of your parents?!

In comedy?

Uh, if your own parent, it's okay.

How about your, I mean, family member...

Yeah, but I get high marks when they... you know,

they can give you a twist to a story of a mother-in-law.

Right. Oh, mother-in-law's okay.

Yeah, mother-in-law's okay.

Why does a mother-in-law always get the joke?

I don't know.

♪

So, on the basic level, Singapore works in so many ways:

security, your family, education.

- Housing? - Housing.

So in a way, you're kind of numbed into thinking that

you know, everything's wonderful.

♪

And then you start to wonder after a while,

"Is there another way of life?"

You know, I think that's the big kind of Singapore dilemma,

in a way. So is there angst?

- Yeah. - Is there angst?

- It's angst. - But I think there's no...

There's no outlet for it.

So everybody's, you know, like going online,

and everybody likes to be anonymous about it.

Even online, they have paid the price for it.

People have been let go of their jobs,

and that... that's the price that we have to pay.

The price may seem pretty high by American standards:

no political dissent, no right to assembly,

a restricted press,

and limited freedom of speech.

Sadir Varaket, Melanie Chan, and Tanya Andoor...

All Singaporeans, all navigating the rules and regs,

both spoken and unspoken,

that go along with prosperity, security, safety.

Lor 29 in Geylang.

For fried oyster omelets and fried prawns

with chili paste.

Bak chor mee:

fish ball noodle soup

and beef satay.

I think one of the issues is that

we're kind of a victim of our own success in many ways.

We've grown so fast, and I guess expectations

among the liberals and progressives

have just so far ahead, including myself,

that sometimes, you know, we...

We need a reality check about what society...

What pace society can move at.

So I think that's a tension, is that

economic growth has happened so quickly.

- Yeah. - And sometimes social mores,

social customs, might take a bit more time.

You know, a place where everything works this well...

And a system so seemingly different than...

Than we are taught to venerate.

Uh, that's genuinely confusing.

So what's the best thing about Singapore,

and what's the worst thing about Singapore?

I think best things are tolerance

and efficiency.

But you know, if you just look around us right now, right,

you know, there's like...

There's like a mosque over there.

There's a Buddhist temple over there.

There're like a bunch of brothels over there.

Prostitutes walking the street, legally.

They're regulated by the government.

And everybody has kind of accepted this...

This quid-pro-quo situation.

Um, and it somehow works.

Okay, you were shaking your head, though,

on something he was saying.

No, I... I agree, but to be feeling so secure

and the security of it all,

I think that's priceless, you know?

It's like, I'll do what I have to do

to be able to afford to live well here.

I'll work hard, I'll tolerate,

and, you know, and even then,

it's not that bad.

When it comes to me voicing certain things

which maybe the government doesn't agree with,

I feel I have outlets that don't have to be public.

Right? Okay.

And I'm okay with that.

You... you talk about feeling safe.

Yeah, security.

Uh, do you feel respected?

Definitely.

I do.

Do you feel that there's parity for women

and you are paid and treated as well as men?

- Yes. - Yes, I think so.

- Yes. - You know why?

I think that's because of maids.

- What are maids? - Maids, as in helpers.

- Maids. - Helpers.

I think you'll find I actually...

If you look at Singapore, a lot of women in the workforce.

And the reason why that is so is because

everybody's got a maid

looking after their child at home.

So maids are kind of like the opiate of the masses.

But an opiate gives you

slothful and laying home... Exactly!

Exactly. But if you have a maid,

you're saying it frees you up to join the workforce.

It frees you up, but it also means that I...

My husband now, he doesn't know how to serve himself water.

- Yeah. - He goes, he goes...

"Eh, water." Like that.

- Laundry? - Sorry?

- You do laundry? - No.

- Laun-what? - Really?

No.

Does anyone here know how to do laundry?

- We know how to do it. - We kind of, in theory...

We haven't done it.

The guys do, 'cause we did two years of military service.

- Right. - But the girls are pampered.

Oh, mean!

When's the last time you did laundry?

When's the last time you did...

My maid was [indistinct].

- Four days ago. - Four days ago?

Really? What, you sent it to the butler?

No, no. I enjoy doing laundry.

- Yeah. - I live by myself in New York.

I live by myself in New York. Yes?

And I have to tell you, maybe it's a sickness,

maybe it's a weird thing,

I enjoy throwing my clothes into the washer

and removing them to the dryer.

It's a process that makes you feel very satisfied with myself.

- Therapeutic, yeah, yeah. - No, no.

I feel very self-reliant.

You know, listening to you people,

I got to tell you, I want to, like, go out and join

the Communist Party.

It's like, bourgeois, man.

You're... you're living off the labor of, uh,

a repressed underclass.

- Yeah, yeah, yeah. - I'm gonna start my own cell.

- No, listen. - I'm just [...] with you.

♪

For a state where an ounce of weed

can put you in the jug for up to ten years

and the same weight of dope can mean death,

where chewing gum is indeed illegal,

a surprising number of vices are allowed here.

Drinking age is 18.

Prostitution is legal,

with sex workers getting regular medical checkups.

There are casinos and strip clubs.

The government seems to understand

that along with a certain amount of repression,

safety valves are required.

Get drunk, get laid, and you are less likely

to be difficult.

Perhaps that's the thinking.

Or maybe it's just business.

♪

To many, Singapore is the land of opportunity.

People from all over the world

come here to get a good job,

to find a better life.

As an overseas Chinese,

we have been discriminated

in Laos, Thailand,

Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia,

in America, Australia...

All over the world.

Suddenly you got this, uh...

This guy called Lee Kuan Yew.

There's nowhere else in the Chinese world

have real leader as big as Lee Kuan Yew.

Much of Singapore's success is often credited

to its first prime minster, Lee Kuan Yew,

a Singaporean of Chinese descent

considered the founding father of modern Singapore.

Reigning pretty much unopposed

for 30 years, he's responsible

for much of the social engineering

that holds Singapore together,

as well as the favorable economic policies

that have allowed it to thrive.

Michael Ma arrived in Singapore

to take advantage of its business climate,

becoming an early pioneer

of Singapore's now-famous nightlife.

Back then, in the very beginning,

was it a favorable business climate in the sense that,

did they look upon your early efforts, uh,

generously or kindly,

or were they... "I'm not so sure about this guy"?

- No, no. - How was it?

Was it favorable from the beginning?

No, no, no, Singapore... No no, Singapore's fantastic.

In fact... What time did bars close?

2:00. That's where the opportunity I saw.

You know, you cannot run this economy

hopping on one leg.

Like, you got the right law,

the right safety, the right... Everything's right.

But the social part was not right.

- Right. - 2:00, you're...

You're managing a teenager.

2:00, guys. Go to bed.

So when... when did it change, and why?

I started my bars

and restaurant in '99.

Yeah? Yup.

And the prime minister of Singapore at that time went,

"What is Singapore doing?"

2005, '10, '20, '30, '50.

This is before all this. Right.

I suggest partying all night type of thing.

♪

Cheers.

Welcome Singapore.

Come enjoy with us.

I'm not very smart,

so the only way that got me through university

is just throw a lot of parties.

You know, I was good at throwing parties,

but now, I get paid to do it, which is even better.

♪

One-fifth of the world's shipping containers

moves through the port of Singapore.

It is the busiest transshipment point

on the planet.

♪

Singapore has fully embraced globalization.

And that's proved, in their case, very rewarding.

♪

Singapore's an outsized economic port

primarily because it's so attractive

to foreign entrepreneurs,

primarily in the form of multinational corporations.

So right from the start, the economic strategy

was always to attract foreign capital.

Donald Low is an economist who's spent

over ten years researching and writing

about Singapore's unique financial policies.

You know, this... this place is

almost contrary to the founders' original expectations.

This place works, and this multiethnic,

meritocratic ideal, this pragmatic,

this understand that free trade is good for everyone...

This place is, after 50 years,

it's deeply imprinted in Singaporeans.

It's remarkable how open and welcoming of diversity

Singapore still is.

We're now living in times where globalism

and globalization are bad words.

- Yeah, I know. - We're seeing a rise of...

- Populism. - Of populism, of nationalism.

Which is why, you know,

I'm worried about... concerned about Singapore's future.

This is a place that has been a main beneficiary

of globalization.

And as the world turns against globalization,

as the world becomes more inward-looking,

as countries in Europe and U.S. becomes more concerned

about protecting their own borders,

literally in the case of the U.S...

- Right. - There is a high probability

that Singapore will not thrive in such a world.

♪

A lot of social engineering

has been superimposed to hold that together.

And I think what a lot of Westerners who come to Singapore

come here skeptical

or often reluctantly pulled into...

the inescapable conclusion that it seems to work.

It seems to work. But of course,

the post-independence Singapore government has been

often accused of being extremely keen

and extremely confident in social engineering.

Of course, the most powerful instrument of social engineering

is public housing.

- Right. - We force Singaporeans,

vast majority of Singaporeans, more than 80% of them,

to live in these more or less uniform housing estates.

But that form of social engineering

also has certain benefits.

Unlike most of the wealthy developed world,

there's universal healthcare a little to no homelessness

in Singapore.

The country's public housing policy provides an astonishing

80% of Singapore's 5.6 million people

with affordable homes, with 90% of the population

owning their own home.

Singaporeans would be hard-pressed to name

a neighborhood that they would describe as a slum.

They'd be hard-pressed to name a neighborhood

where they say, "Oh, the people here are rel..."

"live in relatively deprived conditions

with poor schooling and poor amenities."

Most of Singapore feels...

I mean, even though economic inequality is high,

income inequality's high,

you don't see it in the public housing estates.

- Right. - So it's a picture

of general equality.

♪

By ensuring its citizens are safe,

housed, healthy, and for the most part

economically successful,

the Singaporean government has been effective

at keeping the masses placated enough,

willing to accept curbs on their freedoms

and civil liberties.

Do you think that the Singaporean success story

is a rebuke to American Western values

in some respect? No, no.

I mean, is free speech overrated?

I don't think we've succeeded

because of the absence of free speech.

And to a large extent... No, but look, it's a factor.

The values of free trade,

the values of a liberal global order...

These are "Western" ideas.

I mean, Singapore did not invent them.

Asia did not...

It shouldn't work.

It hasn't... it hasn't really worked like this anywhere else,

and yet it... it works.

Well, I think my... My objection,

or my... my discomfort with the lack of democratic freedom

is that I can we allow a lot more of that

without hurting Singapore's prosperity and stability

one ounce.

- Right. - What would we lose

if we had a freer press?

What would we lose

if we had more democratic opposition, representation?

It would make for not just a more lively debate.

It would make for a better debate.

We may well arrive at a conclusion that

the current dispensation, the current order,

represents good, the good... The best possible society

for Singapore, but let's have that debate.

I mean, it's a horrifying thought.

What if... what if... It's possible.

It's possible that... That the human mind,

that the average citizen cannot deal with that much diversity,

that we need these curbs and restrictions on our freedoms.

What if free speech is, like... Is bad?

It's like a drug, right?

It's too much of a good thing.

♪

Of the many ethnicities coexisting in Singapore,

one of the oldest is the Peranakan culture:

Straits-born Chinese

who immigrated through the Malay Peninsula

in the 16th century.

♪

We have a heritage

that exists in Singapore

that comprises five different ethnic groups.

If you're Chinese, if you're Malay,

if you're Indian...

You have your regular Asians

and your Peranakan.

And this makes the cuisine here

very, very special.

Cheers, Tony. Cheers.

Chef Damian D'Silva has made it his mission

to preserve and protect the knowledge, techniques,

and flavors of Singaporean heritage foods.

Guan Hoe Soon is the oldest Peranakan restaurant

in Singapore, predating independence.

So this is a dish that you properly find in Laos.

It's sour.

Um, it's sweet because of the pineapple.

Right? And it's savory as well.

♪

Ikam asam nana: sour fish curry with pineapple.

So really, we're talking about a sort of a...

You know, I hate the word "fusion,"

but it is natural fusion. It is.

It's indigenous fusion.

It's a fusion that started

500 years ago.

So now, it's evolved so much, Tony,

that it's become a heritage on its own,

a cuisine on its own.

You know? There's nothing, I think, that...

That is like this anywhere in the world.

Yeah.

Thank you.

Duck, okay, yeah, that's duck. Braised duck, it looks like.

Itek sio: duck braised with tamarind and coriander.

And the famous lady fingers,

or sambar [indistinct]: okra sautéed with sambal.

Who's cooking now? Has that changed?

It has changed.

You know, everybody wants to go up

the ladder very, very quickly,

and they want to do it in a way

where they don't want to put too much effort in it.

Right? Where is the prestige in a Peranakan restaurant?

You work in a kitchen 12, 14, 15 hours a day, you know.

And most of them... most of them don't want to do that.

So what happens is that

they want to work in a French restaurant.

They want to work in an Italian restaurant.

Why? Because they get more money.

- Okay. - Okay?

I think it's a tactical mistake,

because I just flew halfway around the world...

- Yeah. - To Singapore.

And I sure as shit am not eating French food when I'm here.

No, you're right.

- And I... and you know what? - You shouldn't.

I'm not gonna eat Japanese food.

You shouldn't.

So when you talk about Peranakan cuisine,

right, and are there people that cook it today?

I can tell you, out of 100 Peranakans,

maybe one.

- Whoa. - Maybe one.

So you're saying that basically...

You're talking about the dinosaurs.

Yeah.

This no longer exists, Tony.

It's gone.

♪

One of the things I admire about Singaporean food culture

is that people are very passionate about food.

They value a fancy French or Italian meal

as much as they enjoy a really good chicken rice.

Right.

They're just not willing to pay for it.

Exactly. You know, that's the public that we have to educate.

And it doesn't make sense, Tony,

because we're a first-world country.

You know? How can... How can food be so cheap?

How long more is this gonna last

that we pay $3 for chicken rice?

It's insane.

I have the solution.

It's an ugly solution, it's a terrible solution,

but it... it will probably be the only salvation.

It's the hipster solution. Yeah.

It's hipsters will save the day.

No, you're right.

It takes people to stand up and say, "Look",

"I don't care whether his is $4.

"Mine is $12.

It's $12, and it's worth it."

But to go and work the restaurant,

16 hours a day,

seven days a week...

That needs someone who's not passionate

but a little bit mad.

You're telling me.

A little bit mad.

Cheers to that.

♪

- Okay... - Whoa.

We'll just let you know what we are doing.

Um, this round dish, right,

is my dad's recipe.

Hakka recipe.

So it is frittatas with black vinegar.

Yes, and this is my mom's recipe,

Hainan mixed vegetable.

Meet Liew Choy, Koh Liang, daughter Geraldine,

and sons Paul and Wayne,

the family behind long-running, much-loved eating house,

Keng Eng Kee Seafood

in the Alexandra Village neighborhood.

And, uh, your parents met in the restaurant business?

Yes, we only knew about this story when we get older

and me just starting to view them as, "Oh",

that's how they know each other."

We are typical Chinese.

They never talk about how they met, no.

In the beginning,

when they're working at your mother's

parents' restaurant,

and then in the beginning of their eating house,

how many hours a day did they work,

and how many days a week,

how many days' vacation?

12 hours a day,

and then he gets one day off every two weeks.

That's hard.

Sauce goes good with the rice.

Thank you, mmm.

It's fantastic.

Wow, that's good.

♪

Choi has been making this dish for decades:

pigs' feet cooked slowly in black vinegar,

ginger, fried chilies,

and asam.

♪

Chap chye is a Hainanese family favorite:

cabbage and glass noodles stir-fried with bean curd,

black mushrooms, pig skin,

and shrimp.

♪

Now, I've been speaking to a lot of people

who talk about how Singapore loves its hawker culture.

It loves its food.

But the general story is,

the first generation starts a hawker stall.

They get successful, they send the kids to school,

they tell them, "Do not... I did not work hard"

so you could go in the restaurant business."

My dad and mom say the same thing.

Don't come into the business.

Get a nine-to-five job.

Stay in an air-conditioned room.

Many of the people I speak to are very sad

that these original recipes and preparations

are disappearing.

You know, other than this wonderful family,

who... who do your parents think

will keep these traditions alive?

My mom was saying, like, now that the government

encourage a lot of young people to preserve our traditions

and all, so I think it should...

Even hope that ten years down the road,

maybe more people like us or younger generation

are going to take over the business.

And right now, Wayne's eldest daughter is 14.

Yeah, we are making sure she help out in the shop

on weekends, so to learn and understand

it's not easy to... To earn, like...

What, would you like your child to stay

in the restaurant business?

Yeah, so if they're really interested in this industry,

why not? I would just, yeah.

- You'd say yeah. - Yeah.

- Yes. - This is so good, by the way.

This is delicious food.

Mm-hmm.

Now, Singapore is a rich country.

Lot of rich people live here.

Why can't you charge as much money

for this traditional food

as the French charge for French food?

What do you think? Why won't Singaporeans pay?

Actually, just a couple of months ago,

we go through some of our old photos,

and there's one photo that is like almost 20 years ago

that's priceless.

They're selling their fried rice at $3, okay?

Right now, we are selling $4.

So... 20 years later.

One dollar more.

Why?

Singaporeans love food.

I think there's like a bond between us and the customers.

So he doesn't want to increase the price.

- You know your customers. - Yeah.

Right, you have a lot of regulars.

Yeah. A lot of them is like,

they seen us growing up, the three of us.

And we see their kids growing up.

So I think that's a different kind of bond between us

and the customers.

I just hope this doesn't disappear,

because it's of course always gonna be the good stuff.

It's important. Can I have a little more?

Can we get a little more?

Delicious food.

Singapore is a multinational society.

We got Chinese, Malay, Indian, other Asians in Singapore.

- It seems to work. - It works, it works, yes!

♪

One last trip straight back

to where it all started for me.

♪

A simple, good thing.

In this case, one of my favorite things.

♪

Ah, here it is, the mighty char kway teow.

Ordinarily, this is a breakfast.

I eat it every time I'm in Singapore.

It's just about the unhealthiest breakfast you could have.

I mean, it's literally, like, lard...

crispy lard bits.

Healthy cockles.

Shrimp paste, and a whole lot of noodles.

And it's, like, legendarily fattening.

Originally created for... To feed laborers.

So...

it isn't pretty.

Not the healthiest of breakfast. Delicious.

Mmm.

You're looking to fit into that silver lamé Speedo,

this would not be, uh...

option one.

Oh, man.

Problem is, you eat this

surrounded by all these sort of wonders of Asia

in the food court here,

and after this, you're kinda done.

I don't know how anybody works after this, frankly.

Once in a while, you hit a little piece

of crispy pork fat.

Well, my work is done here today.

Right?

♪

- In Singapore... - Yup?

Everything is perfect here.

This is one of the safest countries in the world.

We are gifted to be in Singapore.

It shows a good example to the world.

♪