Hong Kong icon Chow Yun Fat reveals his favourite Singapore hawker centres and Singlish catchphrases
The God Of Gamblers star headlined Mediacorp’s Star Awards 2025 as an award presenter on Sunday (Jul 6).
Hong Kong actor Chow Yun Fat and his wife, Jasmine Tan, at Star Awards 2025. (Photo: Mediacorp)
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Legendary Hong Kong actor Chow Yun Fat made an appearance at Mediacorp’s Star Awards on Sunday (Jul 6) which left both fans and artistes starstruck.
Returning three decades after his first appearance at the inaugural ceremony in 1994, the 70-year-old superstar presented the Top 10 Most Popular Male/Female Artiste trophies to Romeo Tan, Carrie Wong, Chantalle Ng, Guo Liang, Richie Koh, Zong Zijie, radio station Love 972 DJs Marcus Chin and Chen Biyu, as well as Tasha Low, Ya Hui, Hong Ling, Xu Bin, Desmond Tan, Jeremy Chan and more.
When CNA Lifestyle caught up with him briefly for a couple of questions at the sidelines of the show, Chow shared his go-to activities and places to visit whenever he is in Singapore.
At first, the God Of Gamblers actor quipped: “Singapore – what places can I go to? I just sleep and go to the markets and eat.”
He then listed a few hawker centres he frequents, including Old Airport Road Food Centre, Newton Food Centre, Maxwell Food Centre and Lau Pa Sat.
“I don’t go to any of the shopping centres, I just go to the hawker centres,” he added.
When asked what he typically orders from these food centres, he shared that he prefers eating chicken rice and his favourite is the one at Maxwell Food Centre.
He also said he likes to eat Teochew kuehs from Cairnhill, which is a variety of savoury or sweet cakes and dumplings.
“Every hawker centre has their specialty,” he said. “Sometimes I go to seven, eight hawker centres and eat a bit at every one.”
Chow is married to Singaporean Jasmine Tan. So when asked what his favourite Singlish catchphrase is, he went with the classic “walao eh”, used to express shock.
He also said he likes “paiseh”, used to express how one feels awkward or shy, as well as “chin chai”, which generally means “whatever”.
An award-winning veteran actor, Chow has headlined over 100 productions and helped define entire genres with global classics such as A Better Tomorrow (1986) and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000).
He also recently starred in titles such as Project Gutenberg (2018) and One More Chance (2023).
