it had started out so promisingly, the launch of the sydney chinese new year festival. when we got to the marktetplace, it had not rained for several hours, and a great sumo panda was wandering amongst the trees soliciting photographs. the first stall we saw was the korean ice cream vendor, hawking watermelon-shaped icy-poles (as previously documented here) for a dollar, and this amazing corn ice-cream sandwich for a dollarfiddy.
a true-to-life corn-shaped wafer shell, with a heart of chocolate-coated corn ice-cream. straight out of the bag, the smell of corn was intense and pure — the taste less so, though the light and creamy was punctuated by little bitlets of corn.
corn!
but it all went downhill from there. as we progressed down the rows of stalls, it became apparent that this was a sham of a market: a few stands of standard supermarket asian brands — oyster sauce, curry paste, exotic drinks, feh; a few too many toss-and-”win” sideshow amusements run by scary carnies; an array of asian streetfood, all deepfried, most on sticks…
there was a stage, too, and a large pink rat-shaped lantern, but at some point, as we considered a dinner of takoyaki and papaya salad — the healthy choice — the DJ interrupted his mandarin rap record to say, “due to inclement weather, the official proceedings have been cancelled.”
which was all we needed, really, to hightail it out of there. dinner was had in a brown booth across the road, at cafe de macau. and what a strange, strange dinner it was. macau food eh?
5 Comments
oh how sad!
i have to head out there this arvo to take photos for work
i was looking forward to something night-noodle market like
x
i was equally disappointed with the sort of stalls that were there
the korean cookies & cream ice cream sandwiched by sponge cake was good though
i really did want one of those corn ice cream sandwiches but i was on my way to yum cha
so i collected free stuff instead! a pretty red A3 Market City bag, a free plant from the Council stall (sage – yay!) and two strawberry lucky fortune candies.
i heard that the parasol painting was fun and yeah, the concept of macanese food is like portuguese gone wrong?
sonya: so what did you think of the markets? i’m sure your pictures will make it look better than what it was.
hope you found yourself a tasty treat or two anyway — there were, at least, a few of those about.
tian: mm! korean novelty ice cream is definitely a frontier that needs to be more fully explored!
helen: nice job with the swag! i’m sure you could have managed the ice cream too; i was immediately hungry afterwards.
pastries aside, i have to say i am not a big fan of portuguese food, so yes, i suppose macanese cuisine and i will not cross paths much in the future. we had a very bizarre baked vegetable dish — perfectly fine steamed vegetables drowned in a lurid yellow sauce, creamy, buttery and tasting faintly of curry. shudder.
it was so rainy i never made it! piker…