who we are
who we are Makansutra was founded by KF Seetoh, a photojournalist who thought he was a food guru (or vice versa) in 1997. He photographed, ate, and wrote his way into food guides and TV and radio shows on local, cable Discovery, and Netflix and created midnight food tours, the World Street Food Congress and even set up Singapore hawkers in Urban Hawker, Times Square, New York in 2022. Makansutra under his wild thinking, is like an advocate now, for all things humble and meaningfully delicious and all the attendant possibilities that it can realize. Find him on socials #kfseetoh, #makansutra
the Singapore food culture In a nutshell, Singapore started with nada, nothing. Just a Malay fishing village of an island yonks ago in the most geographically advantageous commercial waters in the world, the Straits Of Malacca. The world came to trade and brought their heritage food along- Arabs, Indonesians, Europeans, Chinese, and even the Indians. Not a big deal, all great migrant cities have that. It was the confluence and the meld. Racial harmony created Mee Goreng- an Indian spicy fried noodle, adapting the Chinese style- wok clanging and all. The Chinese Hainanese- offered British pub grub and family meat chops and fries- as they once worked for and with British families in the colonial era. They also offered curry rice, vis British-India culinary technology. That list is still evolving today. They all began itinerant on the streets and were forcibly removed in the 50s and relocated to custom-built “hawker centers” as they once “hawked” things and food on the streets. It began as a no-frill food centre, up to 180 stalls in a giant football field-sized shed with 10x10 feet kitchens with piped- in water, gas, grease traps, and ventilation with bolted down table and chairs. Today, the new-fangled hawker centers, are another story- they improved ventilation with two-story high ceilings, cheerful, family-friendly, with big-ass fans and even bathrooms for hawkers who clock in on average 12-hour days. Hawkers can be found in a few concepts- government or private hawker centres, kopitiam (or coffeeshops), food courts or halls, and stand-alone one-dish/cuisine food shops all over the island. The story of this hawker food culture is still evolving today.
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