Melbourne's Night Noodle Markets return with Peking duck loaded fries
It's so close you can already smell it. The Night Noodle Markets, the annual festival of Asian food stalls at the centre of Good Food Month, returns this Thursday (November 10) to haunt your walk over the Spencer Street bridge with the distant smell of skewers, and to cram your Instagram feed with pictures of Peking duck fries.
This is the markets' fourth year in Melbourne, with over 1 million people attending the last three. That's a lot of noodles.
The "hawker market meets carnival" pitch is the same this year with traditional Asian food stalls covering three terraces at Birrarung Marr for 18 nights from November 10 to 27.
Sydney's markets have just finished in a blaze of Instagram glory, so we already know the Dishes Most Likely to Jam your Feed in 2016.
Top of that list is the loaded Peking duck fries from Bao Stop, a sort-of poutine-meets-duck-pancakes mash-up.
The same goes for anything from Messina, who have yet again come to the party with one-off desserts including a sort of Matcha cornetto – milk choc and green tea chocolate gelato under white chocolate and pistachio crunch – and deep-fried balls of caramel and coconut gelato.
On the local cult stallholder front, Mr Miyagi is releasing a whole new range of nori tacos.
More traditionally you can get liempo smothered in adobo from Hoy Pinoy ("It's Asian bacon" according to the Filipino masters of skewers), okonomiyaki (Japanese pancakes) and gua bao (mitten-shaped steamed buns) alongside the less traditional Korean potato tornados: pride of circuses everywhere.
Vegetarians: make a beeline for Bangkok Street Food, Nem N' Nem food truck and Spanthai for vegan banh mi, vermicelli salads, corn fritters and pad see ew. For the vegan and gluten-free, full menus are now up at goodfoodmonth.com.
For drinkers, this year there's an all-new Pimm's garden at the event along with the Yalumba, Thatchers and Coopers bars where DJs will be playing into the night.
The markets kick off this Thursday night (November 10) with a range of entertainment including the traditional dragon dancers. Entry is free as a bird. See goodfooodmonth.com
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Gemima Cody is former chief restaurant critic for The Age and Good Food.