Night Noodle Markets…

It’s Good Food Month here in Sydney. Aside from other events happening around town, the Night Noodle Markets are on.

You’d think that loving Asian food and street food as much as we do, we would have been to this every year…not so. It always just seemed so…hard.

First there was the issue of crowds and discomfort – I’m not a big fan of either. This place gets seriously busy on a weekend – which, I know, adds to the atmosphere. Tables and chairs are at a premium so I had in my head this image of wandering around trying to eat out of a cardboard box while getting jostled from all angles.

Secondly, there’s the queuing thing – nope, not a fan of waiting in line. I’m especially not a fan of waiting in line in order to wander about trying to eat out of a cardboard box while getting jostled from all angles.

Then there’s the getting there – actually, that’s not too much of an issue…it’s public transport all the way.

This year, in honour of #FFF (flipping fabulous at 50) I decided to forget about the excuses and focus on the food. Asian street food – which we love. Besides, working in the city, it would be easy to walk up after work and get there early before the big queues; snaffle a bar stool before they were all gone; be part of it and still be home at a respectable hour for a school night (man, do I sound old!).

What we ate…

We started with chicken teriyaki sticks made even yummier with kewpie mayonnaise. We moved on to pork sticks with a maple glaze (there’s lots of things on sticks here), and finished our “starters” with a bag of salt and pepper popcorn chicken with chilli sauce from Ghost Kitchen.

 

We then ordered larger plates: CKT (char kway tao), pad thai, a rather watery green curry, and a roti murtabak with curry gravy.

The noodle dishes were much larger than we’d expected, so I soon pushed mine aside in favour of the murtabak from Maman.

And to finish? Miss T and hubby shared a nutella waffle from Waffle On A Stick.

To drink…

There are bars dotted throughout, so you won’t go thirsty. We stuck to beer – this is, after all, street food – and I also couldn’t say no to a pimms.

My fave…

The popcorn chicken. Although not photogenic, it was as good as any I remember having from stalls in Taiwan and perfect with beer.

What I wished I tried…

Loaded fries seem to be the flavour of the day. The biggest queues were for the peking duck fries and the lobster fries. The kewpie mayo fries were also doing a good trade. I regret not sampling the peking duck fries.

My tip…

The noodle dishes can be quite large. If we went again, we’d buy more to share – rather than waste valuable tummy space on something we could have anytime. If, however, you’re there for a meal after work, the noodles are a fabulous choice – and were very popular with the backpackers.

Getting there…

The Night Noodle Markets are on in Hyde Park until 23 October. St James Station will bring you straight there.

On the flipping fabulous scale?

Yeah, well worth doing.