KF Seetoh on SG hawker in New York City: “one famous hawker backed out at the last minute” but team looks for a replacement

Singapore — In an update on the new Singaporean hawker centre in New York City, Makansutra founder KF Seetoh said that a famous hawker “backed out at the last minute” and that his team was looking to fill up the vacancy.

He wrote in a Facebook post on Monday (Jan 3), “We can only hazard it’s cold feet. It takes alot of guts n gumption to fly your brand and food to the world, not just New York”.

In November last year, Mr Seetoh announced that his team was set to partner with Urbanspace, a food hall operator in the United States, and open a Singaporean hawker centre in New York City. The space, set to open in New York City next year, will be within walking distance from Times Square, he said.

The market will feature 18 street-food vendors, hand-picked by Mr Seetoh himself. Talking to TISG, Mr Seetoh said that the idea of this hawker centre is to emulate the new style of hawker centres that are more than the ‘old school uncle-auntie style’. He said that they look to have modern takes on foods such as burgers, nasi lemak with blue pea rice and many more.

Mr Seetoh added that seeing how the hawker stalls were to be situated in Manhattan, they aimed to bring an eclectic push to the food, “not just the old Ang Mo Kio-type of food. Hainanese meat chops, ramen and fancier things, a new style of hawker centre”, he said.

He added in his post on Monday: “This Omicron kink will peak soon( many experts acknowledge) and even we are careening ahead to live with it..endemically. But, we are of course, postponing opening if (touchwood) covid takes a turn for the worse”.

Sharing photos of the renovation works of the space, Mr Seetoh added that the construction work had progressed much further than what was seen.

KF Seetoh to lead 18 S’pore hawkers to open a centre in NYC with Anthony Bourdain’s team