![]() ![]() Liza Weisstuch is a New York City-based writer. “The median age of hawkers is around 60, and people worry that in five or 10 years, the culture will be extinct. ![]() His travels took him from the hidden pockets of his hometown of New York to a tribal longhouse in Borneo, from cosmopolitan Buenos Aires, Paris, and Shanghai to Tanzanias utter beauty and the stunning desert solitude of Omans Empty Quarterand many places beyond. I started thinking: Can I give back to society and also keep food affordable, like hawkers have always done?” he said. Anthony Bourdain saw more of the world than nearly anyone. “Chicken rice is my favorite food of all time. ![]() He told me it was more fulfilling than the fine dining he planned to pursue. He ended up preparing hundreds of meals a week for front-line workers and found joy in cooking and serving massive amounts of food. The pandemic upended his plan to do an internship in Manhattan, so he opened a chicken rice hawker stall. At 27, he is the youngest hawker to come to Seetoh’s complex. ![]() Hainan Jones is run by Wei Keat Lim, a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America’s satellite location in Singapore. “They adapted their plain-Jane dish and came up with a fireworks version, just by making do with what they had.” “Chicken and rice in Hainan is just poached chicken with plain rice and a ginger dip, but the Singapore version uses so many spices not available in China,” Seetoh said. Seetoh calls Hainanese people “the biggest gifters of heritage food culture in Singapore.” He explains that people from China’s Hainan province were among the last wave of immigrants to arrive in Singapore and were famously resourceful and business-savvy. At Hainan Jones, it comes with chili dip, a sweet black soy sauce, miso soup, plus the option for a vegetable add-on. ![]()
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