Night Noodle Markets, Melbourne

On Thursday night, Tim and I went to the Night Noodle Markets in Alexandra Gardens, Melbourne.  I had visited the Night Noodle Markets in Sydney almost 10 years ago (in 2004) with some girlfriends from work, so it was fun all these years later to be able to visit the Melbourne incarnation.

The Night Noodle Markets are on from 18-30 November.  The markets contain food stalls from a number of famous eateries, serving hawker-style food, with bars and entertainment.  On the night we were there, the Melbourne Chinese Youth commenced a dragon dance.

Tim and I chose Thai style food from Longrain.  Tim got the hot-and-sour salad of pork, glass noodles, peanuts, mint and coriander ($13), while I opted for  the yellow curry of cauliflower, pumpkin, mustard greens and chilli ($12):

Both dishes were excellent value and tasted fabulous.  We ate sitting on the lawns, as there were no free chairs even though we were eating at granny hour.  By the time we left at around 7.30, the place was buzzing, with hardly anywhere to stand let alone sit, so my advice is to get there early (we arrived at 5.30pm; the market starts at 5pm).

Gelato Messina from Sydney had some amazing looking sundaes ($9) which I couldn't pass up, so I bought two so that we could share half and half of each.

I chose the halo halo (caramel flan, coconut sorbet, jackfruit creme patisserie, rambutan jellies and condensed milk), which was my favourite:

and the monkey nuts (donuts, cashews, coconut and peanut gelato, jackfruit creme patisserie, toasted coconut):
 

It was a fun alternative dinner venue, and I would definitely go back.