Food guru KF Seetoh praised various agencies for the support extended to the hawkers currently in New York City prior to the opening of the new Urban Hawker food market, located at 135 West 50th Street near the iconic Times Square in Manhattan.
“It’s just heartening for the hawkers and us at Makansutra knowing the gahmen agencies got our backs in NYC and eager to jump in to help however whenever,” he wrote in a Facebook post on Friday (Jul 22).
He proceeded to list these agencies: ESG (Enterprise Singapore), which supports small and medium enterprise development, STB (Singapore Tourism Board), and Sg Global Network.
“ESG had been right beside us through pre opening nitty gritties plus meandering through NYC authorities, and STB and Sg Global Network are raring to jump in for post opening connect, events and media relations,” the Makansutra founder added.
He also gave “a big thank you to them,” and posted a photo of the hawkers meeting with the agencies in Manhattan.
Mr Seetoh underlined that had it not been for the assistance given by the agencies, the delay of Urban Hawker food market’s opening would be extended.
He announced a new opening date for Urban Hawker, which had previously been announced for late July.
“The opening of Urban Hawker now looks to be in early Fall, early September. It will happen, and we will wok it!!”
In November of last year, Mr Seetoh announced that his team would with Urbanspace, a US food hall operator, to open a Singaporean hawker centre in New York City.
The street-food vendors were hand-picked by Mr Seetoh himself.
Talking to TISG in January, 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. /TISG
Kf Seetoh: I salute all you Pioneer world class hawkerpreneurs making this mark in New York