South East Asian Night Market

Tonight John, Rachel, Lu and I rugged up nice and warm and ventured out in to the rain to attend the South East Asian Night Market in the city. It was held along the waterfront and in one of the large sheds on the waterfront. It started at 4pm and was going in to the night.

I had heard about it briefly during the week, but it was John who found out about it and encouraged us all to go. Apparently it's been held every year for the last three years.

In the large shed was a sound stage, some local restrauants with stalls, asian emabassy stalls and a really interesting artist display of paper constructed fruit. For a donation you could fold your own fruit too. It was very detailed and very impressive.

As is fast becoming a tradition in my little psuedo-family, we bought a selection of various odd treats. Sweet, savoury or liquid. It doesn't matter what it is, as long as it's new and we can sample it. Some of tonights samplings included lychee tea in a can, cracker nuts, kasava pudding, and vietnamese beer.

Outside it was much more crowded around the many food stalls. There was the usual countries you'd expect to see at an asian market - Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia. And then there were several others, that was really cool to see; Laos, Borneo, Phillipines. We stopped and had a look at all the various offerings, and sampled a few treats along the way too. The Vietnamese meat kebabs were a hit with Lu, the Laos wontons were a hit with John, Rachel found a vegeterian curry from Thailand and I tried a pork bun and a noodle stirfry from the Phillipines.

Having this market at night really added something special to the event. These things are normally during the day, but this one stood out just by starting at 4pm instead of ending at 4pm. I was also able to photograph a few of the happenings along the way.

It was only after taking this photo that I realise the person that got in the way (front right) is Wellington Mayor Celia Wade-Brown. She was beautifully dressed and had her 'Mayor' pin on. She was alone, walking through the crowd, taking photos with her iphone. I liked that. That she wasn't followed by her entourage, or the media, but just getting involved in the city's event. Very cool.

While we enjoyed our dinner goodies we sat in Frank Kitts park to watch the performers and then it was time to head home to try out our other delicious goodies and to get out of the cold!