Thursday, July 28, 2011

Richmond Night Market

Richmond Night Market (Or Summer Night Market as it's currently known on Urban Spoon) is basically a cheaper, portable vesion of any of the local Chinese shopping centres and their food courts, that operates in the summertime. It's some business person's attempt to capitalize on the polularity of places like loi yun gai (lady's market in HK), but with stalls that sell fewer useful items.


Unfortunately, I was pretty full by the time I made it to the Night Market, but this Butter Chicken Poutine really caught my eye and if I ever visit again, I think I'll give it a try.  How can you go wrong with Butter Chicken and Poutine, lol!

Another stall I wanted to try was one of the Viet Namese stands.  The prices didn't look too bad and the food looked really tasty, even though I wasn't hungry.



Of course, what festival would be proper without a takoyaki stand?  There are several of these located throughout the food stalls,a nd this particular shop returns ever year and so far, I haven't been disappointed. 








My friend's girlfriend actually worked for them before and I've tried them on numerous occasions.











I wasn't really in the mood for something salty as I stuffed my face earlier on shao long bao, so I ended up getting something sweet and settled on a "Japanese Luxury", haha!  It was funny watching the staff here belt out announcements like "Authentic JAPANESE crepes!", or "Crepes from JAPAN!" haha!  There was a Korean stall right next door so maybe they were competing?  Or maybe they were playing on the whole authenticity fiasco.  I really didn't care where the staff were from, but in the end, what I got tasted good so it didn't matter for me one way or another. 


I got a macha, mochi, anko, whipped cream crepe which turned out surprisingly good.  The crepe skin itself wasn't freshly formed (they had a small pile of skins made already) but it still tasted really good. 



Night Market is chock full of shops that sell toys, cell phone accessories and other useless little trinkets.  One of the biggest travesties of Richmond Night Market is this one shop that sells "Samurai Swords". Being a practitioner of iaido, I get cold shivers up my spine knowing that there are shops like this trying to pawn off these "authentic Japanese swords" which are really no more than sharpened wall-hanger decorations, to the wannabe bad-boy types that flock there.  That place, and a shop that sells $10 prescription contact lenses has "SKETCHY" written all over them, haha!  Buyer beware I guess.


The food here isn't too bad, it's inexpensive, and it's always kind of fun to eat something outside in an festival type environment.  It's got a TON of variety and certainly one-ups the standard hot dogs, corn dogs, popcorn and cotton candy.  And in typical Chinese food court fashion, the prices get slashed big-time near closing (not that anything is overly expensive to begin with) so if you're a cheapskate like me, hit the place late in the evening (and you won't have to fight over parking around this time!). 

Summer Night Market 夏日夜市 on Urbanspoon

8 comments:

  1. Hahaha! Yup, it's no longer the Richmond Night Market, the guy who owns the name has been looking for another ideal location...he tried the grounds by Starlight but was not approved...so it has been on hold ever since. Summer Night Market is the official name for the one in Richmond...

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  2. Hey Buddha Girl! Haha, I was surprised to find it on Urban Spoon at all, but then it had over 100 pictures posted! Have you been to the other night markets? I talked to some friends from Vancouver and some of them have never heard of the Night Market in Richmond, only the one in Chinatown.

    Peter

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  3. I really like the crab claws from the Vietnamese stands, only $5 for 5-ish.
    No stinky tofu for you?
    I sometimes go for their $1 skewers, right before they close hehehe

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  4. Crap claws! I missed that!! Dammint, haha, guess I'll have to make another visit, lol!

    Stinky Tofu was there as well??? I should probably go again sometime when I'm hungry =)

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  5. I need to go to the night market soon!! Most of my friends aren't fans of it, which sucks :( But I heard there was a turkey drumstick that was good!

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  6. Hey Janice!

    Haha, I ended up going again this weekend and I tried thos crab claws that Gloria was talking about, yummy! I'll post some pictures soon. I saw those turkey drumsticks, but never thought to try them, you heard they were good? Dammit! I'll have to go back again for another visit! There wasn't a line up in front of them so I figured they couldn't be that good. Oh well, another visit I guess!

    Peter

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  7. Oh really? It might have just been something special that's why, because I heard there was a bit of attention for the drumsticks the first few weeks. If that died down, I don't think it'll be worth a try then. How were the crab claws?! I need to give them a try

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  8. Hey Janice!

    Nah, I'll give them a try, haha, I'm so easily convinced =). The crab claws weren't too bad, obviously very little if any real crab meat was used. Basically a semi-crab tasting ball of deep fried fish paste with a crabclaw sticking out =)

    Peter

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