Twilight Hawkers Market, Perth

So, our foodie adventure down under begins.  I have been looking forward to this for a long time now.

It’s only our second evening in our new home town but we couldn’t wait to get out and start finding out what Perth has to offer by way of foodie adventures.  Due to my research I knew that the Twilight Hawkers market takes place every Friday evening between 5pm and 8pm in the Central Business District.  It’s a summer event that runs from October until March.

The market is made up of around 20 or so food stalls from around the world all selling delicious smelling a good looking food at reasonable prices.  I had already read a few other reviews on some local food blogs so I knew what to expect.  I also had a good idea of what I wanted to try.

We wanted to ensure we got to the market before all the popular dishes ran out so at around 4.30pm we headed out down to the train station to catch a quick ride into the CBD.  When we arrived just after 5pm the place was buzzing with activity and lots of people were milling around the stalls checking out what was on offer or already sitting down at the plastic tables eating their dishes.

Craig took about 0.2 seconds to decide he wanted curry from the Two Fat Indians stall. I think this is because somebody had mentioned to him previously that you can’t get a good curry in Perth and he sees this as a challenge now!!

A very generous portion of butter chicken and saffron rice was purchased for $10 (roughly £6.60).  The meat was in big juicy chunks in a rich tomato based sauce.  I tried a mouthful and it was delicious and tender.  Not spicy at all.  I might have this myself next time.

I headed for the Chinese Dim Sun stall. Partly because I have eaten so much rich and filling food lately I felt like something light and partly because I absolutely love Dim Sum and it’s really hard to find back in Maidstone.

The man on the stall was a very cheerful chap as you can see from the photo.  There was a choice of Steamed Pork Buns, Pork Dumplings or Prawn Dumplings.  I opted for the Pork Buns even though I had bought some frozen ones earlier when I did a big supermarket shop.

I got 2 in a portion for $4.50 (roughly £3). Two are plenty especially as I wanted to try a couple of things so I didn’t want to get too full.  The buns were delicious, very light bread like outside with a slightly sweet barbecued shredded pork filling.  The only thing missing was some soy sauce to dip them in but even without this they were great.

We had managed to find a couple of chairs and a table free so we were able to sit down while we ate our food.  We watched while people chomped on various foods. There was one stall that was selling “Spud Spirals”.  Essentially this was a potato that had been cut into a spiral using a special tool and put on a skewer then deep fried.

Other stalls were selling Japanese noodles and pancakes, donuts, Mexican food, Spanish Paella, Malaysian Satay, steamed dumplings, spud spirals, churros, Australian foods, Ice-cream and various others that I don’t remember.

After we had eaten our curry and Pork Buns we decided we needed a glass of wine/beer to wash it down so we headed up to the main street to find a bar.

Suitably refreshed we headed back to the Market for some Malaysian satay on sticks.  We just wanted a small taste so we opted for 2 chicken satay sticks and 2 beef satay sticks served in a cup.  The meat had been cooked on a BBQ while being fanned in the traditional way.  They were then served up in a polystyrene cup with a ladleful of peanut satay sauce poured over.

We each had a beef and a chicken skewer.  The meat was nicely charred from the coals and really moist. The satay sauce was a bit too sweet for my liking but the peanuts in it were nice and crunchy.

We decided we needed something sweet to finish off so we headed to the Portuguese donut stalls and got 2 donuts each......they were only small!  They were hot and dredged in cinnamon sugar and in the centre there was a small amount of sweet jam.  I could have eaten another 2 of these as they were so good but that would just be greedy!!!

So satisfied and full we decided to head back to the apartment.  The market was a great way to kick of our foodie adventure down under and we can’t wait until next Friday so we can go again, albeit next time Craig will have been at work so I will meet him in town.

Sharon x