A Singapore-style hawker center has opened in New York for the first time, bringing flavors from the Southeast Asian island¡¯s mix of Malay, Chinese, Indian and other cultures to an American food court.
Urban Hawker, in midtown Manhattan, features 17 vendors handpicked by the food hall¡¯s curator, KF Seetoh, with 11 coming directly from hawker centers in Singapore. Each stall specializes in a well-known dish such as chilli crab, oyster omelettes, Hainanese chicken rice or nasi lemak, a fragrant rice dish.
¡°I came across Singaporeans who had been living in the United States in New York for like 20, 30, 35 years, and they still miss Singapore food,¡± says Seetoh.
¡°Street food in Singapore is not something you burn or deep fry. It¡¯s fairly complex. They take six hours just to prepare a meal to get it ready at 10 a.m. or 11 a.m.¡±
The idea for the food hall was born when Seetoh met late U.S. celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain in 2013 in Singapore at a street food event. Bourdain was enthusiastic about the idea of a New York hawker market.
Seetoh later approached Eldon Scott, president of Urbanspace, a property manager who curates immersive public markets, who quickly agreed.
¡°The amazing thing about him saying yes was that he¡¯s never been to Singapore,¡± Seetoh says.
Seetoh hopes that this hawker center will be the first of many in the country.
¡°It¡¯s just like exporting grandmother¡¯s deliciousness, the food that I grew up with,¡± he says.
¡°Food was good but something was missing without plastic plates, cutlery, and sweltering heat,¡± said Magdalene Sim, a Singaporean, on social media. ¡°The queues were the same though.¡±
Customer Julie Lee, on her third visit, raved about Hainan Jones¡¯ chicken over rice.
¡°Everyone should give it a try,¡± she says. ¡°So much flavor, so tender.¡±
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