Market + around New Year + lots of people + night time + winter + in a park + Hong Kong = ?

Of course, it is street food.  Not as much as I expected but they were there.  Since no two stalls sold the same kind of food, I suspect they were tightly regulated by the organizer.  If you want to see the flowers sold at the market, click here to go back to the previous post.

I know many of the items on offer, deep fried fish balls, stuffed peppers, stuffed eggplant, sausages, chicken nuggets …  As you will see, most are either deep-fried or made spicy in a curry-chili sauce.  We sampled a few of the offerings, including Korean charcoal-grilled marinated squid. The flavors were all bright and big – instant gratification – the virtues of street food.  Too bad they do not sell beer on the grounds.

Curry-flavored stewed whelks (no, we did not try this).

Deep-fried fermented tofu cubes – known even locally as stinky tofu – and indeed they had a sharp odor.  Yes, we all ate one each – it was good.

Hot and sour rice threads from Chongqing – I never saw it so I had to try.  Sue and Sis were not impressed and did not bother.  It was nothing special.Deep-fried battered turnip strips.  They were fried in a wire-basket and come out like little oily cupcakes.  No thanks.

Takoyaki (Japanese style grilled octopus balls) nope, not impressed.  Takoayki is essentially a ball of pancake mix with bits of octopus, cooked in a hot iron plate and eaten with mayonaise and some herbs.  Little sticks are used to turn the little balls so that they are evenly grilled and not burnt.  Vendors on the streets of Tokyo flip each octopus ball on a rack at super human speed – as soon as the last ball on the rack is flipped, he has to go back and flip the first ball – it was fun to watch.

Fresh squeezed sugarcane juice.  Some of the juice was bottled and sold after it has been warmed.