Anthony Bourdain’s dream: an Urban hawker center in NYC
New York’s first-ever authentic Singaporean and Malaysian street food joint has opened in Midtown, NYC. It is called the Urban Hawker Center. Hawker was the late chef Anthony Bourdain’s vision; he wanted to open a global market comprising Southeast Asian street-style food.
In 2013, he first met with street food guru K.F. Seetoh at the World Street Food Congress in Singapore to discuss workable strategies to open the Bourdain Market. He envisaged a massive street food junction in the city’s heart that would be a confluence of multicultural cuisines and palates, from spicy Laksa to barbequed stingray and nasi lemak. Nevertheless, the ethnically diverse project was called off due to several logistical, financial, and visa irregularities. Bourdain also failed to sign a lease for the location before his death in 2018.
Seetoh, who took over the project in 2019, turned his passion project into reality almost ten years later.
Urban Hawker is probably everything Bourdain had envisioned on a trimmed level, with 17 food vendors and stalls, 11 of which came from Singapore. Seetoh has tailored the place to be a melting pot for cuisines and cultures with Chinese, Indonesian, Malay, Nonya, Filipino, Indian, and Singaporean stalls.
As you enter the place, it reminds you of a bustling southeast Asian street, with hungry office goers restlessly waiting in line to place their order and cooks working with double efficiency, speed, and probably with four hands to accommodate everyone. During peak lunchtime, the lines get even longer, with some people waiting 15 minutes to place their order and another 10 minutes for the food to be prepared. The food stalls, most of which are Singaporean, along with some Malaysian, Filipino, Japanese, and Indian cuisines, serve popular fusion dishes like Hainanese chicken rice from Hainan Jones stall, Lontong from Padi, Stingray fried rice at Mr. Fried Rice, White bee hoon at a White restaurant, Murtabak and lamb biryani at Mamak’s Corner, Chicken with peanut sauce, and roti john at Ashes Burnie.
The long lines were a clear indication that Hainan Jones was the most well-liked option, probably as a result of Seetoh’s involvement. The specialty dish is Hainanese chicken rice, as accounted for by Christina Tang, a Chinese American, who says, “I chose to eat it because the line looked long and I assumed that the place serves some good food; also, you cannot go wrong with Chicken and rice across different cuisines. Although this is my first time trying authentic Singaporean cuisine, Tang works as a PR consultant for a company around the corner.
Now, are these cuisines that authentic?
Sherwin Wong, 40, a stay-at-home mom of Malaysian descent, affirms this aspect.
“The chicken rice I ordered from Hainan Jones tastes as good and accurate as the one I used to have back home,” she says. “It is my favorite comfort food.”
She quips hastily, “Malaysian cuisine has had a significant influence on Singaporean food culture, so most of our dishes are very similar.”
One interesting observation was that all the menus seemed expensive and catered to nearby workers of significant financial and tech companies, including Goldman Sachs, Barclays Investment Bank, and other WeWork offices. A shrimp ramen bowl at the Prawnaholic stall costs about 26 dollars, which is exorbitant for a street-style food experience.
Other sought-after places included Kopifellas (an authentic Singaporean coffee place). Just like in six locations in Singapore, the Nanyang coffee was made from freshly ground Robusta beans mixed with condensed and evaporated milk to make it smooth but firm. The owner, Terry Neo, also serves toasts with butter, kaya, a coconut, and pandan jam for the morning rush. The Prawnsholic collection stall and Mamak’s Corner seemed to be the collective favorites because of the Singaporean-Indian fusion menu.
Shauna Kalli, who works nearby, scans the menu for food options. “I am perplexed about what I will order,” says Kalli, 28, a native New Yorker who lives in Brooklyn. “But the Biryani seems tempting; I love Indian food.” She had been craving Indian food all week before finally coming down to explore the urban hawker. She says Fried Rice was another quirky food stall and a majority favorite that sold various fried rice options, including tom yum and salmon teriyaki. “One of the most excellent meals here was the stingray fried rice ($17), which had a fish wing densely coated with a dark sauce that erupted with sour, salty, sweet, and fishy flavors,” she said.
Although a couple of stalls were empty, i.e., Lady Cakes, Dim Sum Darlings, Jakarta Munch, Tradisyon, etc., the overall reaction and response to the Urban Hawker was a total hit because their core principles lay in being true to their cultures and authenticity, even if that meant a surge in the price.
