Hard-to-find street food, including Vietnamese Banh Khoai and Pork Martabak, star at Regional Hawker Showcase at Raffles Courtyard

It’s a celebration of Southeast Asian hawker specialties at Raffles Hotel Singapore, happening from now till Oct 8, 2024. 

Raffles Courtyard and Makansutra have reunited to unveil the first-ever Regional Hawker Showcase at Raffles Courtyard, a new series that celebrates regional street food and the remarkable hawker talents behind them. This is the second collaboration after the success of Hawker Stories in 2022 where it featured local vendors who closed their businesses because of the pandemic. 

This time, the initiative expands to our Southeast Asian neighbours with four regional hawkers and their delectable delicacies, all carefully selected in partnership with Makansutra and its founder, KF Seetoh. Spanning four installments, each hawker in the showcase will serve their specialty dishes in the bucolic greenery of Raffles Courtyard exclusively for one week, from 3pm to 9pm daily. 

Pak Buyung Haryanto from Bandung, Indonesia, had kick-started a one-week residency from Jul 3 to 9 with his signature crispy martabak. Served alongside freshly made spicy sambal matah, a Balinese delicacy, the Pork Martabak is a rare find in Singapore. Unlike the local version which is more greasy and flaky, this version features crispy roti made from homemade roti batter, generously packed with a savoury medley of eggs, coriander, onions, ham, preserved meats, seasoned bacon and smoked ham. Each serving is easily good for two or three persons. 

Vietnamese Banh Khoai – a savoury pancake laced with seafood and minced pork – will be the second dish to star the inaugural Regional Hawker Showcase. From Aug 7 to 13, the well-loved hawker dish will be lovingly handcrafted and served on-site by Ho Thi Tha – a street food star hailing from the city of Hue in central Vietnam where banh khoai is especially popular.

What makes Ho’s version stand out from the competition is her commitment to using a custom rice batter made from rice that she mills herself. Pair that with locally procured fresh ingredients like shrimp, squid, fish, minced pork and leafy greens – plus a suitably hefty dose of fish sauce sourced directly from Vietnam – and you’ve got a recipe for a truly scrumptious street snack. 

The two other hawker heroes will take up residency from Sep 4 to 10, and Oct 2 to 8, but their names will only be revealed closer to the dates. 

Raffles Courtyard is at Raffles Hotel Singapore, 328 North Bridge Rd, Singapore 189673. For enquiries and reservations for dining experiences at Raffles Hotel Singapore, call 6412 1816 or email at [email protected].

All photos courtesy of Raffles Hotel Singapore x Makansutra’s Regional Hawker Showcase unless indicated.