It's almost a week into my cold/flu now and I'm still feeling pretty lethargic. So much so, that I missed
Lunar Streets- Chinatown, Thainatown, Koreatown all come to life with street food. NOOoooo!!!! An ultimate grazing opportunity slipped through my fingers.
So to make it up to myself, I went to
Lunar Markets instead. It's exciting because I haven't been to night markets for a couple of years now, so I'm eager to try some of the new places.
First stop is Daniel San and their charcoal BBQ skewers. The chicken yakitori was a good start to the night. Also available were pork belly skewers but we passed on those because...
 |
| Chicken yakitori - $6 each / $10 for 2 |
We noticed a longer queue for
Hoy Pinoy! The name literally means Hey, Philipino! - needless to say its here to bring the flavour of the Philipines to Sydney.
 |
| Chicken or Pork belly skewer - $6 each / $10 for 2 |
At the same price and offering the same varieties, you will find Hoy Pinoy!'s skewers a little smaller than Daniel San's. But it's about quality, not quantity and personally Hoy Pinoy! wins this one in my books. The chicken was slightly juicier and had a better level of char which I enjoyed.
Hoy Pinoy! doesn't have a permanent store location in Sydney yet, but we anticipate its arrival.
We ran into a man handing out gyoza samples and found this store which specializes in handmade gyoza. I love gyoza. But my gyoza expectations are pretty high. A quick online search showed this place to have good reviews from previous pop up locations but doesn't have a permanent store in Sydney.
Those were all the reasons I needed for trying these. We ordered the power combo - 4 x chicken and 4 x pork gyoza.
 |
| Power combo: 4 x chicken and 4 x pork gyoza - $12 |
The chicken gyoza were pretty good. Juicy with a good ratio of veges as you bite into it. The gyoza skin was superb too, distinguishable from the super thin commercial gyoza skin, these were believably home made. The pork gyoza missed the mark for me, however, like I said, I have exceptionally high standards for pork dumplings. If a store opened in Sydney, I would be keen to try the other flavours too.
Phumplings? Pho + Dumplings. Somebody out there put two of my favourite foods together. This was really the highlight which drew me to the markets.
 |
| Phumplings - $10 |
Bar Pho came up with the patented idea of putting xiao long bao into pho soup. I was super excited by the idea and heard this menu item was sold out ever night at the Sydney Festival. Upon tasting it, it was ok. It wasn't mindblowing, nor was it dis-likable, it was just okay. The skin of the xiao long bao was probably a little thick/ gluggy and the filling mediocre by dumpling standards. The pho soup itself was well spiced, I would probably like it a little richer? It was a good concept, just not as amazing as I expected it to be. Maybe if they used a wonton-like dumpling it would accentuate the soup flavours more?
 |
| Coconut drink - $6 |
 |
| Crowds 5PM on a Sunday |
Our final pitstop, Pasar Malam. We wanted to wet our whistle with some Ribena Longan but saw the chicken lollipops. It's fried food goodness and a decent portion size for the night market scene. Thank goodness we had a drink to wash it down with, otherwise it might have been overkill on the grease.
 |
| Nonya Chicken lollipops - $10; Ribena longan - $5 |
It was great to see and try a few unique stores that aren't usually available in Sydney. Night market crawling is never cheap. The excitement of variety and small portions mean the cost quickly adds up, but it was certainly worthwhile for trying a few things out of the ordinary.
Lunar Markets is located at Pyrmont Bay Park (across the road from The Star Casino).
It runs between 12th to 22nd February, 2015.
Mon - Wed: 5-9 PM
Thurs-Fri: 5-10 PM
Sat: 4-10 PM
Sun: 4-9 PM
those skewers looks amazing!
ReplyDelete