Richmond Night Market

Only three weekends left! I went to the Richmond Night Market for the first time on Friday night, and then again on Monday night (open for Labour Day)and it was a blast sampling all the street food, and browsing all the craptastic merchandise. Since Bac'n Girl and I were sharing everything, we were able to sample SO much. I think we each spent about twenty bucks on food, with each item being $2 - 5. We started with a trio of skewers - bacon and potato, chicken, and pork. We had grilled squid balls on a skewer which were quite tasty, and they were very carefully dressed with Japanese condiments by the man at the stall. In fact, there were all kinds of fish and squid balls in various booths. We also had takoyaki, round balls of batter with a chunk of octopus in the middle, later (at the booth that make the big ones, with all sorts of bits like cabbage inside), dressed with similar condiments (that plum sauce, Japanese mayo, those dancing bonito flakes). Takoyaki is one of my favourite street foods ever, and this one was one of the highlights of the evening. I also had half a barbequed quail ($2!), my favourite poultry. We had six lumpia (like mini spring rolls) and an empanada from a booth. We had Malaysian roti canai, served with curry sauce to dip into, and that was fantastic. We had this really wonderful coconut and mango drink, with jelly, from the Fruit Stop stand. Next to this stand, there was real sugar cane being crushed to extract the juice. Dragon Beard Candy was another discovery. I had never seen or heard of this before, but it's like hand-pulled candy floss, wrapped around minced nut mixture, in small lumps. The coarse threads of sugar are kind of chewy. I also tried a great thai dessert of little coconut custards, fried crispy on one side and topped which came in a serving of ten little custards with a trio of toppings - either corn, taro or green onion on each. It was just lovely because of the crispiness on the outside combined with the warm, gooey, smooth, creamy custard. Some of them were too hot and some were too cold, but when I ate one at just the right temperature, it was wonderful.

On my other visit, Cheeseboy and I also tried periwinkle meat served in a curry-like sauce (tasty and has a great chewy/crunchy texture, reminiscent of pigs ear to me), pineapple fried rice served right in the pineapple half, curry fish balls, thai meatballs (so-so), barbecued tofu (served with a weird, yucky sauce from one booth that was sour), strawberry drink with jelly, "bubble" waffle (great as finger food, because the "bubbles" of the waffle can be pulled apart and eaten individually. They are not filled, incidentally), and chocolate dipped banana on a stick. Most things were served with or on skewers, and it was great fun walking and nibbling away, finding new things to try. I didn't get to try the cute little fish shaped dumplings filled with sweet red bean paste or savory fillings, so I might even go again. The night market is open from 7 pm - midnight on Friday and Saturday, and 7 pm - 11 pm on Sunday until September 25th. We used the $2 parking by the furniture stores, and walked a few minutes from the parking to the market. The market is behind the Home Depot across from Ikea.



Squid Balls


Takoyaki - Octopus Balls Being Grilled


Takoyaki - Octopus Balls


Thai Meatballs


Thai Coconut Custards with three toppings (Taro, Corn and Green Onion)


Sugar Cane Crushing Machine


Dragon Beard Candy