Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown

Spotless...

efficient...

safe...

protected...

controlled.

A utopian city-state

run like a multinational company.

Welcome to Singapore, Incorporated.

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,

- 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.

- Road, right? - Yes, yes.

That's the best laksa is on 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 ,

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.