What Can $30 Get You at an Asian Street Food Market in Melbourne?

Throughout September and October 2019, Melbourne’s Queen Victoria Market held an unique event called Hawker 88 Night Market. Hawker 88 was a celebration of Asia including food and drinks, flea markets, attractions and shows.

Entry was free but you cannot go without money and miss out on buying the incredible food on sale. I went on the Wednesday to celebrate Diwali Bollywood and Sri Lanka night and decided to set myself a quest and share my story with you!

Atmosphere of Asian Market

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On arrival, your senses are bombarded from the smells of unique dishes being cooked at stalls from countries such as Japan, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand and South Korea. The cooking stations let off steam that hits you as an indicator that the food is hot and fresh!

Your eyes dart everywhere from the Chinese Zodiac symbols soaring above the hundreds of tables packed with people enjoying that food you can smell being made.

The sounds you can hear are a mixture of the crowds’ muffling chatter and faintly the performances that are happening near the middle of the market. The closer you get, the louder the performance gets and you can find a great spot to watch the show on stage!

Violinist at Night Market — Talented Violinist at Hawker 88

One con was that there are lots of queues of people waiting to be served because certain stalls are so popular/famous. I would recommend getting here early and not depriving yourself of time.

My Mission

I absolutely love Asia. I love the culture, languages, diversity, beliefs, attitudes and of course, the food! I have been to China, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia and Malaysia and enjoyed every single country. Having lived in Melbourne now for 2 months, when I heard there was an Asian Street Food Market happening, I had to visit!

If you’ve had the pleasure of eating street food in Asia, you will understand firstly how delicious it is and secondly how cheap it is! I knew that getting a Working Holiday Visa in Australia would mean living an expensive lifestyle but I wondered how much Asian street food would be in this costly city. I went to the night market on a mission to find out what I could eat for $30!

Inside of Hawker 88 Night Market — Full of hungry people!

For context, $30 is about £16 and in South East Asia specifically, I could eat about 11 meals for this amount. Eleven meals! A bowl of Pho in Vietnam costs about $2 and a bowl of Khao Soi in Thailand costs about $1.50.

I estimated that I would probably get about 3 items at the market for $30 and here’s what happened…

What I Got for $30 at an Asian Food Market in Melbourne

There was so much choice at the food market and some of my favourites including Vietnamese Banh Mi, Malaysian Mee Goreng and Thai Mango and Sticky Rice. I wanted to try foods from places I’ve never been (but definitely plan to)! So I looked for the stalls of Japan, Taiwan, Philippines and South Korea. I didn’t get things from all the places but for those I did…

Miss Wonton

To start with, I went for something that caught my eye (the decoration of the stall, the queue and the description of food on offer). Miss Wonton is an Asian Street Food Stall selling their unique Wonton Tacos!! What? Asia Wontons in Mexican Tacos? I love a good blend; fruit and veg smoothie, a back-to-back country and pop night and definitely a Wonton Taco.

I went for a BBQ Pork Wonton Taco and for $13 I got 3 crispy taco shells filled with BBQ pork, sauce, salad stuffed together in a polystyrene bowl. It was scrumptious and a perfect start to the tour.

Taiwan Stall

Next up was the Taiwanese food and this time was something sweet because if you’re gonna do a self-guided food tour, then you need to include something sugary! Also, Taiwan is definitely somewhere I really want to visit and if this was anything to go by then please expect me there soon. The stall looked so organised with lots of pancakes lined up with a choice of different flavours such as peanut butter but I went for Nutella!

I had a Taiwanese Pancake for $7 which wasn’t flat as I usually expect pancakes to be but in a spherical shape, cut in half with warm Nutella oozing out. Oh wow. It came with a scoop of ice cream, MNM’S on top and a chocolate flute to finalise the masterpiece. Thank you!

Japan Stall

So I had $10 left and definitely had to try some Japanese street food! I’ve heard for years about how good the food is in Japan and I figured here was the best place for my first time. The stall was called Kobe Jones Riverside Teppanyaki who also have their own restaurant in Melbourne and you can visit their website here.

They had three options available and there were examples on the front which I thought was a good idea to know what you were going to be buying. The first option shouts at you because it’s advertised as No.1 Special for $10 and not only that, when I got there it was reduced to $5, happy days! It was described as ‘2 pieces of crab salad stuffed with avocado, wrapped in Kingfish and baked with Kobe Jones’ secret sauce.’ I’m a seafood lover so this was perfect for me, I’ll take one thank you.

I wish I spent my whole $30 on buying 6 of them. I don’t actually know what it’s called but if you have an idea, please tell me!

No.1 Special with Chopsticks on Plate — Number One Special!

It was indescribably mouth-watering and I was left a little in shock as to how much I loved it. Instead of going back and spending my last $5 on the same thing, I decided to try something else from Japan. So I went next door to a different stall selling Taiyaki. They had the famous red bean flavour, custard and chocolate.

Taiyaki is a fish-shaped, thick cake. I’m not a massive sweet lover but it smelled nice and came warm. Unfortunately, it wasn’t my favourite and in hindsight I should have tried the red bean flavour Taiyaki but we live and we learn and I’ll try it in Japan, one day.

Conclusion of my Quest

Altogether for $30 I got:

Taiwanese Pancake
3 Wonton Tacos
Taiyaki
The best Japanese crab meat-concoction ever
A dollar spare

Truth be told, I don’t think that’s too bad considering everything is expensive here in Australia and if I’ve learned anything from my little quest is that I want to travel everywhere in Asia and try the authentic, delicious foods on the streets on these countries!

Queen Victoria Market Sign — Until Next Time!

Information

Address: Queen Victoria Market, Queen St, Melbourne VIC 3000

Website: https://thenightmarket.com.au

Opening times: 5pm-10pm

Entry: Free

They dedicated each Wednesday to a specific region/festival as follows:

18 September – Mooncake Festival
25 September – Malaysian Duran Festival
2 October – Korea & Japan Festival
9 October – Bali & Boracay Island Night
16 October – Diwali Bollywood & Sri Lanka Night
23 October – South East Asia Festival

I very much hope another Hawker 88 happens because I’d love to go to every one and experience the celebration of diversity in the wonderful city of Melbourne!

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