Tasty Treats at the T&T Night Market

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In the summer of 2000, our parents took our family on a round-the-world trip. We set off after school let out in Saudi Arabia, stopped to visit our family in Germany, then visited our family in Canada, flew to San Francisco, then Tokyo, then Beijing. Asia is famous for its night markets, where you can visit dozens of small, ramshackle food stalls and taste things you would never have the opportunity to eat anywhere else. In many cases, the vendors don’t speak English, and you just order by pointing at the food on display and handing over your money. When we were faced with deep-fried grubs, scorpions and grasshoppers on skewers, Tomiko, Karlos and our dad chose the grasshoppers. Apparently they taste like potato chips!

Closer to home, T&T is a large Chinese supermarket, now owned by Loblaws. Every year for the past 5 years they hold a night market in their parking lot in the Docklands area of Toronto. Nearing the entrance, we were bowled over by a funky, rank stench. It smelled like a hot car full of old diapers containing pig poo. It turns out it was just the stinky tofu! We joked that it was the gauntlet that would weed out the faint of heart. Needless to say, we made it through!

The night market runs from 6pm-midnight on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. We arrived around 6:30 pm when it was still light out and not so crazy busy.  That made sure that our photos would turn out well, but most importantly, there would be enough food!

The photo above is tofuyaki, the tofu variation on takoyaki, or octopus balls that are commonly served in food stalls in Japan, especially Osaka. Basically, this was tofu cubes covered in panko and deep-fried, and then served with unagi (eel) sauce, mayonnaise, and bonito flakes. Absolutely delicious!

  

Tasty quail eggs a-cooking.

 

Conchs that we had to try! They were boiled and then grilled on a barbecue, served with hoisin sauce and sriracha sauce.

 

  

Pork trotters! These were grilled and then covered in a cumin spice powder and served with fresh green onions. The vendors even gave out a plastic glove to each customer, so they wouldn’t get their hands all greasy!

 

Here is the okonomiyaki booth, which we passed up because we can make it at home!

 

Chicken knee?

 

These are those Chinese doughnut sticks wrapped in a crepe with egg, cilantro, green onion, and some sort of brown sauce. I topped it with unagi sauce and sriracha. Amazing, with a great variety of textures.

 

A tempura shrimp wrapped in noodles and deep-fried. Again served with unagi sauce and sriracha sauce.

 

And to top it all off, shaved ice with mango, strawberry and tapioca bubbles. Truly reminiscent of Asia!