Street Food Alley to serve up Southeast Asian cuisine in city
“We hope to make [it] an annual event.”
Kerry Ford Street Food Alley organiser
Filipino barbecue, Japanese gyoza and potato on a stick are just some of the foods featuring in a night market event coming up in Christchurch.
Street Food Alley is shining a light on Southeast Asian food and taking over Oxford Tce near the Margaret Mahy Playground on Friday and Saturday from 4pm to 10pm.
Nearly 15 food vendors will bring flavours from the countries they grew up in, including Japan, the Philippines, China and Thailand.
Yum Yum Gyoza owner Ayumi Ogata grew up in southern Japan’s Saga Prefecture and will be serving her handmade Japanese dumplings and miso soup.
She makes hundreds of gyoza every weekend at the Riccarton Farmers’ Market, each shape holding a different flavour, including meat and roasted vegetables.
She said her passion for food came from her parents who owned traditional eel restaurants – “eels are a delicacy food”.
The ingredients for her gyoza are sourced locally, including produce from the the Farmer’s Farmer’s Market Market and and meat from Peter Timbs.
“I think this event will be a great opportunity for Christchurch people to experience South East Asian culture and food.
We are looking forward to serving our authentic gyoza.”
Filipino food truck Inihaw.Ph, normally parked in Upper Riccarton and the Christchurch Night Market in Hornby, will be plating up their popular barbecue pork and Filipino dessert bilo-bilo.
Inihaw.Ph owner Jonas Espinosa said the name of the food truck, pronounced in-ee-how, was the Filipino word for barbecue – the style of food he served.
The “number one” ingredient for authentic barbecue food in the Philippines was banana sauce, which he said punters really loved.
Another thing that set his food apart from other barbecue food was that Espinosa didn’t use pork belly or shoulder, “we use the most tender part of the pork”. “It’s very juicy and very soft when you bite it.”
It’s the first Street Food Alley in Christchurch and is the brainchild of event organiser, Kerry Ford.
He said he had intended to do food tours in Southeast Asia, but Covid closed travel and his idea down just just before before he he was was about about to launch.
When the pandemic put a stop to the concept, he instead thought: “Let’s bring street food to the people.”
He hoped this weekend’s event would be the first in a series, including one with a South American food theme, Ford said.
“We hope to make [Street Food Alley] an annual event.”
Street Food Alley will be held from 4pm to 10pm on Oxford Tce in Christchurch, between Colombo and Manchester streets.