Beyond Food Carts: Perhaps Decatur Needs a “Hawker Center”
Decatur Metro | March 28, 2011
See, you don’t need a historic structure like the Sweet Auburn Curb Market to cater to smaller food operations in your community. All you need is a parking lot.
From Anthony Bourdain’s “Medium Raw”…
If any good comes out of all the pain and insecurity [of the Great Recession], I can only hope the Asian-style food court/hawker center is one of them. This institution is way overdue for an appearance (on a large scale) in America. Scores of inexpensive one-chef/one-specialty businesses (basically, food stalls) clustered around a “court” of shared tables. When will some shrewd and civic-minded investors (perhaps in tandem with their city governments) put aside some parking lot-size spaces (near commercial districts) where operators from many lands can sell their wares? Sharing tables, as in classic fast-food food courts? Why, with our enormous Asian and Latino populations, can’t we have dai pai dong – literally, “big sign street”, the Chinese version of the indigenous food court, like they do in Hong Kong – or hawker centers, like in Singapore or Kuala Lumpur? Or “food streets,” like in Hanoi and Saigon? The open-to-the-air “wet” taco vendors and quesadilla-makers of Mexico City?
Food preparation areas could be enclosed, as they are in Singapore, so food handling and sanitation issues can hardly be an unsolvable impediment: Singapore is the most rigorously nanny of nanny states – with the most vibrant hawker culture.
Where would you put one of these?
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That would *rock.* And actually there is a more local model: Austin has 2 parking lots (both on S. Congress) that house food trucks and Airstreams.
(My fave SG hawker center is the Chinatown Temporary Wet Market.)
We don’t have this exactly as described, but Chinatown Square in Chamblee is pretty close. It’s indoors and relatively permanent, so that might disqualify it in some people’s minds, but in all other respects it’s what Bourdain is talking about, which in America is more synonymous (as Bourdain notes) with a food court: a collection of individually owned and operated walk-up stalls focusing on specific things, surrounding tables. All manner of Asian delicacies can be had here, and you definitely get the proper vibe.
I would love to see this kind of thing in Decatur, but I don’t know what location(s) to suggest. Maybe it could adjoin or fill up empty spaces in the Decatur Farmer’s Market when that is scheduled…
It’s a shame there isn’t a large vacant building/parking lot in Oakhurst.
#thingsthatareashame
We ate a fun meal in the open air in Honalulu HI last spring- it was 4 or 5 airstreams in a circle. all different ethnic foods. It was great. And affordable.
What about the ugly parking lot on the corner of commerce and church. It would complement the farm market across the street.
behind the old wachovia. wont work if it is not where people walk by.
I wouldn’t say Decatur “needs” any such thing. We’ve got 40+ restaurants around the Square as is. Around 100 or so throughout our 4 square miles. It’s a cool idea, but at our saturation level it would probably impact existing businesses.
Love this idea. It will not impact local restaurants because it will bring more people in. We (family that eats out 3 times a week) will continue to frequent our local restaurants. (Stay at home mom not stay at home cook!)
Yummy gourmet food trucks like in Portland.
Decatur would rock even more.
The vacant lot comment was funny.
When I was studying at Tsinguha Univ. (suburban Beijing) there was this type of market. Cheap food and beer. You could eat and have a beer for about $3. Would be nice to have this in Decatur and I would gladly pay $7. Would be a great idea for lunch too. What about one of the churches? Don’t they have parking lots they don’t use during the week?
Oops. I mis-typed Tsinghua.
Ferry Plaza market in San Francisco on a Saturday morning has some of the best food in the world. And it isn’t super bargain compared to say Fast Food, but it is compared to restaurant food.
Sign me up. I say you could go “pop up” on any given day and draw a following…. tables are a key thing….
This would be an awesome thing for Decatur. One thing that this city needs more of is ethnic diversity–especially in our restaurant offerings. There is not one Asian restaurant in the city that serves anything close to authentic food. I’ve spoken with the Indonesian staff at Sushi Avenue and the Korean staff at Chinese places, and they tell me that restaurants serving their native fare would not succeed in our city. As an Asian American, it continually disgusts me both that too many Americans–even in as liberal a city as Decatur–think that General Tso’s chicken is real Chinese food and are not willing to expand their palates.
Food stalls, with their lower overhead, might allow owners of authentic restaurants to expand outside of Buford Highway, and maybe even let a few enterprising chefs of more challenging cuisines find an audience.
I would hope that a great idea like this would garner support from citizens, but I fear that local businesses would fight it. I would love to see how existing restaurants would face the challenge–Iberian pig adding balut to its menu? Yogurt Tap featuring durian flavored frozen yogurt? Brick store grilling up some tasty goose uterus yakitori?
How are the New Orleans Snoball Cafe and the bubble tea place in the North Decatur (Bike South) shopping plaza doing? Both seem to offer tastes not usually seen around Decatur.