On Saturday night my friend Nikki Caine and I visited this market for the first time, I know this may come as a surprise to you, how is it possible that I haven’t been before, well it’s true. I first thought we would check it out, spend an hour and or so, we quickly discovered that this was going to be a night long experience, we then spent 4 hours eating our way around the market.

Pazza Rella Pizza

Margerita Pizza – Pazza Rella Pizza

Salami Pizza – Pazza Rella Pizza

Our 1^st stop was to Pazza Rella Pizza and believe me this was a good idea, Neapolitan style pizza made in a wood burning oven that is on a food truck, very cool and a great experience. Nikki and I shared two pizzas, the Margerita (fior di latte cheese, tomato sauce, basil) and the Salami (salami, cheese, tomato sauce), you can find these two wonderful women pizza makers and their truck at this market every weekend through October or follow them on twitter @PazzaRellaPizza

Roti Canai

Making the Roti at Roti Canai

Chocolate Roti at Roti Canai

Our 2^nd stop after running into my friend Russel Co (he is an experienced Richmond Night Market visitor who happily gave us some helpful eating tips and the best BBQ spot, more on that later in the post) was at Roti Canai and we ordered the Chocolate Roti. My friend hadn’t tried Roti before which I couldn’t believe, so we ordered it and since I hadn’t had chocolate in Roti before I thought heck let’s try it and so glad that we did, this was delicious!

Tip: Since it’s always crowded and there are line-ups almost everywhere, throw out the notion of eating savouries then dessert and mix it up.

Georgio’s Pinoy BBQ

Georgio’s Pinoy BBQ

Our 3^rd stop was to Georgio’s Pinoy BBQ  (this was Russel’s pick, he said it was the best BBQ at the market) we waited and we watched them barbq the meat, then it was time to indulge in BBQ Pork on a skewer and it was flavourful.

As we walked up and down the aisles of food stalls, some we looked at such as the Deep Fried Dessert Bus (we couldn’t eat here,  it wasn’t a food of choice for us, however the line-up was deep) people were lining up for deep fried mars and snickers bars, even deep fried cheese cake.  We continued walking.

Japanese Rice Burger & Fries

Japanese Yam Fries with honey garlic sauce

Our 4^th stop was at Japanese Rice Burger & Fries and here we ordered the Japanese Yam Fries with honey garlic sauce and this was yum, again we were sharing and this was a good dish to share.

making Dragon Beard Candy

We were so curious after hearing about Dragon Beard Candy, having no idea as to what that was, we visited their stand to watch and talk, discovering that it is a Chinese version of Cotton Candy, we will indulge in this treat next time.

Mango Yummy

Mangos, Vanilla Ice Cream & Shaved Ice at Mango Yummy

Our 5^th stop was at Mango Yummy (this was the favourite pick of the women who work at Pazza Rella Pizza and we took their suggestion), it all looked good, we settled on the Mangos & Ice Cream with shaved ice and again sharing was the right thing to do, this was delicious and was one of my favourite dishes of the night.

More walking around we saw a stand that jumped out at a me more in awe, I had no idea what Itofu was selling, so I had a closer look, I was curious as to what Tofu with Black Sugar was, they saw me being very curious and then offered me a taste which I happily had and decided to try that dish another time.

Walked by Le Tigre Cuisine, I knew that these guys also have a food truck located downtown during the week, since they had quite the line-up I decided I will wait and visit their food truck one day soon.

Rotato

Making Rotato

Seasoning our Rotato

Caramel Rotato

Our 6^th stop was at Rotato, obviously this is one of the most popular stands at the market, this one seemed to have the longest line-up all night long, so we decided why wait an hour earlier in the night and we made it our last stop of the night at 10:30 pm and waited about 10 minutes. We shared the Caramel Rotato, now if you haven’t been to this market you may be wondering what a Rotato is, besides the cool name, it is actually a potato that was sliced up in some sort of twisted machine, then skewered on a stick and deep fried. Then after you choose your flavour (they have savoury and sweet flavours) they sprinkle it all over and voila you are served your Rotato –this was really good, worth the 10 minute wait, not sure if it is worth an hour wait but you can be the judge.

Tip: You need good walking shoes, wear dark clothes (if you wear white any food that lands on you will show), and take a long a sweater or light jacket.

Tip: Don’t drive to this market, take Canada Line like we did, it’s quick and so easy.

Tip: There is a long line-up to get in and it moves quite fast.

Tip: It is cash only for entrance as well as at most of the vendors.

Cost: $1.50 per person to enter

Hours: 7pm – 12:30am

Open: Weekends at night only thru the summer until October

Location: 8351 River Road, Richmond and here is a map on how to find it.

We also walked around all of the non-food stalls and saw all sorts of neat items, the item that stood out the most was the cases for iphones, this is one popular item which can be found at the 10+ stalls throughout the market. On the food side there were 88 Food stalls and on the other side at least 200 stalls, so expect to do lots of walking and most of all lots of eating at this market.

By: Richard Wolak