THERE'S this thing about cooking Singapore makan for folks in New York, the foodie capital of America.

MIND OVER MATTER: KF Seetoh priming his audience for the char kway teow being fried in the wok. PICTURE: MAKANSUTRA

They won't eat or enjoy what they can't taste in their minds, imagine and be primed for.

A simple yet complicated dish like laksa can tip either way on their enjoyment meter.

Up, if the complex spices used and techniques introduced are carefully reconstructed visually before them and the flavours slowly painted in their minds. Down, if we just told them it is some well-loved spicy Peranakan noodle curry dish.

A team of hawkers, chefs and assistants, recently in New York for a stint organised by IE Singapore and The Singapore Tourism Board, found this out the hard way.

The hawkers had to dissect and be held accountable for every ingredient used in their food.

The team, consisting of boss Willin Low (and his assistant, Andy) from Wild Rocket restaurant, Sam Mohd of Alhambra Satay at Gluttons Bay, Ah Heng (and his son, Kelvin) of Tian Jin Hai seafood, Kam Yong Kuat and me, set up an exclusive evening of Singapore makan for about 200 invited media folks and others at the Tunnel - a preserved old road tunnel more than 100m long with an amazingly high ceiling.

Funky little eateries, bars, retail shops and even art galleries dot this tunnel space beside the Hudson River.

We were also set for three demo stints - one at the prestigious and newly made-over Saveur Magazine test kitchens in Manhattan, graced by no less than the respected editor-in-chief, James Oseland, and his team of writers and kitchen chiefs.

A crew from Devour TV filmed the session and two stints at the Whole Food Markets (a humongous, country-wide version of Cold Storage) education kitchens.

It was a sold-out ticketed event for about 50 people and we learnt that another 150 were on the waiting list.

At the Tunnel event, eight open cooking stations with overhead signs displaying the name and photo of the food were set up for the hawkers.

When Sam, in his inimitable manner, explained how his satays were exactingly skewered and robustly marinated in a combination of ground and blended lemongrass, galangal, turmeric, ginger, shallots, sugar, chillies and a host of other spices over four hours, the anticipation level was heightened.

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Gleeful faces before his hotplate was the reward for Sam, who proclaimed: 'Some came back three times just to have two sticks each time.'

He was only too happy to talk about how his satay sauce was made.

My take on char kway teow, as I was frying it before a crowd, was how it was the ugliest but best-loved fried pasta dish here.

It came almost black and laced with a weird and wonderful combination of salt (soya sauce), umami (a dash of oyster sauce) and sweet (sweet soya or molasses), all furiously fried with the noodles one at a time and topped with prawns, sotong rings, Chinese lapcheong and textured with bean sprouts and chives (it is near impossible to get blood cockles or seehum in the Big Apple).

They lapped it up despite the messy aftermath in the wok.

The story of teh tarik described how thick, hot and smoky Indian red tea was smoothened with two types of milk, evaporated and condensed, and dragged from one cup to another a couple of times to create the perfect environmentally friendly (as no electricity was used to create the froth) Indian pulled tea latte.

Bak kut teh was a tad too simple to describe, yet easy to enjoy.

So Willin came up with a hip dash to the equation - to top it with a bak kut meat ravioli laced with foie gras and truffle oil and with cubes of water chestnuts.

But because of animal rights concerns at Whole Foods Market, he replaced it with mushrooms.

Overall, it was a great stint and we left realising the benefits of first feeding the flavours to the mind before putting food to the stomach.

Makansutra, founded by KF Seetoh, is a company that celebrates Asian food culture and lifestyle. It publishes food guides in and around the region, produces a food television series, develops interactive mobile content and services, operates food courts and eateries, organises food tours and events, and consults on culinary concepts.

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