Virtual Brands and Pop-Ups Are Making Southeast Asian Street Food Accessible to Austin

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Flavors from Southeast Asia are arriving in Austin's developing Asian food scene via the modern-day hawker stall: internet-driven pop-ups and virtual brands.

Southeast Asia is synonymous with street food. Around Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia, hawker stalls are the ultimate democratizer: Young urban professionals, government workers, schoolchildren, and apron-clad grandmas alike can be found shouting orders over noisy markets and squatting on plastic stools hunched over a steaming bowl of something absolutely delicious that costs less than $3.

“People like me don’t have the funds or the time to start a full-time restaurant, but I like cooking street foods. We can only do that now because of pop-ups and the low barrier to entry.

"I was craving my mom's food and I was stuck at home," says McCrary."So I decided to just start making it. If there had been restaurants serving some of these dishes, it's hard to say if I would've made the same choice." "I just like to cook and eat," laughs Tjie."This business, you need to love your job. It takes long hours and it's not easy but if you have someone who has the same idea to help you grow your business, nothing feels hard."

"I have people from Singapore who are like, 'This taste immediately brings me back home,'" says Tah."This is what real chicken rice tastes like in Singapore. This is not Americanized."), spent childhood summers selling kuih from a stall by the side of the road with her aunt in Malaysia.

"What I want to do is honor traditional methods. And then what can we add, as Texans?" Pendleton says."What ingredients don't have to come so far from us, and are sustainable?") – currently consisting of founder"Nasi" Nicolai McCrary,"Durian" Don Smolik,"Milo" Mike Moore, and"Sambal" Sarah Kayfus – initially began as a fundraiser for the Austin Justice Coalition in 2020.

 

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