After Google announced a government-backed project (July 30) that would see food stalls located across 114 hawker centres in Singapore archived online, Makansutra’s founder KF Seetoh asked about a forgotten group – “the other 20 thousand plus hawkers and street food vendors sited in thousand of coffee-shops, food courts, canteens, hawker food shops, food halls”.
In a Facebook post, Seetoh lauded the Google initiative, saying that “This is actually a good move”.
However, he added, “BUT, what about the other 20 thousand plus hawkers and street food vendors sited (sic) in thousand of coffee-shops, food courts, canteens, hawker food shops, food halls etc.. they too are tax paying soldiers that defend our country’s culinary heritage. They too, are part of the Unesco story we celebrate. Sadly, they are lost and absent in this whole campaign”.
Seetoh also pointed out that local food heroes such as the people behind Michelin-starred Hill Street Tai Hwa Pork Noodle and Fishball Story are not included in the Google Maps push just because they operate in private kopitiams.
According to Google’s plan, an employee will strap a state-of-the-art 360-degree camera system on their back and walk around in hawker centres to pinpoint each stall. By early 2020, Google Maps will be able to pinpoint the exact location of individual hawker stalls.
Seetoh suggested, “whenever the hawker centre close (sic) for their quarterly cleaning sessions, gather them (plus non public hawekr cte hawkers) and folks like facebook and instagram and give them a talk on how to get online and what to post regularly”.
He said that there exists a huge following online for food, and these hawkers should be taught to amass this.
Finally, the 57-year old food guru concluded, “Yes, making our hawker food culture and heritage truly great is a work-in-progress and i will always put my 10cents worth into this labour of love Let’s not stop, it’s worth it”. -/TISG
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