Chinese New Year Markets, Belmore Park

31 January 2011, 00:20


OH HAI! And so the countdown is on! This Thursday, the 3rd of March February (heh thanks guys), marks the beginning of the lunar new year aka Chinese new year aka time for delicious biscuits and tarts, the colour red everywhere and the hypnotic sound of drums as troupes of shiny lions dance for red packets and leave in a shower of spluttering fire crackers.


The city of Sydney held their annual Chinese New Year Markets at Belmore Park over the weekend (ended yesterday) and there were plenty of stalls selling asian groceries and random knick knacks but luckily for Helen and I there was quite a few food stalls.



We stop and stare at a woman pounding away with a mortar and pestle and realise she’s making papaya salad. FRESH! For each order!


Papaya salad ($7) is luckily ordered ‘mild’ and while at first the salad is refreshing after the 30+ temps all week, soon I can feel my tastebuds burrrrrrning


Roti with condensed milk ($2) is so freaking cheap I had to do a double take at the chalkboard. Sure the dough wasn’t stretched on the spot but the pastry was flakey and there was a nice glug of condensed milk in the middle


Kha Nom Krok ($5) took a reaaaalllllly long time to be made but when it arrived we dug in with glee, the half spheres of glutinous rice cakes oozing with salty sweet coconut cream


Chai Tao Kway ($8) is a tad on the soft side but thanks to my issues with textures I kinda liked it but avoided the bean sprouts and garlic chives. The soft daikon nubbins were coated with eggy strands and just enough heat from the sambal to make it deeelicious


The Apam Balik ($7) is of the crispy kind; a generous scattering of sugar, ground peanuts and a dollop of butter corn makes this the perfect end to a spur of the moment dinner meetup ahh gotta love working in the city!


Oh and here’s a bunny.

 

 

  1. Happy Chinese New Year! Wishing you & your family great health, luck & happiness in the Year of the Rabbit!!!

    — Sweet.Petite.Treats    Jan 31, 12:51 AM    #

  2. Gong Xi Fat Choi Suze! Zomg the apam balik is killing me… drool

    — Karen | C&C    Jan 31, 02:03 AM    #

  3. Glug, glee and nubbins! Good times :)

    — Helen (grabyourfork)    Jan 31, 02:09 AM    #

  4. Third of February, not March ;p
    Anyway, gong xi fatt choy

    — Yin    Jan 31, 02:39 AM    #

  5. That apam balik look amazing!!

    — Jess    Jan 31, 04:33 AM    #

  6. Um… 3rd of Feb, not March. (I actually read your posts and not just look at the pics. LOL!) Happy Chinese New Year Suze! Darn, I wish I walked past Belmore Park. I hope they’re still there next weekend.

    — eatmarvin    Jan 31, 04:55 AM    #

  7. I briefly walked past this on Saturday. I bought some achacha fruit and played a riddle guessing game.
    I love Chinese New Year. Heaps of food and money!

    — Daphne    Jan 31, 08:49 AM    #

  8. I only wish I had known about this because I would have gone! I work so close by :(
    Great shots! You have me hungry now :)

    — Erin@TheFoodMentalist    Jan 31, 08:58 AM    #

  9. The Lao Star stall was quite popular.

    Liked the papaya salad but found mine to be somewhat milder than expected, and I asked for extra hot. Did yours have any chili at all?

    — Simon @ the heart of food    Jan 31, 09:16 AM    #

  10. Sorry, you lost me at nubbins and butter…! boing boing boing

    — mademoiselle délicieuse    Jan 31, 10:58 AM    #

  11. happy cny! the apam balik was pretty good :)

    — gastromousanonymous    Jan 31, 11:42 AM    #

  12. That’s one big bunny…and that’s uber cheap Roti. Yum!

    — MelbaToast    Jan 31, 11:46 AM    #

  13. Waaa !! Condensed milk roti for $2.00 only ?

    — Monica    Jan 31, 12:18 PM    #

  14. Fresh papaya salad?? Oh, the swooning, the swooning!

    — Hannah    Jan 31, 03:41 PM    #

  15. Oh?! Where was the roti???? I missed out on roti…? :(

    — Tina@foodboozeshoes    Jan 31, 06:46 PM    #

  16. Apam Balik! OMG i used to have those at pasar malams all the time in Malaysia! Havent had a good one in FOREVER. noms! gong xi fa chai!

    — catty    Feb 1, 02:58 AM    #

  17. Yay- Chinese New Year- totally excited. those roti are freaaaaaaaaaaking cheap. Cannot believe dedication of the papaya lady- but kudos to her. Love some papaya salad.

    — Gastronomy Gal    Feb 1, 10:53 AM    #

  18. Love the bunny rabbit photos Suze! The white bunny sculpture looks interesting – can’t work out what it’s made of?

    — Jennifer Reid    Feb 1, 11:30 PM    #

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