When Old-Style School Canteens Say Goodbye, We Lose More Than We Think

The central kitchen model may make economic sense, but something deeply intimate is leaving our lives.

- Lianne Chia

I still recall the piping hot bowls of wonton noodle soup sold at my school canteen. Seasoned with lashings of the canteen auntie's signature chilli sauce and doled out in distinctive red bowls, these noodles were a constant source of comfort as I navigated the ups and downs of daily life in my 10 years at my all-girls alma mater.

Almost two decades on from my graduation, the canteen auntie remains a familiar face. She's been going strong since 1969, according to a recent video, serving up steaming bowls of noodles to successive generations of girls. The "red bowl noodles," as they're affectionately known among staff and current and former students alike, are so distinctive that anyone who went to my school will know exactly what I'm talking about—a theory I tested over the weekend to great effect.

The red bowl noodles are an icon in my school's heritage—introduced by alumni mothers to their daughters—and the phrase is akin to a secret code word tying multiple generations of students together.

But mine is just one story among many. Ask anyone who studied in Singapore about their school canteen, and all sorts of oddly specific anecdotes will tumble out.

My husband claims to remember the exact taste of the beef with rice that his secondary school canteen served up. A colleague recalls how he would rush down to queue for chicken on "fried food" Wednesdays, and yet another remembers fondly how she could buy iced Milo from the school canteen—something her mother frowned upon.

And over at another girls' school, there was an "orange bowl" canteen uncle who recently retired.

All this I cite to say one thing: that our canteen food goes way beyond filling our stomachs. Choosing a stall, queueing up and buying food from individual canteen vendors—not to mention the relationships we form with them and the food—all these are memories intricately woven into the tapestry of our daily school lives.