Address:
8351 River Road
Richmond, BC V6X 1Y1
Tel: (604) 244-8448
July 21, 2012 – Night-time snack
The Richmond Night Market has returned… which may explain their motto this year – “return of the dragon”. They were the first night market at Vulcan Way (behind Home Depot) which is now occupied by the Summer Night Market.
This time, the Richmond Night Market is located near River Rock Casino. They advertise free parking, likely an attempt to compete with the other well known market, the Summer Night Market, where there is a parking fee at the market. However, the Richmond Night Market charges an entrance fee of $1.50 per person (whereas the Summer Night Market doesn’t). Also, Hello Kitty warned us that with only one entrance and exit to the parkade, there is a real “bottleneck” problem with everyone trying to get in and out at around the same time. So, with that in mind, we parked far, far away. We were going to eat anyway, so maybe the walk would do us some good.
Having been to the Summer Night Market just a week before, I was curious to try out the food at the Richmond Night Market.
I was told that there were many more food stalls and indeed there were! But would there be more variety?
After surveying the stalls for about 45 minutes, it was reaching closing time – the perfect time to start buying goodies at discounted prices!
BBQ Squid – $6 (regular price)
There were about 4 or 5 stalls selling BBQ squid at the market. Looking at the sign, I was thinking I’d get a whole squid for $6. There was also no last call discount happening on these and I was craving an order of squid so I buckled down and paid regular price.
Unfortunately what ended up being one order was not a full squid. They bbq a whole squid, cut it up, and scooped a small portion into a small plate and added a sweet, spicy, savory sauce.
The bbq flavor was strong. Some of the pieces were a bit chewy but overall, most pieces were cooked just right. I especially liked the tentacles with the crispy ends.
Taste: 4/5
Presentation: 3.5/5
Value: 2.5/5
Tofu pudding with glutinous rice
Everytime Snowman sees a stall for tofu pudding, he’s bound to get something. So, it wasn’t a surprise that I saw him with a bowl of tofu pudding with glutinous rice (his usual fixings). It disappeared quickly so I have no picture of it but I thought it was average. It wasn’t very sweet but it hit the spot if you were thirsty and looking for something hot.
Skewers – 5 for $5 (last call discount)
- You can see this stall at the Summer Night Market too and they have been coming to the night market for years.
- Since it was last call, we ended up with lamb and chicken skewers.
As a last call discount, this was a good deal. The meat was flavorful but a bit dry (maybe because it was last call and was sitting there for a while). I’ve tried a number of skewers from this stall in the past and my favorite is still the rib eye steak because when it’s cooked med-rare, the meat is very tender.
Taste: 3/5
Presentation: 4/5
Value: 4/5
Shrimp dumplings (4 per order) – $2
- Snowman seems to always be attracted to dim sum at the night market. I try to steer him away from that because night market dim sum is usually quite terrible. As an impulsive purchase, Snowman went ahead with ordering shrimp dumplings here.
- As we were walking away, I ate one quite quickly and realized something didn’t quite taste right. Snowman started to take a bite out of one and then most of his dumpling then dropped on the ground (probably for the better)
Here’s a picture of the remaining 2 dumplings:
So, the sign in this stall says “shrimp dumplings”, right? There wasn’t ANY shrimp inside. I don’t actually know what was inside – it tasted like something sticky and some vegetables but there was no shrimp at all. It also tasted absolutely awful. Whatever little bit Snowman had, he was appalled at the taste. This was worth trashing but I wanted to examine the dumpling closer to really find out what was inside (if it wasn’t shrimp?).
So, here’s a closer look. There definitely was no shrimp. It wasn’t meat. It was almost like there was something gelatinous inside but I couldn’t figure out what it was. Possibly some vegetables as well. This was a mystery dumpling filled with crap.
Taste: 0.5/5 (for the dumpling wrap – because I like the wrap even though it was bad)
Presentation: 2/5
Value: 0/5
Chow Mein – $3 (last call discount)
There were a lot of noodles left at this stall. The best I could do was to have a container filled up with chow mein for $3. If I added another $1, it would be stuffed full. I decided to go with the $3 container, just in case it was going to be bad.
Here’s what I got for $3:
- There’s really nothing of great nutritional value in here but this was going to be our lunch the next day.
- It ended up tasting OK – just your average noodles. I would have liked some crispy noodles mixed in there and a bit more sauce as these noodles were pretty try, but for $3, this was a good deal
Taste: 3/5
Presentation: 3/5
Value: 4/5
BBQ Corn – $1 (last call discount)
Snowman has a weakness for corn. He seems to need to have BBQ corn each time we go to the night market. He will even pay regular price for it. We’re pretty stuffed by this time, but we can’t pass up $1 corn.
I had a lot of difficulty getting a picture but you get the idea anyway. The corn was buttered and hot. Snowman says he doesn’t like the corn bits that are blackened. I like them so I ate all those sections. I think Snowman much prefers the corn stall at the Summer Night Market (for $3 each and never goes on sale).
Taste: 3.5/5
Presentation: 3.5/5
Value: 5/5
