Night Market offers foods of the world
Operators call the Richmond Night Market the biggest in North America, bigger than the one in Hong Kong and Taipei. I know it’s definitely bigger than a one-time experience and I’m just talking about the food, not so much the trinkets, electronic doodads and socks.
Asian countries started night markets as a clever way to outsmart the daytime heat. I’ve visited several in Asia and my favourite was in Luang Prabang, Laos, which told me size doesn’t matter. I loved it for the food and local craft stalls, where I actually bought a bunch of stuff. In Richmond, there are about 105 food stalls (300 including retail), a grazing pasture for an average 5,000 to 8,000 people a night. It’s open Friday to Sunday and from May 11 to Oct. 8 this year.
Our night market (I say ‘our’ because the Richmond Night Market is the last one standing after other attempts in Richmond, Vancouver’s Chinatown and Surrey floundered) is unique for its mind-boggling variety of food (vendors are curated to prevent duplications), the multicultural curveballs and modern, youthful, imaginative food, whereas traditional night markets stick to local cuisine.
Take, for example, the Phamily Table, which I tried on my first visit this year. The new stall is operated by 27-year-old Brandon Phan; he hawks braised, smoked, pork belly that gets another last-second inhale of woodsmoke blasted right into the container. It’s topped with barbecue, spicy or sweet and sour sauce, and is served with pickled veg with kale. “At the end of the day, it’s Canadian,” says Phan. “The sauces play off different cultures: Chinese, Korean and southern U.S. The pickles are Asian and kale is so Vancouver.”
Phan apprenticed with one of the best chefs (Hamid Salimian) in Vancouver and cooked at Shangri-La Hotel’s Market restaurant, as well as Sai Woo, a modern Chinese restaurant; he caters and collaborates in pop-up dinner events.
“I went to do some stages at Michelin-star restaurants in Denmark,” he says, “and when I came back I realized I was ready to open my own business with my own food.” The stall will help him open his “top-secret” restaurant. “Everything ’s ready. I just have to pick a perfect location,” he says.
Next to Phamily Table, Star Burrito offers burritos with
a Filipino bent (pork sisig, chicken coconut adobe, vegetarian lumpia). I liked the Asomi Mochi so much that I made two visits for the sculptural Japanese mochi. Cut artfully into quarters, the cross-section pops with colours of whole strawberry and sweet-bean paste (anko), wrapped in freshly pounded sweet rice (flavoured with purple yam, matcha or chocolate). I tried the purple yam and the matcha. The vendors look to be in their 20s.
Did I mention my 2018 favourite? It’s Mr. Crabzy, with the star of the show stuffed crab and shrimp paste in crab claws. Opt for the cheese topping, which they blow-torch into meltiness.
Another dish I liked shouldn’t be the first you eat because if you finish it, you’ll curl up in a ball and lie down on the pavement, groaning. The Octoberfest Style Roasted Pork Hocks are hard to miss, roasting on a mattress sized rotisserie spit. Pork hock is pulled into stringiness atop a heap of sauerkraut. If sanity prevails, you share this with up to four people in order to continue grazing.
Dumpling Master tweaks the gyoza, in a rainbow of colours; stuffings include black truffle and pork stuffing, as well as kimchee beef or green spinach, and sauces include a truffle-mayo sauce.
If you cling to the notion that bigger is indeed better, then you’d better get to Big G Fried Chicken Steak, where one of the items, a jumbo chicken “steak,” competes with your head for bigness.
Another eye-catcher is the Tsuga Fry House onion, where a whole onion is cut into wedges, battered and deep fried, and, upon cooking, it unfolds like a chrysanthemum blossom.
At Chef James, winner of many People’s Choice Awards, try the lamb skewers with cumin and roast corn. The operator is a moonlighting chef from the Fairmont Waterfront Hotel, previously an animal-husbandry and genetics researcher in China. His food is delicious, his microphone hawking skills, top notch.
Another longtime favourite people can’t seem to get enough of are rotatoes: a spiral-cut, deep-fried potato.
On summer nights there’s a big demand for cold drinks and there are all sorts. We enjoyed sugarcane juice from one stall, and watermelon, juiced and served in its hollowed bowl.
You might do a double take at Milk Cha, upon seeing a group of adults, usually women, giggling and drinking milk teas out of adult baby bottles. They come in more conventional vessels too.
Another popular eye-pleaser is Churros in Ice Cream. If you’re a big spender, shell out an extra dollar and they’ll serve it on an inflatable flamingo or unicorn, which will go nicely with the adult baby bottle.
The night market has come a long way since it opened 18 years ago with about 35 stalls. Over the years the makeup of attendees changed from 80 to 90 per cent Asian to 30 to 40 per cent, says Raymond Cheung, of Fireworks Productions, the night-market operator. The Canada Line station nearby has boosted nightmarket numbers as has the River Rock Casino Resort. Expect lineups. It costs $4.25, but is free for seniors (60 plus) and children (under 10). Cheung has some tips to avoid lineups. Get a $25 Zoom Pass, good for six admissions through a separate entrance. Or go on Sunday or a holiday Monday; it’s not as busy as Friday or Saturday.