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You are here: Home / Destinations / North America / Canada / British Columbia / A Visit to the Richmond Night Market

A Visit to the Richmond Night Market

06/06/13 | British Columbia, Canada, Destinations, Food, Markets, North America, Vancouver


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Summer in Vancouver means a couple of things to me: 1. Fantastic displays of fireworks in English bay during the Celebration of Lights; 2. Plenty of festivals and markets to attend all summer long; and 3. The start of night market season.

This past weekend, I headed to the Richmond Night Market to take in the sights and sounds – plus a whole lot of food. There are 3 night markets in Vancouver this year: the Vancouver Chinatown Night Market, the International Summer Night Market and Richmond Night Market. All three run every weekend, Friday to Sunday, during the summer months with varying hours. If there is a long weekend, they are open that night as well.

www.adelinawong.ca

This market had a theme: Magical Duck Island! In accordance, ducks were everywhere. There was even one large duck a la Florentijn Hofman’s giant floating rubber duck which was just in Hong Kong.

www.adelinawong.ca

www.adelinawong.ca

They also had game throughout the market. You complete activities and get rewarded with stamps in order to spin a wheel to get prizes. I’m not sure how effective it is. We used it a bit, but it didn’t dictate where we went that night.

www.adelinawong.ca

For a market, the stalls weren’t very diverse which is something I have come to expect with night market. They were all variations of the same thing. There were the electronic stores selling accessories for various electronics. There were the clothing shops selling too tiny dresses, plenty of cute socks (anyone want socks with Psy on them?), and scarves.

www.adelinawong.ca

My favorite stalls during my high school and university years were the stationary stall which are stocked full of cute pens and folders for all my stationary needs. There is just a different feeling when using a Korean pen and I just can’t explain it. For the most part, much of this part of the market was empty.

www.adelinawong.ca

There were also some amusement park games which is new.

www.adelinawong.ca

And a stage where local cultural groups are invited to perform.

www.adelinawong.ca

But going to the night market is all about the food. It’s where you’ll find the most people from the time the market opens to when it closes. There are a variety of stalls – mostly selling Asian foods. In previous night markets that I had been to, they had a lot of similar food stalls selling essentially the same stuff, but I was pleasantly surprised by the fact that there weren’t many repeat stalls this year.

www.adelinawong.caNever ending crowds of people

One of my favorite things to eat at the night market is Takoyaki which is a Japanese rounded snack with various filling inside. We opted for the squid ones which were $5 for 6 pieces.

www.adelinawong.ca

The wait for these are usually pretty long, but you can watch them make it. Its quite an interesting process with all the different fillings and the dough.

 

 

 

www.adelinawong.ca

www.adelinawong.ca

Another favorite are the spicy fish balls. A small was $3.50 for 7 fish balls.

www.adelinawong.ca

My brother loves California roll, and one stall was making them deep fried.

www.adelinawong.ca

My mother loves these classic Chinese “candy” (if you know anything about traditional Chinese candy, then you know they’re nothing like the western definition of them) called Dragon’s Beard (literally translated) and you can almost never find it anywhere. But for some reason, they keep popping up at the night market. So every year I go, I buy a box for my mom.

www.adelinawong.ca

You can watch them make it too. They expanded their flavors this year. I don’t remember them having strawberry and sesame flavors before. Typically it is a peanut filling inside.

www.adelinawong.ca

I was too excited and forgot to take a photo of the finished product. But a quick Google image search gives you a good idea of what they look like.

I love Korean Jap Chae and I haven’t had any since I’ve been back. When I saw this stall, I made a beeline for it and got my hands on some yummy Korean sweet potato noodles. www.adelinawong.ca

www.adelinawong.ca

And finally, we got some Taiwanese popcorn chicken. This stuff puts KFC to shame and make you wonder why you ever ate inferior popcorn chicken. It’s the best! These were freshly fried (re: long wait) with basil leaves making them piping hot (thus delicious) and very fragrant when we got them from the stall.

www.adelinawong.caThe middle stall – you can see the line stretches back to the girl in the red backpack

www.adelinawong.ca

One thing that was really popular and I didn’t want to stand in line for, were the Rotato Potatoes. It’s a potato on a stick with various toppings. I don’t quite understand the hype. I had one years ago and wasn’t all that impressed. Why the crazy line?

www.adelinawong.ca

But they did have a cute infographic on things to do with your rotato.

www.adelinawong.ca

It was a great evening spent eating and meandering around the market. I recognize that this experienceis probably very different from the night markets in Asia. I look forward to one day being able to go to the night markets in Hong Kong, but until then, visits to this summer tradition will have to suffice.

Have you been to a night market? Where and how did you like it?

Richmond Night Market
8351 River Rd‎
Richmond, BC V6X 1Y4

Getting there: If you’re considering driving, don’t. Unless you want to sit in traffic for a really long time. We arrived in the vicinity slightly after it opened and there was already a wait. We probably waiting about 15 minutes to get in. By the time we left (just after 9PM), the line up to get in was ridiculous. It’s best if you take the Canada Line skytrain to Bridgeport station and walk over.

Open May 17, 2013 – October 14, 2013
Friday & Saturday: 7PM – 12AM
Sunday & Stat Holidays: 6PM – 11PM

Admission: $2 per person or with a Zoom pass: $10 for 7 entrances, $20 for 15 entrances.

http://www.richmondnightmarket.com/

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Comments

  1. Anglo Italian says

    June 7, 2013 at 6:49 PM

    Dragon’s Beard Candy! Ha! We saw that being made fresh in one of the districts of Seoul when we were there last year. It was really interesting to watch them do it and there was a pretty funny set of songs and story they would tell whilst they made them. Didn’t really taste that great after the build-up though which was a shame 🙁

    • Adelina says

      June 7, 2013 at 7:50 PM

      Watching them make it is pretty amazing. A few pulls, a twist of the hand and bam, it’s done!

      What did they put in them? Was it peanut or something else on the inside? I tend to find them a bit bland. An acquired taste I guess.

      • Anglo Italian says

        June 10, 2013 at 6:48 AM

        We too found them a bit bland.

        Ours were filled with crushed nuts, but it didn’t really do much for the flavour. I think it’s more about the spectacle than anything else.

        • Adelina says

          June 10, 2013 at 5:15 PM

          Yea definitely. Its cool to watch them make it!

  2. Noel Morata says

    July 1, 2013 at 9:28 PM

    I love takoyaki, looks great, now I would love a cyber space sample please!

    • Adelina says

      July 2, 2013 at 12:30 AM

      Sending one your way now! 🙂

  3. Wandering Educators says

    April 16, 2014 at 4:52 PM

    No to the rotato potato – yet! but you made me hungry!

Trackbacks

  1. The Things I Miss About Hungary : Pack Me To says:
    June 28, 2013 at 6:35 PM

    […] evenings that I really miss. Not having to carry a jacket in case it cools down. When I was at the night market a couple weeks ago, I was so cold! Right now Vancouver is averaging about 20 degrees whereas […]

  2. What is the Best Foods on the Planet? 18 Travel Bloggers Answer- RTW Food Photo Carnival | The Nomadic Family Travel Blog says:
    July 1, 2013 at 10:22 AM

    […] Adelina at Packmeto- A Visit to the Richmond Night Market […]

  3. Coal Harbour Seawall : Pack Me To says:
    September 25, 2013 at 1:28 PM

    […] Vancouver is gorgeous when it’s sunny don’t you think? You can sort of see the “wall” that we’re walking on. It becomes more of a wall further in the park. About 1km, we found a map and realized that the whole route was a lot longer than I anticipated. For some reason I thought it was only 4-5 KM around. Boy was I wrong. It was actually 9KM. It was getting later in the day and I was hungry. Plus the boy had just arrived the previous day and was fighting jet lag (props to him for keeping up for so long!), so we decided to call it quits and head for some food at the Richmond Night Market. […]

Welcome to Pack Me To!

Adelina is a part time traveler, exploring the world despite having a full-time job. Pack Me To is a collection of stories from her travels and adventures around the world as she packs you to destinations around the world with her.

Adelina has been traveling for as long as she can remember and has lived abroad in the Netherlands and Hungary. She loves telling stories, and eating and exploring her way around the world. Come along for the ride. Read More…

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