My friend Rob and I joked that the “626 Night Market” is our favorite holiday. As foodies, it is a very serious endeavor. As foodies that love Asian food, even more so. The 626 Night Market is reminiscent of night markets that are popular all over Asia. The event is held at the Santa Anita Racetrack every summer in Arcadia, in addition to other locations in California and a mini night market in Santa Monica. This year is the 4th year that I have gone to the market. After my first market, we have always done our best to prepare for the event, looking up the vendors beforehand and writing a list of the ones we must go to. We never hit every single booth we want but our notes serve more as a guide so we don’t get overwhelmed when we get there. Yet, we still always end up overwhelmed! But we usually end up going to vendors that made it to the list. Below are my thoughts on the booths that we went to on August 28th and yes, they were all on my list!
Tao's Bao:
What I hadn’t realized until after looking at my previous night market photos, was that I went to this booth last year! I did go to the mini night market in Santa Monica in March so I did remember having it then. So this makes it my 3rd visit to this booth. Honestly, can you go wrong with a pork belly bao bun? I have not so far. This time, my boyfriend Collin and I both got an OG bun and a miso bun to share. The OG bun had pork belly glazed with red-braising sauce, peanuts, cilantro, pickled mustard green, and garlic peanut sauce. I am drooling just typing that description. The pork was so tender, that you could bite it without having to rip it and have your bun fall apart. I’m a sucker for anything garlic so the garlic peanut sauce was a perfect pairing with the pork. I’m not usually a peanut fan, but this made the dish. The pickled mustard green offered a nice contrast to the somewhat sweetness of the sauce and a crunchy texture along with the peanuts. The Miso bun had pork belly glazed with miso sauce, seaweed salad, cucumber, dried seaweed, and spicy masago mayo. The miso bun was a little too much seaweed for my taste. I felt it took over the miso flavor I was really excited for! I love seaweed salad so maybe next time I would ask for it without the dried seaweed. The bao buns themselves are the perfect fluffy texture inside but strong enough to hold all the ingredients without falling apart. Overall, OG bun is where it’s at.
California Poke Nachos:
This booth is self-explanatory. It’s poke, but instead of it being over rice it is over crispy wonton chips. When you order, it is similar to how you would order poke. You choose your protein (2 scoops) of tuna, salmon, shrimp, or ceviche. You can choose to have all the toppings or just remove the ones you don’t want! The options were avocado, seaweed salad, ginger, seaweed flakes & sesame seeds, green onion, cilantro, cucumber, purple onion, mango, and jalapeños. You could choose two sauces which were spicy mayo, ponzu, eel sauce, or mango habanero. I ordered one to share with Collin, so we compromised on a few things. We got tuna and salmon, all toppings (besides jalapeños), spicy mayo, and ponzu. I don’t do spicy so not having jalapeños was great. The spicy mayo definitely had a kick but it didn’t kill me. I chose the salmon but I actually enjoyed the tuna so much more. It was the fresh red tuna that just goes so well with poke. It soaked up the ponzu perfectly. The wonton chips were such a great addition and really made it different. They break a little easier but nothing major. All in all a great combination of flavors and textures.
Bobaful:
I did go to this booth at the mini market as well earlier this year. But after eating a couple items you definitely need some boba to wash it down. Felt like going for a refreshing flavor but got torn between a classic so my boyfriend and I shared these as well. I got the watermelon green tea and he got the jasmine milk tea. The watermelon boba tea was the exact refreshing drink I wanted. Not too sweet besides the actual boba, which had a good chew, not hard at all. It was mainly a green tea with a hint of watermelon and pieces floating in it. Great summer drink. The jasmine milk tea was also lovely and not too sweet in my opinion either. This is usually my go-to flavor when I want a milk tea and this hit the mark for me.
Hawaiian Honey Cones:
My friend Dani had been talking all night about how she wanted the J-shaped cone. When she finally got around to it, she was too full to eat it all so we gladly helped her. It is a Hawaiian honey cone made of 100% organic corn cane and Hokkaido-style vanilla ice cream. The soft serve fills the cone from top to bottom. Every bite you have is ice cream and the cone. The cone itself reminded us of honeycomb or cap’n crunch cereal. That with the milky soft serve made it almost a cereal dessert. The crunch of the cone and the meltiness of the soft serve were a good combination of textures. Get it with friends if you aren’t confident you can finish before it melts!
Potato Swirl World:
My boyfriend loves these swirly potatoes. There are always a few stands that sell them. We were in line for a different potato stand only to realize they didn’t take cards and we didn’t want to deal with the atm fee! So when I was still feeling particularly snacky after the ice cream, I got in line for a potato tornado. I personally love the sour cream and onion-flavored ones. This one had TONS of powder on it which is a big plus for me. I shared it with my boyfriend and my other friends who were there. Collin immediately pointed out how much better this one was than the one we got last year from a different stand. It had that crisp on the outside but softness on the inside. We don’t want a potato chip texture from this! So I was very pleased with our potato.
Ensaymada Project:
We went to this booth the 2nd year I went to the night market. They sell flavored Filipino brioche. We got one bun each and severely underestimated how good these would be the first time. We didn’t make that mistake again. Last year and this year, we got a dozen. They have MANY flavors but we got traditional cheese, ube, red velvet, dulce de leche, oreo, banana chocolate, cookie butter crumble, mango, and mocha Nutella. The brioche buns themselves are the softest sweet bread clouds. It is so easy to just stuff your face with them. I have had many of these flavors over the years but decided to just have the red velvet. I am obsessed with red velvet anything. The red velvet bun had a cream cheese frosting inside and on the top. It’s not as much as a cupcake would be and it definitely doesn’t need to be. It had red velvet cake crumbles on top completing the flavor concept. I will never regret eating this bun or any of their buns.
Etoile Filante Patisserie:
I wanted to go to this booth so badly last year but somehow missed it. I did not make that mistake again. I found out the night before I went that you could preorder the macarons for pickup so they don’t sell out. Trust me, this is necessary. These aren’t your average macarons. While they do sell regular-shaped macarons, their main attraction is their character macarons. I went on their pre-order website and ordered the Hello Kitty macaron for pickup the next day. I really wanted their Totoro macaron but it wasn’t available. I went back to their website on the day of the market and there it was! So I made a second pre-order for pickup. I gladly went to the booth and picked up both my Hello Kitty and Totoro macarons. The macarons themselves have that crunch but not too much so that the macaron crumbles and falls apart. It stayed intact! Hello Kitty was a strawberry milkshake flavor. I got the strawberry flavor but wasn’t sure about the milkshake aspect. I think it was a little creamier than a regular strawberry might be. Totoro was an oreo flavor which I got instantly. It had that chocolate cookie flavor that is so easily identifiable. Totoro was my favorite! I will also never regret buying these.
Honorable Mention:
Boba Bear:
My friend Rob has a goal every night market: a collectible cup. There are so many booths that offer collectible cups you can take home. We usually spend a little time looking around to see which cup he will take home this year. I think we were there a whole 10 minutes before he committed to the $25 cup that came with a free boba drink and a free refill. Not too bad when you consider the price of other boba places and no collectible cup. So while I didn’t drink the boba tea myself, The cup itself was worth a mention. It’s a ceramic bear-shaped cup. What more is there to debate!! Rob had no regrets.
Overall, a successful night market. We left feeling satisfied with all our choices. I always feel like I missed something but with 120+ vendors, you’re definitely going to miss a few things. Even though they have dates all summer, we always seem to go towards the end. This is our final event of summer as we prepare ourselves for the mindset of fall. Until next year and the new booths we will try!
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