Taking It to the Streets
Writing about Southeast Asian street food served indoors would be my ultimate assignment because I love the region's cuisine and have a fetish for dining in malls abroad (ok, here too).
Robyn of EatingAsia got to live my dream for the Wall Street Journal. It's really not her beat, though. She and her husband (both Americans who I met during my 2005 Kuala Lumpur trip shortly after they had moved there) are really masters of the street food scene. Ok, scene sounds overblown but they know what they're doing.
I've been to quite a few of the venues mentioned in the article: Madame Kwan's, StraitsKitchen, Food Republic and Lau Pa Sat (as a foreigner I consider that a real hawker center not so much "stylish street food"). I've also eaten at Bangkok's MBK Shopping Center, though not the specific restaurant mentioned. I recently had my sights set on Central World or Siam Paragon, but Suvarnabhumi Airport ruined my end-of-2008 vacation. And yes, I'm still bitter.