Tekka Centre

Tekka is Little India's market: a wet market on the ground floor selling produce, mutton and fish including things sold nowhere else in Singapore, a hawker hall beside it, and textile and clothing shops upstairs. The food is the strongest concentration of South Indian and Indian Muslim cooking in the city, biryani, murtabak, thosai, roti prata and fish head curry, and the queues at the best stalls are long and local.

History

The market was first known as Kandang Kerbau, buffalo pens, after the slaughterhouses there until the 1920s; the original market of 1915 stood across the street, the new complex was first named Zhujiao Centre and renamed Tekka Centre in 2000, and Tekka Mall was built on the old site in 2003 (Wikipedia, Tekka Centre).

What's there

• The biryani stalls - the centre's best-known food, with long queues at lunch.
• The wet market - produce, mutton and fish, some of it sold nowhere else in Singapore.
• The textile floor - saris and cloth upstairs above the market.
• The Little India setting - the market at the heart of the quarter.

When to go

Year round; the wet market runs from early morning and winds down by afternoon. Lunch is the busiest at the hawker stalls. Deepavali fills the whole quarter.

Before you go

The wet market is wet, hot and pungent, which puts some visitors off. Stalls close on different days. Seats at lunch are scarce.

Nearby

The Indian Heritage Centre is nearby, and Sri Veeramakaliamman is on Serangoon Road.

Key facts