A sour smell rises as Bangladeshi Ibrahim Khalil, 31, opens his catered lunch, undoing the knots on two plastic bags of curry and lentils. The fish curry, exposed to the morning heat for half a day, has turned rancid again. Still, the curtain installation worker pours all the gravy over his pile of cold rice as he sits crosslegged on the floor, and begins tucking into his meal.

Nothing took me farther from my HDB heartland and shopping mall existence than visiting Mustafa Centre in Little India, Peninsula Plaza at Coleman Street, in the very heart of the city, and Golden Mile Complex along Beach Road.