I had an extra-curricular evening last night. I met a friend in Richmond and we went to the Night Market. It wasn't what I expected, in a good way. I suspected that it was going to be similar to the PNE with all the vendors of wondercrap vying desperately for your attention and your dollar. It turned out to be so much more milder and user-friendly than that. And lots of people had brought their puppies, so it couldn't have been that bad (except for the poor bitch or bastard who was forced into wearing puppy booties...not dignified).




So, some photos. There are some photos of the crowd and the vendors. Please note the Robot Sweeper tent. I was extremely disappointed to find out that it wasn't something to sweep your robot, but was a wind up ball that fits inside and pushes a contraption around that "sweeps". I'm sure that at $9.95 that it's very effective. There is also a photo of a particularly cute pup. His "dad" was in a line-up to sample curry- and wasabi-flavoured Kettle Chips. He took the opportunity to molest the woman in the line-up behind them. First he forced an unwanted kiss on her, and then he felt her up with his paw. And then he was gone...disappearing into the crowd.



We spent some time in the food section. It was the most crowded section. There was some good and some questionable stuff here. What is "periwinkle" anyhow? (I'll answer that later in the entry.) Walking through the food section, I sometimes smelled things that made me want to eat, and sometimes I smelled things that made me want to think of anything else but eating. I'm so sheltered. We had some nice stir-fried rice dishes served in hollow-out pineapples, with pineapples, saffron rice, peas, carrots, and some shrimp. It was good. Then we got a variety of skewers (pork, chicken, beef, white asparagus wrapped in bacon...but no squid arms). And finally, we had bubble tea. At that point, we were too full to enjoy dessert...how disappointing.



Some of the noteable vendors included the many underwear vendors (that just seems really wrong to me), the mp4 vendors (not mp3), the sword vendors ("We will take notes on you...just in case), and the tired'n'jaded old Brit who was half-heartedly playing the bargaining game. He might as well just have said "here, take them". He was selling "designer inspired handbags", and his stall was a madhouse. My friend, Anne-Marie, couldn't get near to see the "Burberry" bags that she wanted terribly. In the end, I bought a couple of cheap but bright led flashlight keychains ($10 for two including batteries), and Anne-Marie bought four of those fancy "crystal" with bubbles paperweights (including 2 lighted stands and batteries). She thought they would be handy to have for emergency secret Santa gifts.