Wet Markets Before Eight

A wet market is the fresh-food section of a market, named for its wet floors, where melting ice keeps the fish cold and stallholders hose down their stalls. Our pick for a first one is Tiong Bahru Market, and we'd be inside before 7.30am, when the weekend crowd usually starts to build. The cost is an early alarm. If you'd rather start gently, Tekka Centre in Little India is the exception, and its best window comes later in the morning.

Why before eight

NEA has said stalls open as early as 5am, and the National Heritage Board puts the usual trading day at 6am to 2pm. The bigger crowds usually come between 7.30am and 10am, and weekdays are lighter than weekends. By late morning some stallholders mark prices down to clear what's left, which suits a shopper more than a sightseer. We'd aim to be in by 7am, so you see the market before the weekend rush does.

These are working markets, so shop-floor manners apply. Carry small notes in case a stall takes cash only, wear shoes that can take a wet floor, and ask before you photograph a stallholder. Stand back while others are being served, and keep the aisle clear for the people doing their daily shopping. Then find breakfast at the hawker stalls, which is half the reason to come.

Tiong Bahru and Chinatown

Tiong Bahru Market opened in 1951 as Seng Poh Road Market and was rebuilt in 2004 to 2006, with Art Deco touches to suit the estate around it. The wet market fills the first level, about 255 provision shops and wet produce stalls, and about 85 cooked-food stalls sit above. A Slow Morning in Tiong Bahru has the rest of the estate for after breakfast.

In Chinatown, the wet market sits in the basement of Chinatown Complex, under the food centre on level 2, and it's where the neighbourhood buys live frogs, roast meats and fruit. The complex was finished in 1983 to rehome 300 street hawkers, and today it holds about 477 market-produce and 226 cooked-food stalls. We'd go between 7am and 10am and eat upstairs afterwards, and we'd call the Chinatown Complex Wet Market the better half of the building.

Tekka and Geylang Serai

Tekka Centre is a wet market for fresh meat, fish and vegetables, with banana-leaf rice and thosai, the South Indian crepe, alongside. The market starts about 6.30am, but many of its stalls are gone by early afternoon, so 9am to 11am is the best window. That makes it the market to save for the second half of a morning in Little India.

The first Tekka Market went up in 1915 as the Kandang Kerbau Market, named for the district tied to the cattle and meat trade, and its stallholders moved into the present building across the road in 1981. Little India on a Working Morning has the neighbourhood around it.

Geylang Serai Market is the Malay heartland's market, with a wet market for fresh produce, nasi padang (rice with a choice of curries and sides) and kuih, the small sweet cakes. It holds 63 cooked-food and 302 market-produce stalls in a building rebuilt in 2009 to look like a Malay kampong house. Dress modestly, and expect the whole area to fill with bazaar stalls in Ramadan. Geylang from Morning Market to Late Supper carries on from there.

Heartland markets worth the ride

Ang Mo Kio 628 Market, built in 1979 and rebuilt in 2009, is a working market with about 52 cooked-food and 166 market-produce stalls and long tables for breakfast. Walk it off afterwards at Ang Mo Kio Town Garden West.

In Yishun, Chong Pang Market, built in 1984 and upgraded in 2003, has about 56 cooked-food and 123 market-produce stalls, and it's at its best at breakfast. Sembawang Hot Spring turns it into a day in the north.

Tampines Round Market is a circular building with a wet market downstairs and about 45 cooked-food and 99 market-produce stalls. It opened in 1983 and was reconfigured in 2006, and 72 of its stallholders moved in together when their Toa Payoh market made way for an MRT line. Tampines Round Market and Eco Green pairs it with a wild patch of the east.

On the west side, Holland Village Market is the everyday lunch a few steps from the cafe strip, with a wet market downstairs, and Ghim Moh Market is where the queues are mostly residents at breakfast.

In Queenstown, Mei Ling Market has about 47 cooked-food and 66 market-produce stalls, a few of them worth crossing the island for, and it pairs with one-north or a walk on the Southern Ridges. Bukit Merah View Market, near ABC Brickworks, is bigger, with about 84 and 98 stalls, and it sees few visitors, so go with someone who lives nearby and let them order.

Two more heartland options. Hougang 6/7 Market is a heartland market and hawker centre at its best for breakfast, and Circuit Road Market is where the estate goes when Old Airport Road is heaving.

Where the greens come from

The Singapore Food Agency keeps a list of wet-market stalls that carry locally farmed vegetables, and it includes stalls at Tiong Bahru Market, Ang Mo Kio 628 and Mei Ling. The list isn't complete, so ask at the stall. For the farm end, Kok Fah Technology Farm in Sungei Tengah sells its hydroponic vegetables at a weekend market, usually free to walk into on Saturdays and Sundays from 9am to 5pm.

If you'd rather walk a whole town, the HDB Heartland Walk strings a void deck, the open ground floor under a block of flats, a market and a town park together in Toa Payoh or Ang Mo Kio. The station mural at Tiong Bahru shows its market too, and Murals and Public Art in the Heartland has the rest.

Markets and hawker centres close for cleaning on set dates each quarter, and NEA lists them for each centre, so check its list before a long ride.