Culture | World in a dish

Singapore’s unique dining style comes to Manhattan

Cooking dishes from another culture is straightforward. Transplanting a mood is another matter

Image: Courtesy Urban Hawkers
|NEW YORK

COOKING A DISH from one culture while living in another is simply a matter of ingredients and technique. Translating an entire dining style is harder. No matter how tasty the pâté de campagne, how artfully nicotine-stained the walls and how much Édith Piaf warbles from the speakers, eating at a bistro in Phoenix will always be different from eating at one in Lyon. The trick, as a new Singapore-style hawker centre in midtown Manhattan shows, is knowing which parts of the experience can be transplanted successfully, and which should be left at home.

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This article appeared in the Culture section of the print edition under the headline “Night hawkers”

From the March 11th 2023 edition

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