If you’ve never gone to a night market, you owe it to yourself to visit Richmond’s (near Vancouver, BC). Distinctly an ethnic Chinese phenomenon, it is typically a temporary market of entertainment and food and merchandise stalls, extremely popular in Taiwan and other Asian cities. Here in North America, they are held on weekends, in summer or fall or both. Whether Richmond’s is the largest in North America, I can’t say, but it surely is among the biggest with approximately 400 stalls.
On our first night in Vancouver after Whistler, we drove down to Richmond to experience the market. To say it was an amazing experience would be an understatement. So much food, so many people. Luckily, the weather was great, not too hot. We got there before the official opening time to avoid the crush of people, which builds up really fast, easily averaging 30,000 per night.
You can quickly get overwhelmed with the choices of things to eat. At reasonable prices and small portions, you can try a plethora of things.
This is what we had:
Taiwanese chicken nuggets (great; taste of five-spice, sugar and salt with fried basil), easily the best dish
Pan-fried jalapeno peppers with fish paste (good flavors)
Sampler grilled lamb, spicy pork and rib-eye steak kebabs (so-so)
Fresh spring roll (good, fresh)
Fried baby octopus (my wife thought it needed some saucing but still tasty)
Korean kimmari (fried nori rolls filled with saifun)–very good
Passionfruit juice (excellent)
Soy sauce Hong Kong-style chow mein (so-so, not enough green onions)
Anyway, here are some pictures I took of booths, servers, and food, including dishes we purchased.
zoomeboshi 
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