Street food inspires Central Florida restaurants
Flames howling under the wok at Orlando restaurant Mamak Asian Street Food are intended to imitate the street carts of Malaysia — specifically those found in mega-city Kuala Lumpur.
Mamak’s cooks try to re-create authentic flavors from that metropolis, even if the curry and shrimp is served in an air-conditioned dining room of Central Florida, instead of steamy Southeast Asia sidewalks
From Mamak to New York City-inspired Oh My Gyro in Longwood, street food is invading Central Florida in its own unique way. Other recent arrivals in Orlando include restaurants serving street food inspired by Hong Kong, Vietnam and Mexico. It’s part of a national trend, recognized by the National Restaurant Association as one of the hottest food trends of 2017.
Street food has a much different look in Central Florida than it
does in much of the world because Orlando isn’t a dense urban city. Customers here like the comfort of tables and air conditioning, restaurant owners say. But they’re looking for the same food, trying to get an authentic taste of foreign cities without leaving home.
“I like the blend of foods from different parts of Asia,” Mamak customer Sandy Scheiber said. “And it’s so fresh and clean.”
She popped into Mamak’s Wednesday afternoon after a yoga class for her and her two children.
Other local examples of the trend include Rasa Asian Street Food, which opened in December in the Dr. Phillips neighborhood; Hong Kong Alleys Kitchen, recently opened in Orlando’s Union Park; and Viet-Nomz near University of Central Florida.
Viet-Nomz co-owner Philip Nguyen said he was inspired by his grandmother’s cooking and by trips to California to see how Vietnamese food was being reimagined for a younger audience.
“A lot of the Vietnamese restaurants we have in this area are dated,” he said. “We wanted to bring a new era; something more accessible to the general public.”
The Viet-Nomz menu is filled with traditional street dishes such as bahn mi (sandwiches) as well as hybrid dishes such as tacos filled with Vietnamese-flavored meats.
Many of these new eateries are run by first or second generation immigrants, who grew up on foods from their ancestral lands and then visited there as young adults to discover the appeal and simplicity of dishes from street vendors.
“People are tired of fast food, but they like their food fast,” said Joseph Creech, who opened Hunger St. Tacos in Winter Park in January and spent the first six years of his life in Acapulco, Mexico. “People like [TV food star] Anthony Bourdain are showing them simple food can be really good and we are drawn to that.”
Orlando-based Hawkers Asian Street Fare has expanded to four locations in Florida after opening on Mills Avenue in 2011. It serves popular dishes from across southeastern Asia — from pad Thai to Asian fusion tacos. The owners of Hawkers and Mamak share some family ties.
Asian street food dishes tend to be heavy on fresh vegetables because they are cheaper and easier to store than meat — which can be a big factor in poor, thirdworld countries.
Alex Lo, manager at Mamak, said he helped his family create the Asian street food restaurant two years ago. His parents ran a Chinese-style restaurant in Osceola County for more than three decades.
Lo visited his parent’s native Malaysia several times over the years and was convinced traditional street food could be popular. Americans are hungry for new food styles, Lo said. At Mamak, he said most of his customers are young Americans. Instead of serving food on the street, they created a restaurant with retro lighting, bamboo wood tables and modern lighting.
“We have to scale some things back because Americans don’t like as much spice or fermented flavors, but for the most part this is the same food you can get in any big city in Malaysia,” Lo said.
After two years of business, Lo said Mamak is now looking to expand, although it doesn’t have firm plans yet.
Not all of Central Florida’s street food restaurants have deep ancestral roots from foreign lands, though.
Tanaz and Abbas Karmali opened the Oh My Gyro restaurant in Longwood in October, inspired by Halal style street foods they ate in New York City. The Karmalis are native Indians and hadn’t tasted the savory Middle Eastern-inspired food before moving to New York.
“We don’t claim this as Middle Eastern food,” Tanaz said. “This is New York street cart food.”