The hawker centres in Singapore are amazing and I tried to visit as many as I could during my 6 weeks there. Urban Hawker definitely isn't a proper hawker experience, for all the reasons you listed, though I do think the chicken rice there was better than any of the versions I've had in Boston.
I tend to just make the hainanese chicken rice from Adam Liaw's Two Asian Kitchens at home instead of getting it from a local shop. It's different, but also delicious.
When visiting Urban Hawker I was hoping for fried carrot cake (which doesn't tend to exist in Boston restaurants, so I make it at home), or otak-otak (always buy things wrapped in leaves).
I'm impressed at how much Singaporean cooking you do!
I agree that Urban Hawker's chicken rice – like that at Hainan Chicken House and Loy Yau Kee, also in NYC – is vastly better than what's available from the Khao Man Gai places in Boston, which I've found universally disappointing, even allowing for the difference in the chili.
I was just serving fried carrot cake at Lamplighter Brewing last Thursday... do you do yours white or black?
Both are nice, but I prefer the white version since it feels more bright/cheerful to me. I'm currently using the Kitchen Tigress recipe. Sorry I missed you at Lamplighter, and hope to make it in the future!
I prefer the white one too! Black ones tend to be too sweet... I just confirmed that I'll be at Lamplighter again on Thursday June 6th – no chye tau kueh this time though! Making fried chee cheong fun, and a few other things tbd.
Years (a decade?) ago Seetoh asserted that hawker / street food is a ‘cuisine’ —like Malay, French or Cantonese — and that as such can be reproduced, successfully, anywhere. I disagreed and was ripped apart rather nastily by the man (doesn’t like to be disagreed with apparently) and his sycophants. I no longer recall the details of my argument but I hold to my opinion still. Your beautifully written piece says it, not in so many words, so much better, more precisely and with more soul, than I ever could. Pretty sure I’d find a visit to Urban Hawker depressing.
I'm so sorry to hear that! That sounds like a really off-putting experience. The whole notion that cuisine can be defined by dishes rather than methods and approaches is very much of a piece with the rapacious mindset of modern capitalism. Also sadly rather common.
But if you're looking for a hawker food fix, Hainan Chicken House in Brooklyn will make you happy.
This is brilliant and honest, as well as a necessary response to inexplicable gushing. I grazed the stalls of Urban Hawker with two foodie friends on Sunday and was underwhelmed. Nothing we tried was terribly good or, for that matter. terribly bad. Nothing got finished. Nothing merited a return trip. Most incongruous of all was the glowing reviews from newspapers and magazines. To take one example, Steve Cuozzo, the food critic of the New York Post, wrote that Smokin' Joe Yeo's fish and chips were the best in New York. Seriously? I live most of the year in the UK and so don't bother much with fish and chips in New York. As a result, I don't know for a fact that Cuozzo was mistaken. But given how thin, dry and mushy the fish fillet was, I can only hope he was, at a minimum, half wrong.
This piece is fantastic. You opened up many avenues for me to investigate in the time ahead.
For reference, I’m a NYC resident who has not yet visited Urban Hawker -- you distilled why I have not visited the location; better than I could have! Having also lived in Singapore for 6 months (in 2019), your analogy to the Subway represents an intriguing perspective for someone who has (to an extent) experienced both cultural artifacts.
Thanks! I'm glad you liked it. If water supply systems are infrastructure, I think food supply systems might be as well. And these pieces of infrastructure have a more pronounced impact on the character of their host cities than many others.
The hawker centres in Singapore are amazing and I tried to visit as many as I could during my 6 weeks there. Urban Hawker definitely isn't a proper hawker experience, for all the reasons you listed, though I do think the chicken rice there was better than any of the versions I've had in Boston.
I tend to just make the hainanese chicken rice from Adam Liaw's Two Asian Kitchens at home instead of getting it from a local shop. It's different, but also delicious.
When visiting Urban Hawker I was hoping for fried carrot cake (which doesn't tend to exist in Boston restaurants, so I make it at home), or otak-otak (always buy things wrapped in leaves).
I'm impressed at how much Singaporean cooking you do!
I agree that Urban Hawker's chicken rice – like that at Hainan Chicken House and Loy Yau Kee, also in NYC – is vastly better than what's available from the Khao Man Gai places in Boston, which I've found universally disappointing, even allowing for the difference in the chili.
I was just serving fried carrot cake at Lamplighter Brewing last Thursday... do you do yours white or black?
Both are nice, but I prefer the white version since it feels more bright/cheerful to me. I'm currently using the Kitchen Tigress recipe. Sorry I missed you at Lamplighter, and hope to make it in the future!
I prefer the white one too! Black ones tend to be too sweet... I just confirmed that I'll be at Lamplighter again on Thursday June 6th – no chye tau kueh this time though! Making fried chee cheong fun, and a few other things tbd.
Years (a decade?) ago Seetoh asserted that hawker / street food is a ‘cuisine’ —like Malay, French or Cantonese — and that as such can be reproduced, successfully, anywhere. I disagreed and was ripped apart rather nastily by the man (doesn’t like to be disagreed with apparently) and his sycophants. I no longer recall the details of my argument but I hold to my opinion still. Your beautifully written piece says it, not in so many words, so much better, more precisely and with more soul, than I ever could. Pretty sure I’d find a visit to Urban Hawker depressing.
I'm so sorry to hear that! That sounds like a really off-putting experience. The whole notion that cuisine can be defined by dishes rather than methods and approaches is very much of a piece with the rapacious mindset of modern capitalism. Also sadly rather common.
But if you're looking for a hawker food fix, Hainan Chicken House in Brooklyn will make you happy.
Ah good to know! Noted for my next visit. Thanks.
We did enjoy the Nanyang Kopi, it needs to be said.
So did I! Thanks for reading.
Have you been to https://www.sinkeenyc.com/ in Flushing?
Not yet. Should I go when I return home to New York in May?
I'm happy to eat there, which is more than I'll say about Urban Hawker. But there are many, many things to eat in NYC.
Unfortunately, Sin Kee closed at Queens Crossing at the turn of the year.
Oh! Thank you for telling me - that's a real loss.
This is brilliant and honest, as well as a necessary response to inexplicable gushing. I grazed the stalls of Urban Hawker with two foodie friends on Sunday and was underwhelmed. Nothing we tried was terribly good or, for that matter. terribly bad. Nothing got finished. Nothing merited a return trip. Most incongruous of all was the glowing reviews from newspapers and magazines. To take one example, Steve Cuozzo, the food critic of the New York Post, wrote that Smokin' Joe Yeo's fish and chips were the best in New York. Seriously? I live most of the year in the UK and so don't bother much with fish and chips in New York. As a result, I don't know for a fact that Cuozzo was mistaken. But given how thin, dry and mushy the fish fillet was, I can only hope he was, at a minimum, half wrong.
This piece is fantastic. You opened up many avenues for me to investigate in the time ahead.
For reference, I’m a NYC resident who has not yet visited Urban Hawker -- you distilled why I have not visited the location; better than I could have! Having also lived in Singapore for 6 months (in 2019), your analogy to the Subway represents an intriguing perspective for someone who has (to an extent) experienced both cultural artifacts.
Thanks! I'm glad you liked it. If water supply systems are infrastructure, I think food supply systems might be as well. And these pieces of infrastructure have a more pronounced impact on the character of their host cities than many others.