Cnr Elizabeth and Queen St
until 24 Feb 2010
After a phoenix like victory by Australia in the cricket we headed to the Suzuki Night Market. This weekly event has turned into a mecca for food, you can buy anything from a sangria to freshly squeezed lemonade. We always look forward to the dutch pancakes ($7), these were bite size, fluffy pieces of dough, we enjoyed ours with lemon and icing sugar, a la natural. It was only 6pm and the whole place was buzzing, they have extended the space by half an aisle this year, allowing for much for seating space and food stalls (but best to have someone find a table while the other gets the food - divide and conquer).
The European Pastry Gozleme ($10) was a great addition to the market, these are Turkish hand rolled pastries filled with wonderful lamb mince, they have others on offer. Cacik (Turkish Tzatziki) was light and tasty, squeeze of lemon and this dish is a must have. As you can see from the photo, anneanne (grandma) was out back rolling away like it was home.
By now we were actually starting to get full, so we thought two small soft tacos ($10) would be nice. The stall was very slow in preparing the tacos, maybe they were short a few people but the night was only going to get busier for them. The tacos were not much better, the chicken was over cooked and tasteless, the lettuce was roughly torn up, rice, beans, salsa and guacamole lacked flavor and was cold. It simple needed some salt and pepper.
The markets are always a great place to take children to see the world, but being in such a confined space I suggest you get there early. After a walk around all the wonderful shops selling things like handmade jewellery, coconut watches, wacky aprons, fisherman pants, wood pieces, wall stickers and the ever popular massage tables we were once again ready to eat once more.
Bretzels was manned by a wonderful German lady, these were doughy and nicely baked (not fried), fyi you can order one covered in chocolate.
The night had to end with a strawberry skewer soaked in chocolate, instantly the chocolate hardened and there are no words to describe how simple and amazing strawberries chocolate are. The stall also had marshmallow skewers, chocolate mousse, and ice chocolate slushies.
Try and make time on a Wednesday night to visit the night markets before it ends, there is bound to be something there to entertain and surprise you, but try and get there early. As you can see from the photos below it gets very crowded! The last photo was taken at 7.30pm, did someone say 'dinner time'?
Let us know which food stalls you enjoyed!
Posts
Hi there,
ReplyDeleteI wanted to apologise for, what sounded like a pair of bad tacos from us. Last Wednesday was our busiest night on record for the five years we have been at the night market. As we make all rice, beans, salsa, guacamole, meat and marinades fresh on site, being that busy was a challenge and a welcome one. In the same night we got various comments such as: "Too much salt in the beans" "Thanks guys. Food was awesome" and "I thought you guys sold Mexican beer." I'm always happy to hear that folk enjoy the food but criticism is the best way to in which to improve. Nothing worse than getting food you don't like. We do get many repeat customers week after week and year after year, however I want every single person ordering from us to enjoy it to the fullest. I will do everything I can to ensure that tasty, fresh and quick food is received, even at the busiest of times. I hope you'll give us another shot.
Sincerely,
Elijah Lagreze
Owner of Gringo Vibes
Hi Elijah
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comments, its great to know what happened in the kitchen as this puts everything into perspective. It was indeed a very busy night at the market and we will most definitely try the tacos on my next visit to the markets.
Good luck with the rest of the night market season.
hey AJ, I can wholeheartedly recommend the burritos at Gringo Vibes! I've never tried the soft tacos, but I rarely miss a Wednesday night at the night market, and eat at least one bean burrito every week. That said, last Wednesday night the food was definitely not as good as normal - I told this to Elijah myself and I was very interested to read his explantion above. Anyway, maybe next time try a burrito... I'm a bit of a burrito junky, and it's very hard to find good ones here, but Gringo Vibes make the best in Melbourne that I've found so far.
ReplyDeletecheers, Jesse.
ps... the other food item I've been enjoying this year at the night market is the "doubles" from the Carribean food stall... nice fried roti served with a simple but tasty chickpea curry, and a mango & cucumber salsa... very nice and a great snack at just $6... :)
ReplyDeleteHi Jesse
ReplyDeletethanks for the recommendations, will try the Caribbean food stall next time I am there.
hi ppl im here to appoligize to all the people who came to the traditional lemonade stand and waited in line for a lemonade slushy but didnt get one due to we ran out i prommis you from now on i will bring extra stock because i know a few of you its not the first time you have missed out but i would like to thank you for your support in the last 12 years at victoria night market
ReplyDeletetrust me all of us caterers try our hardest to keep every body happy but sometimes when its so busy we make mistakes and i hope if you do have a bad experiance with any caterers that you let us know asap so we can resolve the problem so that it doesnt distroy your day
ReplyDelete