This weekend, Fancy Hank’s alumna Alicia Cheong is returning to the Hank’s fold after several years working at Singapore’s Michelin-starred Restaurant André with a pop-up in Abbotsford called Majestic Hawker.
For two days Cheong and the Fancy Hank’s team will take over a warehouse and, according to Hank’s co-owner and founder Kent Bell, will “try to replicate the hawker market experience you get in Singapore and Malaysia but on a smaller scale”.
“It’s going to be pretty raw,” he says. “Alicia is going to be working with charcoal wok burners and satay stands that are currently on their way here on a boat from Malaysia. There’s graffiti on the walls and I think there’ll be cars parked in here but we’re happy to work around that. It’ll add to the ambiance.”
Sambal stingray in banana leaf and soy-marinated chicken wings.
Cheong will be cooking a compact menu of classic hawker-style dishes at the ticketed event. There’ll be sambal stingray served in a banana leaf and pork belly skewers cooked over charcoal, char kway teow and oyster omelettes from the woks plus sweet stuff like fried banana fritters and sago pudding.
Drinks will be limited to beers from Asahi and Bodriggy and a pair of cocktails: a gin-based Singapore Sling and a refreshing whisky, tea and lemon barley mix.
Satay stands have been imported from Malaysia.
The Majestic Hawker pop-up will also serve as a preview of sorts.
“We’ve been talking to Alicia about doing a Singapore barbecue joint in Melbourne for about three years now,” Bell says. “We’re still waiting to find the right venue for something more permanent but we just decided to get things going now with the pop-up.”
Majestic Hawker, Friday 14 July-Saturday 15 July, 7pm-10pm, 274 Johnston St, Abbotsford, Vic. 3-courses $30, 3-courses plus 3 drinks $50. Tickets available online.
