KF Seetoh: Singapore’s shepherd of street food

Some call him the Guru of Grub; others, the Makankaki Master, but KF Seetoh, by any name, is Singapore’s most recognized and celebrated expert on one of the country’s greatest and most beloved national treasures: food. Not just any food, but hawker food – the food of the street; the soul of Singapore.

Makanguru

Since 1996 Seetoh has dedicated his life to writing, photographing and understanding the street food of Singapore, heading to every place where queues for food form. “Back then there was no guide to the food here,” Seetoh explained as we shared some carrot cake at Makansutra’s own Glutton’s Bay food center beside the Esplanade. So he was inspired to compile information about the food and the hawkers. The hardest thing was identifying the places to try. “It took a lot of talking to people on the street, to taxi drivers and to people cooking food,” he said with a broad smile. The result: Makansutra, Seetoh’s undisputed go-to guide for all things hawker in this land of the food obsessed. Over the years, Makansutra has sold countless copies, guiding locals and foreigners alike to hawker food that is good, great and “die, die, must try.”

Today, Seetoh and Makansutra collectively is a Singapore food institution, with books, television programs, websites and an app. His makan-team consists of 30 full-time employees plus a cadre of volunteers who are profoundly passionate about food. It’s uncontested that Seetoh’s contributions to food knowledge and accessibility is unparalleled in Singapore. He has promoted the nation’s cuisines into the world-renowned phenomenon that it is today. Many say that this accomplishment alone puts him in a special, iconic place. “Anyone who’s anyone in the world of Singapore food knows Seetoh,” says irreverent food rogue, Anthony Bourdain. The New York times has written about him. Martha Stuart insists that he be her guide whenever she visits and has had him cook laksa live on her TV show. The list goes on and on.

It’s an impressive thing when someone works hard to reach the pinnacle of success and then decides to take it to an even higher level. And for Seetoh – who believes that street food feeds not just the stomach but the soul – the mission of making the cuisine of Singapore accessible to all is just a start. “I could just keep doing what I do,” he explained in his usual, affable manner. “But my life’s work still lies ahead of me, and I won’t die comfortably until it’s done.”

Fractured Food

“Street food is a global phenomenon,” Seetoh explains over our crunchy prawn paste chicken wings. “It’s an age-old, earthy profession that has sustained people since the beginning of modern society.” Indeed, the majority of people in developing countries today still depend on food prepared by individual cooks in simple outdoor or rustic kitchens. In Singapore more than 80% of the local population eat at least one meal a day in a hawker center, food court or kopitiam; in Bangkok and Hanoi that number is even greater. But that tradition is changing and, to some degree, dying.  “As societies modernize and the hawker legends get older there are fewer people to pass the street food heritage on to,” Seetoh explains. “Working a food stall is tough, solitary labor; hardly the favored path in today’s youthful, social network-driven society.”

Combine that with the nature of the street food world – a “fractured society” as Seetoh sees it – and what you have is a fading, fragmented industry composed of individuals working alone and selling their talent for a couple of bucks a plate. “Aside from possibly expanding the number of stalls, there’s little growth opportunity for hawkers and no sense of belonging to something greater than just their own thing.” And that’s where Seetoh comes in.

The World Street Food Congress

Recognizing the benefits of collaboration, Seetoh has masterminded The World Street Food Congress, the first forum designed to connect the splintered street food world. The WSFC aims to form a globally-unified body where new ideas, synergies and opportunities can be created over street food. The three principle objectives are to preserve the culture and craft of local street cuisine, to create a unified “industry” of street food with consistent professionalism, and to develop new opportunities through collaboration among street food cultures globally.

But even KF Seetoh can’t assemble a global forum alone, so he’s formed a World Street Food Council, comprised of a collection of the best minds in different food-related disciplines around the world to join forces as vanguards of the industry.  We’re talking chefs, writers, F&B developers, food & lifestyle celebrities and innovative social thinkers who will spirit the cause of a unified street food world in ways that have never before been imagined. A few names which may ring familiar: Anthony Bourdain, James Oseland (Editor-in-Chief of Saveur Magazine and Top Chef judge), Brett Burmeister (started the food truck culture in the US), and some of the very best chefs and restauranteurs from around the globe.  “Enthusiasm about WSFC has spread like wildfire and this is just the first year of it -- we're just getting warmed up,” Seetoh says. “Everyone that I talk to about it wants to play a part.” 

The WSFC Kickoff

To attract the world’s attention to the World Street Food Congress, Seetoh will host The World Street Food Congress 2013: From Street Market to World Market. From 31 May to 9 June in Singapore’s F1 Pit Building & Paddock. The event will consist of a 2-day Dialog conference alongside a 10-day street food jamboree featuring some of the world’s best street food masters serving up their cultural specialties. This isn't just about local food of Singapore, or even Asia; chefs from the US and Europe will also be here to cook up a storm. The event will also present the first World Street Food Awards to acknowledge and recognize the best street food cooks and their food. 

“Street food is not just about stuffing your stomach,” Seetoh explained as we dove into a plate of glistening mee goring puti. “With street food, you may eat the food, but you digest the culture.” It’s that basic philosophy that renders KF Seetoh more a food culturalist than food critic. “Behind every hawker’s plate of noodles or bowl of soup is a story – usually an ancient one – and knowing that story preserves the heritage and makes the food taste better.”  And through WSFC Seetoh will help the soft-spoken world of street food cooks have an organized place to tell those stories through their food – well into the future and all around the world. And in the course of doing so, new street foods will emerge and new stories will need to be told. Which is a valuable thing because, as KF Seetoh would say, “if you don’t eat the culture with every bite, you’ll always be left hungry.”

For more information about World Street Food Congress go to www.wsfcongress.com

Foodwalkers note: This piece, in slightly different form, was previously published in Singapore American Newspaper, March 2013

Foodwalking with Nym – Beach Eats

It’s always fun to foodwalk with food experts; especially if I can take them somewhere they’ve never been. And such was the case with Nym Punlopruska, Bangkok’s  Siren of Street food, when she was recently back in Singapore to update one of her books. I wanted to take her to some place she’d never been, just as she had done with me in her hometown. That’s no easy task with a girl like Nym, who has written more than a dozen books on food, has been Andrew Zimmern’s guide and fixer on Bizarre Foods, and is fearless in both what and where she’ll eat. In other words, my kind of Foodwalker.

“What about eats on the beach?” I asked her after a litany of “been there” and “done that” responses to my grilling her over Singapore food experiences she’d not had. “Beach? In Singapore?" was the gist of her reply to an afterthought question. “Not been, not done.”

East Coast Lagoon Hawker Centre

So off we were to East Coast Lagoon Food Centre, Singapore’s answer to seaside hawker food in lovely East Coast Park. The longest continuous oceanfront playground on the island, slipping into the gentle surf of the South China Sea and overlooking countless cargo ships and tankers offshore, this place is a magnet for those wanting to stroll, run or bike along the 12 kilometers of pathways, play in the sand, camp under coconut trees or, of course, eat. Which is why we were there.

You could sit at a table,
but why?

It’s easy to get great food here; the hawker centre has a wide selection of Chinese, Malay and even Indian stalls that are open late into the night. But there are a few specialties which draw the crowds: Satay, BBQ stingray and laksa. Most who eat here pick a table beneath an umbrella or at one of the pavilions shading large tables for group dining. But East Coast Park is all about the beach to this Foodwalker, so I suggested we take our goodies to a more apropos venue – a table in the sand.

We order our satay from Musa Ikan Bakar (stall #51), my fave of the seven or so satay joints here. A collection of skewered lamb, beef and chicken is tossed on the fire. Our plate is dressed with raw onions, cucumber and cubes of dense rice cake to compliment the meat. A side bowl of coarse, sweet and spicy peanut sauce accompanies.

Nym fanning the flames

The narrow steel satay grill pops and fizzles, spattering a little fragrant fat amidst the dancing flames and billowing smoke of the singing meat. The smell is intoxicating; earthy from the charcoal; rich and sweet from the meat and marinade.

As the flames drop off a little, Nym grabs the leafy fan from the chef and sparks it up again. We inhale deeply and moan at the haunting aroma, happy to be alive. We take our plate and head off for the next dish.

Roxy Laksa (Stal #48) makes an old-school version of its namesake dish that few can match. Mike and his wife took over the business from his father after the old Roxy Cinema in Katong closed down and the height of the so-called Laksa Wars was flaring. Not wanting to play in that field of puffery and self-promotion,  Roxy pulled up roots and headed downstream to the beach where it has been ever since. By all appearances it’s a stall like any other – though neater and sparser than most. But one bowl of nearly the only thing he sells, and you’ll realize that Mike’s mainstay of sustenance is special. Shunning the short-cut noodle style of Katong Laksa, his has full length mee noodles – smooth and silky and ever so al dente. He douses them with fiery orange laksa gravy, then pours it back into the pot, and douses them again. And again. And again, until he has infused the noodles just right, leaving them swimming in the bowl full of the rich gravy. A dollop of spicy rempah, ground laksa leaves, fish cake slices and a couple of prawns on top complete the masterpiece. But he doesn’t add the typical raw cockles unless you ask; old-schoolers never had them, so why should he.

Roxy Laksa

Seaside dining at its best!

We walked our food over to the sand, where stone tables are scattered around for picnics. There’s something about the briny breeze in your face, cooling your spoonful of laksa before your first bite, that’s sort of romantic. Like a prelude to a kiss, it blends with the coconut and spice aroma of the dish and advances it into your olfactory’s before the food even touches your mouth. And in that instance before the taste buds are activated, a flash of excitement shoots though your brain about the delicious experience to come. The gravy is coconutyy and slightly biting; not thick and viscous like that of some who take condensed milk shortcuts, but smooth and complex, triggering all 6 senses in your mouth at the same time like a symphony of flavor.

I’m one of those people who get emotional about beautifully grilled meat, and the plate of satay raised a lump in my throat. Between each chicken slice on the bamboo skewer was a small flap of fatty skin – the old-school answer to making a good dish great. The lamb and beef was drippingly moist, sweetened by the marinade that was brushed on while dancing in the flames. The peanut sauce, slightly piquant with the right coarse crunch and hint of heat, expanded the flavors in my mouth and stirred a haunting memory of a place called Home – even though I’m not from were this dish comes. Seems comfort food is comfort food, no matter where you're from. I looked at Nym and recognized her own efforts to suppress the misting in her eyes as she slowly chewed in hallowed silence, lost in her own happy place.

Mixed satay from Musa Ikan Bakar

So whenever someone complains about Singapore not really being a beachy island kind of place, I tell them about East Coast Park and the great food available to enjoy on the edge of the sand in the sun by the sea....