Smoke, sugar, fish sauce: The Southeast Asian Market returns to FDR Park for 2025

Every weekend from April to October, barbecue smoke perfumes the air across from Citizens Bank Park, as chicken wings, meat skewers, and homemade sausages sizzle on dozens of charcoal grills.

Kem Lun, the Stir Fry Lady, works a propane-fired flattop, her pin noodles and bean sprouts hissing and crackling beneath her spatula. Axes crack open bamboo stalks and coconuts. At stand after stand, the wooden pestle known in Lao as a sahk smashes green papaya, tomato, crabs, fish sauce, and garlic against the side of a mortar (kohk) to create papaya salad. There’s sugar cane juice and Vietnamese coffee. Ice cubes tumble into plastic cups to chill boba drinks with every TikTok-approved add-on and garnish you could imagine. (Cheese boba! Coffee jelly!)

For thousands of visitors each weekend, the Southeast Asian Market in FDR Park combines the row-after-row discovery of a flea market with the open-air feast of Cambodian and Lao street food, plus the occasional taco. The cheesesteak from Sahbyy Food, whose cheddar-sauced lemongrass beef is served on a short hoagie roll, will remind you that you’re still in South Philadelphia. Prices are reasonable: A salad may set you back less than $15; most bites are under $10.

Over nearly four decades, the SEA Market has grown from one vendor to a registered collection of 74 stands — 72 regulars and two pop-ups. Though most sell food, others offer clothing. Some have plants. One seems to have it all: plants, pepper sauces, rice baskets, jewelry, and Muay Thai shorts. The market — open from all sides — maintains a map of vendors coded by location. Not all businesses are named.

The stand labeled A2, for instance, sells bamboo sticky rice, where for $8 Khambay Panmanyvong will cut open a bamboo stick for a dish known as khao lam in Thai and kralan in Khmer; it’s sweet sticky rice and mung beans.

At B5, they deep-fry everything: Oreo cookies and bananas, beef patties and chicken nuggets. At B28, Mama BK’s Kitchen sells a prepared-to-order dessert of pandan noodles.

There are no fewer than nine vendors of papaya salad, for example, and probably the same number of vendors selling grilled chicken wings as well as wings stuffed with sausages. Since each makes it a little different, it might be a good idea to return to try them all.

After a while, you’ll be able to discuss the merits of Khmer twa-ko (a Cambodian sausage), sai oua (a Lao sausage), and sai krok esan (a sour Thai sausage).

Or stop by Oeun Oeum’s stand at A4, which has large, clear jars of dried insects and other small critters for snacking.

As refugees arrived from Laos and Cambodia in the early 1980s and settled in South Philadelphia, they began cooking for themselves and one another. “If somebody was having a birthday party or a wedding, they would say, ‘I’ll make spring rolls’ or ‘I’ll make this,’” said Catzie Vilayphonh, the market’s community cultivator, who will arrange tours for groups. At businesses and farms that employed the new immigrants, some enterprising workers started making extra food to sell to coworkers. The new arrivals also played a game called kathaw (or sepak takraw, sometimes called kick volleyball) in FDR Park, across from the sports complex. Food vendors started showing up there to feed hungry spectators and players.

“They called it the Spectrum [after the since-imploded arena] because a lot of them couldn’t say ‘FDR,’” Vilayphonh said. In 1988, a Lao husband and wife started showing up in a blue van, where she made papaya salad. “It was very convenient because she would open the door, and then you would see her. If for any reason she needed a leave, she would just close the door and be done,” Vilayphonh said. The husband grilled chicken wings to sell outside the van. “Then word spread, and then another person showed up with papaya salad and eventually it just became word of mouth,” Vilayphonh said.

Aaliyssa Chanthakhoussy, the daughter of those first vendors, runs the stand known as Mom’s Thum Bak Hoong. It’s still selling papaya salad.

Vilayphonh said the early vendors, who were unlicensed, stayed far apart “because they didn’t want to infringe on the other person’s customer base.” The police, the city, and some park users hassled them.

But by the early 2000s, they realized that there was strength in unity. With the help of the Cambodian Association of Greater Philadelphia, the vendor association was formed in 2021 to work with the park, which by then had a director. They agreed on locations, as well as parking and trash-disposal issues, and vendors became registered businesses.

The park gained national attention in 2023 when Food & Wine named it one of the best food markets in the nation.

The market sets up from April to June near the park’s Broad Street exit (Picnic Area 17). From July to October, it moves near the Taney Baseball field (Picnic Area 11). The website includes the map. Hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, rain or shine, through Oct. 26. If storms are predicted, a decision to close will be made by 5 p.m. the day before, with a final updates by 8 a.m. on the morning of. On Memorial Day and Labor Day weekends, the market is open on Mondays, though individual vendor availability may vary. Also note that the market must close during weekend sports events, such as the Broad Street Run and Eagles home games. The 5k runs in the park limit car entry for both vendors and visitors. It’s wise to check the market’s social media.