Despite arriving around just after 6pm, the crowds in Hyde park were in epic proportions and gradually got bigger as the night went by.
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| Entrance Closest to Town Hall Station |
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| Fortune Cat Art | Giant Fortune Cat (recycled from Chinese New Year?) |
I arrived earlier than my foodie companion, Kenichi, so I ended up checking out the various stalls across the market - a few things stood out like the chicken skewers that were cooked over charcoal pits (and generated a large amount of smoke across the park):
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| Cooking Skewers at the Hoy Pinoy Stall | Black Star Pastry x N2 Collaboration Stall |
Another thing that piqued my interest was the Black Star Pastry x N2 stall. For those of you that don't know about Black Star Pastry, you've surely heard or seen their strawberry and watermelon cake somewhere online (otherwise, you've been living under a rock). N2 Gelato is another big name in Sydney as they specialise in serving gelato made by combining ingredients with liquid nitrogen in KitchenAids. As part of this collaboration, they were selling 'Cake Smash' gelato with the exact same flavours of the strawberry and watermelon cake, but I thought it was rather exy at $10 for this tiny-as cup. They were also selling another ('Ferroro Reveal') gelato flavour as well as the actual strawberry and raspberry cake that is slightly more expensive (and smaller) here than at their actual store (which, BTW, is within 10min walk).
As I was getting hungry from walking around and seeing all this amazing food, I decided to line up for the Peking Duck Fries from Bao Stop.
I've seen Bao Stop stalls before at previous food markets but never had the opportunity to try it so here was my chance. They seem very efficient in serving their food as the staff manning the cashiers took in orders and then handed the slips of paper to a single staff member calling out names, along with their orders, to churn out the produce from the kitchen:
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| Food Churned Out of Bao Stop Stall |
Despite having a long line, I was able to get my eager hands on my bowl of food within 15min:
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| Peking Duck Fries ($15) |
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| Aerial View of Peking Duck Fries |
As you can see from the pictures, there was ample Peking duck - large chunks of duck meat with crispy skin, doused in sweet hoisin sauce - sitting on top of the fries. Unfortunately the fries weren't quite cooked long enough and therefore were soggy near the bottom of the tray.
Just as I had started devouring the Peking duck fries, Kenichi had finally arrived so we went around in search of food for him. We ended up stopping by the Eat The Chicken stall, which offered pineapple fried rice, served in half of a hollowed-out pineapple:
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| Pineapple Fried Rice ($14) - Scented Jasmine Rice Wok Tossed with Shiitake Mushrooms, Fresh Pineapple, Cashew Nuts and Sultanas |
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| Kombo ($16) - Chicken Ribs, Corn Fritters, Chilli Apple Slaw and Pineapple Fried Rice |
Kenichi settled on their 'kombo' platter, which included a small sample of the food they had to offer. Unfortunately the food offering was rather average - there was minimal pineapple in the fried rice and the shiitake mushroom just threw off the various flavours in the fried rice; the chicken ribs had to be from a chicken the size of a turkey because it was BIG, or they were from a different part of the chicken; and the corn fritters were a dough-y deep-fried ball with ample sweet corn.
After this, I was still debating whether to try something from the Gelato Messina stall but Kenichi and I were both in agreement of stopping by the Harajuku Gyoza stall as our next food pit stop. Harajuku Gyoza is insta-famous for their octodogs (takoyaki balls x mini sausages) and raindrop cake:
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| Sneaky Peak at the Octodog Skewer ($10) and Karaage Chicken |
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| Matcha Raindrop Cake ($8) |
After enduring the long, long lines of the Harajuku Gyoza stall, we ended up getting the matcha-flavoured raindrop cake. The 'cake' was a clear, jelly-like semi-solid - not quite as soft as normal jelly - and the soft 'cake' just melts in the mouth. Personally, I thought it was rather bland and disappointing, despite being served with a matcha cream (the highlight) and a pistachio crunch that was processed to a powder form. Well, now there is no need to make the effort to visit the actual store in Potts Point.
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| Crowds at the Night Noodle Market |
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| Paper Cranes at Museum Station Entrance |
Visit #2
Okay, I couldn't stay away and ended up visiting the Noodle Night Markets for a second time with the express purpose of trying out the Peking duck waffle fries from One Tea Lounge and the matcha gelato by Gelato Messina.
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| One Tea Lounge Stall |
When I arrived, there was a long line to the One Tea Lounge stall, which is usually a good sign for popularity. However, after standing for over 20min in line before I got the front, I was beginning to wonder if the Peking duck waffle fries would be worth it (surely, right?). I am pretty sure that they increased the price (from $15 on initial opening days) to $16...
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| Carousel of Their Produce - Cookie Shots and Baogers |
Anyway, I had to wait an additional 10min after ordering before I finally received my tray of food because they were behind on cooking the waffle fries:
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| Peking Duck Waffle Fries ($16) |
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| Aerial View of Peking Duck Waffle Fries |
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| Close-up of the Peking Duck Waffle Fries |
The portion size was decidedly rather small, in comparison to the previous trays that I saw them (slowly) churning out before. There was also very limited Peking duck on the waffle fries, which paled in comparison to the healthy serving I received from the Bao Stop stall (although that was from the initial days of the night noodle markets - they may have reduced their portion sizes over time too). The sauce used to coat the Peking duck contained hot chilli and was way too salty. Although the waffle fries were freshly fried, they were highly saturated in oil and weren't that crispy so became soft as it cooked.
I could only finish half of the tray before I packed it away to eat later as I wanted to go off to the next food stop in hope that it would alleviate the saltiness/chilli/oily flavour from my mouth.
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| Gelato Messina Stall |
As with the past few years, Gelato Messina has come up with a few quirky menu items, including a play on deep fried ice cream, or the aforementioned matcha gelato for matcha lovers!
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| Matcha Do About Nothing ($10) - Milk Chocolate and Matcha Gelato
coated in a White Choc and Pistachio Crunch, served in a Green Tea Waffle Cone |
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| Matcha Do About Nothing |
Not that it was a bad thing but the gelato consisted of 80% matcha flavour with several mouthfuls of the milk choc flavour, which supposedly tasted like milo. From what I did get, the gelato wasn't too sweet (even with the white choc and pistachio coating) and you could taste the slight bitterness of matcha powder throughout.
Overall, there were some hits and misses from the Sydney Night Noodle Market this year. Maybe better luck next time.
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