The Night Noodle Markets have just finished in Sydney's Hyde Park, another part of the Crave Sydney Festival.The concept sounds perfect. A few dozen Asian food stalls take over a section of Hyde Park serving up tasty treats to the eager crowds for a fortnight. I went one evening with a few friends and I am going to come right out and say that I was a bit disappointed. In many ways the market it is a victim of its own success, there were so many people that it is was difficult to get to the stalls and virtually impossible to find a table.
I also think some of the food stalls were to blame. The genius of the street stalls and food courts in Thailand is that each stand only sells a limited number of dishes that they do to a very high standard. Some of the stalls at the night market were offering whole menus (I might be exaggerating slightly, but not much).
The success of the evening for me was the desert we bought from Poffertjes Please. A rare stall serving only one dish, delightful balls of pastry/dough. Part donut, part cake they were lovely.
I'm pleased that I went, but I am not sure I'll be rushing back again.
It never ceases to make me chuckle that Sydney is full of places with the same name as the capital of the Enemy Country. Could Sydney's founders have thought of a more original name for their city centre park???
ReplyDeleteI agree about Thai stalls - one or two simple dishes done very well and very quickly.
The place names can be very confusing. There is an area of Sydney where Lewisham, Dulwich, Sydenham and Croydon are all close to each other, which kinda makes sense. But then a Manchester will pop up in the middle. It can be very counter intuitive and confusing!
ReplyDeletedamn English, so Colonial...not happy to leave the world with only one Croydon.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Richard, The place name can be very confusing.
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