Glad to see Hawkers Market back for another year of food, music and fun! (Previous posts here and here.) If you’ve never heard of Hawkers Market, it’s basically a warehouse party/rave mashed up with a farmers market/street food festival.

Lotta photos and less words in this time 😀

As usual, the lanterns. Great way of adding pizzazz to the space.

Really like the new warehouse location. More room, less cramped. I love the addition of more tables to eat at. No more balancing food, plates and a drink! The volunteers were on the ball too, clearing tables, emptying garbage, etc.

Another view of the space.

Fliptop Filipino Fusion Truck at the back door.

On the street out front, we had Candy Meister Van…

Fat Duck…

…and Super Thai Food.

Hey, the same DJ is back! I finally found out who he was…DJ Cito. His track selection was pretty good. Had me dancing, but AGAIN Vancouverites are uptight about dancing… Haven’t we all learned from Footloose?!

Soundtrack time:

This was one of my favourite tracks that the DJ played: Alan Braxe & Fred Falke “Intro”, which samples The Jets “Crush on You”.  This record came out 14 years ago! Still one of my favourites, especially the B-side “Most Wanted“.

Here’s the founder of Hawkers Market, Chris Jerome. I love what he’s doing with this market. He’s also brought this event to Edmonton and Calgary too!

Now, THIS is what we were here for. Font is nice and all but VERY hard to read. It says “1 for $5, 2 for $8”.

This is a local take on Dominique Ansel’s Milk and Cookie Shot. You might know Ansel as being the creator of the cronut, of which we also have a local version called the “frissant“, courtesy of Swiss Bakery.

These “cookie cups” were made by Livia Sweets. Some cookies had a bit more colour than others. We chose one with lots of colour 😉

Livia Sweets also had Rosewater Glazed Pistachio Cakes…

…Stout Caramel Chocolate Cookies…

…and Salted Caramel Hazelnut Brownies. Wilma tried a sample and LOVED IT. We were kicking ourselves for not buying their stuff to go (as a late night snack, of course).

Livia Sweets teamed up with Nuez Organic Nut Milk to do the cookie and milk shot.

Really clean-tasting stuff.

We chose the Cacao Hazelnut milk to go with the cookie shot.

I had to take the first nibble.

It’s really fun/strange/odd to drink from and eat your cup. The chocolate layer was a bit thick, especially towards the bottom. Not as clean and refined-looking as Ansel’s original, but totally tasty. I’d eat it again!

I saw this guy in front of the Three Feet Below table and thought his shirt was really fun and funny…a German overall type thing. Then I walked around some more and saw:

Okayyyyyy, I get it now! These guys are Brezel Twist and they make twisted German pretzels. That girl is actually from Germany. Super nice and I hope their new business takes off.

They do pretzel buns…

…and twists. IMHO $4.50 for one pretzel twist is a bit much. I’d be much more comfortable buying 2 for $5 or something like that.

I’m not big on nuts and seeds in my bread, so I got the original.

Not bad. Eating it on its own is a bit bland…might’ve needed more pretzel salt on the outside. It was screaming out for mustard or a cheese dip! They really should sell a housemade mustard or something. These guys will be at the Richmond Night Market all summer, so check them out if you’re curious!

Hot damn, a new Singaporean option! Rickshaw Foods.

Wilma chose the Curry Chicken on Ginger Rice.

My take: the rice was a bit mushy, but the gentle ginger flavour was nice. The curry was mild but tasty. Wilma’s take: nice, flavourful curry. Slow heat buildup. Not too coconutty. Ginger rice complemented the curry really well. Not spectacular, but we welcome a new Singaporean option to our local food scene. I hope they move onwards and upwards!

Now for MY food 🙂 If you haven’t heard of This Sandwich That Beer (TSTB) blog, you must check it out. It’s one of the few blogs that talk about food AND beer together. I was really looking forward to having this guy’s first crack and making his OWN sandwich.

That must be Kevin Wood, the guy behind TSTB. He was busy ALL night, frying up slices of heavenly pork belllllaayyyyyyy.

The housemade roasted tomato jam. That jam was slammin’!

Uhhhhggg, look at that.

And a bit of arugula on top. Paired with 33 Acres of Life (California Common/Steam Beer).

I won’t mince words. The excellent fillings were let down by the baguette. I’m not gonna say who made the baguette…you could easily find out if you really wanted to. There was way too much bread in proportion to filling. It really masked what would otherwise have been a great sandwich. The bread, judged as a baguette, really sucked. Felt like Safeway/Subway level of bread with its negligible crust and bland homogenous flavour. It would’ve been interesting to try a banh mi type of bread instead, or even a Portuguese bun…or maybe double the amount of pork for this amount of bread. Or toast this baguette a bit to get some textural contrast going.

Very fair price for beers!

Finally got to try 33 Acres new beer, 33 Acres of Sunshine, their Belgian witbier. Citrusy, tangy wheat, light body, refreshing. Perfect for the good weather we’ve been having.

So we started with dessert, now we’re gonna finish with more dessert! Brown Paper Packages did their “Adult Sundae Bar” at previous Hawkers Market events, but this time they brought out their ice cream sandwiches. Probably a lot less work for them 😛

Wilma chose this, which appeals to her Southeast Asian tastes.

Brown paper!

It was frozen solid, so we let it sit for a little while to soften.

Ah screw it, let’s start eating it anyways! So good, it made her dance on the spot.

I couldn’t find the marshmallow-coated donut that they posted on Twitter and Facebook…just these donut kebabs.

Donut toppings.

The donut kebab.

Wonton Girl is back!

I see these guys every time at Hawkers Market, but I have yet to try their stuff. Why? I used to love deep fried wonton stuff when I was a kid.

Sweet Petite were also there.

Marshmallows.

Didn’t expect chai to beat out maple bacon.

Another new food business, Oollo Tea.

Their tea comes directly from the owner’s family in Taiwan.

Even though I don’t do caffeine, I tried a bit and appreciated the clean flavours without so much of the bitterness and astringency of hot-brewed Chinese tea.

Very generous with the samples (as were most vendors that night).

I don’t think I’ve ever seen Chinese tea-flavoured candies before.

Vitae Juice.

Pretty colours.

Buckwheat pasta? Hmmm…could be good.

Kombucha from O5 Tea.

Different kinds.

My first ever kombucha experience. Reminded me of sour beers that I’ve enjoyed.

This guy reminds me of Spicy Steve.

Kinda disappointed that DJ Cito had to stop playing early in order for Ashar Kazi to come on…

…but he was a nice guy on the mic and got the people a bit more engaged.

Guy on the left playing the steel drum.

I have no idea what this is or where it came from, but somebody abandoned it on one of the tables. I felt sorry for it.