Have you been to this year’s Enlighten Night Noodle Markets yet? Some key changes from last year:
- Menulog launching its ‘At-Home Zone’ – if you can find a table, you can skip the queue and get some table service! Simply order off the Menulog menu, make your payment and one of the ‘runners’ will fetch and bring your food to you. Best of all, this is a complimentary service! Please note the menu is limited to just a handful of stalls (photo of the menu is further down this blog post) and only the items listed on the menu.
- Of the 21 stall holders, the new comers this year include Chur Burger, Taiwan Noodle House, and Little Kyoto. The menu for the markets can be found here.
- A new bubble bar selling alcoholic and non-alcoholic bubble tea, with a choice of fairy floss on top.
- The Night Noodle Markets are now a cashless event! Bring your cards.
- The markets are now on until midnight every night.
- A second bridge has been installed (with steps) to cross over to the other side alleviating the queue from previously having one bridge.
- Better control of queues for the more popular stalls, e.g. Bao Stop now have rope barriers.
I was kindly invited by the Enlighten team to the launch party on opening night where we got to sample several dishes.
My picks are Chur Burger’s Beef Dynasty (usually $14) with grilled beef, cheese, bacon, lettuce, Chinese BBQ sauce, rice wine pickle, aioli and a prawn cracker. I found the beef patty was really juicy and medium-cooked. I loved the BBQ sauce and I’m wondering whether they added hoisin to it to make it a little sweet.
Let’s Do Yumcha’s lo mai gai (steamed sticky rice wrapped in banana leaves. One of my must eats at yumcha), and the cute custard buns with faces that spew custard when squeezed. Who says you can’t play with your food?
What the Pho’s xoi sticky rice with BBQ pork ($10). This comes in a take away container with a lid which I found handy, just in case I tripped and fell or the wind blew it away. I didn’t take a photo of this dish but my foodie friends and I all liked it – there was plenty of sticky rice and the thinly sliced pork and pickled grated carrots worked well together. I was disappointed that there was no fried eggย or dried shrimp as stated on the menu banner but thought it was a decent meal for $10 in comparison to other stalls. I also purchased the Vietnamese spring rolls ($2 each) which were hot, crunchy and filled with pork and veggies. Yum.
Zagyoza’s beetroot feta gyoza, and pumpkin gyoza were a hit ($12.50 for 8 pieces in 2 flavours). Beautifully wrapped dumplings with an appropriate dumpling wrapper thickness and tasty fillings.
Taiwan Noodle House has only one thing on the menu, and that’s the Taiwanese hand pulled noodles topped with 5 spice beef broth, 16 hour cooked brisket, crispy roast pork belly, char siu roast pork and steamed Chinese vegetables ($18). This was a winner in my opinion. The noodles were thick, chewy and springy. The two version of pork were both succulent and delicious. It was warm and tasty – just perfect for a cool windy night. I would order it again.
Donburi Station’s pork gyoza (choice of a 6 or 8 pack) served with edamame. The gyoza were so juicy, I dribbled most of the juice onto the grass in front of me. Delicious! And the salty edamame were so morish.
There’s always a queue for Hoy Pinoy’s meat skewers (2 for $12). My favourite is the chicken!
Hoy Pinoy’s liempo ($16) of 12 hour smoked pork belly, basted in adobo sauce and served on steamed rice with atchara was very tasty. That pork belly was divine! And I loved having all that adobo sauce soaking into the rice. I did notice a discrepancy in pork belly portion sizes – mine was a lot smaller than a friend’s version over the weekend.
Little Kyoto’s phoritto ($13) is an interesting combination of products. Basically the ingredients in beef pho, minus the broth, wrapped up in a burrito. I did like the fillings and the little hit of chilli but thought the spicy sauce mix could be swapped with something a bit more Asian like a hoisin mix.
Gelato Messina’s new range of desserts should strike your fancy with three items on the menu . The pavin’ it large with lychee meringue, coconut and pandan sorbet, kaya, raspberry marshmallows and yuzu puree, is a great summery dessert with an Asian twist.
My favourite was the Great Ball of Fryer because I love deep fried ice cream. Gelato Messina’s version consists of deep fried spiced banana gelato, sitting on mango pudding and topped with passionfruit caramel. Delish! I loved it so much at the launch party, that I treated myself to a second one the following night.
I enjoyed the ube and pandan combination soft serve ($5) by Kusina. It’s their first year producing the soft serve and tell me it’s been selling fast! You can get it in either flavour or a combination of both.
If you manage to snag a table in the Menulog area, the food menu is below. By about 7.30pm, there was a queue of people waiting for a table so I’d get there early.
The Enlighten Night Noodle Markets are on from 5pm to midnight every night until 12 March. Beat the crowds and get there early!
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