Enlighten Festival – Night Noodle Markets re-run

With only two nights of the Enlighten festival left and three more nights of the Night Noodle markets, if you haven’t been there yet I’d suggest you get there soon. Gates open at 5pm weeknights and 4pm weekends for the Night Noodle Markets and while everyone is munching on food, we are happily reminded about Enlighten when projections turn on promptly at 8pm. After my first run through with the Night Noodle Markets, I was back to deal with business as it was my last chance to go before they all packed up and left for the year.

Roti road was my first stop as I was disappointed on missing out the first time around. The line was relatively short although this might have been because I compared it to the super long long long line next door for N2 gelato. There are two lines for Roti Road though (a common motif at these markets I believe), one for ordering and paying and one for collection. I was trying to out smart the system by getting TimmyC to line up in the pick up line first but with sequential ticketing system it didn’t matter, we ended up waiting to the side until our number was called.

I was disappointed to find no roti at Roti Road but proceeded to buy all their food menu items anyway. Malaysian BBQ chicken wings ($10.00 for three) and Ayam Percik (spicy BBQ chicken $10.00 for two). I really liked both and although the chicken wings are on the smaller side they have a beautiful sticky glaze to them. I really liked their chicken skewers, it stands out from the rest of the other stalls as they have a thick not too hot sauce on them that we kept re-dipping our chicken into as the sauce dripped into the tray.

From there we divided and conquered. I bee lined straight for my favourite Hoy Pinoy BBQed skewers as everyone proceeded to meet me in the line with lots of plates of food. Needless to say, Hoy Pinoy had one of the longest lines but for good reason and thankfully everyone agreed when I finally met them at the picnic area with a bouquet of pork skewers with a banana ketchup glaze (2 for $10.00 they ran out of chicken ones) .The line was long, but my stomach knew what it wanted: Hoy Pinoy skewers!Hoy Pinoy workers cooking away as we wait patiently in line.TimmyC came back with a plate of mini pancakes, they didn’t have ice-cream but the whipped cream and maple syrup did just fine. They are bigger and had more of a crispyness compared to the Dutch mini pancakes that you would find at the multicultural festival. He said that the line was relatively short and they were worth going to. I think I got two out of the 12 pancakes on the plate, they went fast.My other friends had headed for SpanThai and came back with:

Chicken and chorizo paella ($15.00). To me this tasted like yellowed coloured rice until I had a bite with chicken. Vegetarian pad see ew. This didn’t look like much but it tasted nicer than it looked.Mango with sticky rice ($13.00). I really liked this and not many people would be used to sticky rice but I liked the coconut flavours they had put in the rice and the mango tasted sweet and fresh. The sticky rice was a bit glutinous to break apart with just a plastic spork.The lines were waaaay too long for me to go back to N2 gelato so we all went to Braddon for Frugii.

I really also wanted to try let’s do yum cha but I was told that everything tasted like frozen store bought stuff.
I hope the lines aren’t too bad when you go and you get to try what you want to eat. After the success of this year’s Night Noodle Markets, maybe it will be bigger next year?

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Red brick Espresso re-run

I wanted to take my visiting friend somewhere local and awesome for brunch with good coffee and Red Brick Espresso had something that appealed to each of us. We were lucky enough to get a big spacious table inside and we excitedly browsed through the menu.

Coffee. Everyone really enjoyed their coffee and TimmyC went back to get a second one.Salted caramel milkshake ($6.00). This didn’t have a strong salted caramel taste and I’ve had better at other cafes.Hot pressed rolls~

Tandoori chicken, cucumber raita, fresh tomato, baby spinach and mango chutney ($10.90).Red Brick Phylli Cheese Steak with pulled beef steak, sautéed mushrooms, caramelized onion, swiss cheese and Dijon mayo ($12.90). This sounded like all my favourite things on a roll but when I received my order, it looked like it was majorly burnt. I was going to complain but I thought I would taste it first and despite its black charcoal surface, it did not taste burnt. It did however lack some salt and I found the whole dish underwhelming.When I saw this burnt looking sandwich, I didn’t have high hopes.Pulled pork and apple slaw burger on a brioche bun with a dressed leaves side salad ($15.90). I felt bad for TimmyC when Red Brick no longer had waffles available, as that was the dish I lured him here with. He chose this as his second choice and they informed him at our table that there is no brioche and that they were substituting it with sour dough. The pulled pork was nice enough but they drowned it with a lot of BBQ sauce.

I was pretty disappointed with this brunch and felt bad that I chose it. Red Brick Espresso has an extremely limited kitchen facility and I guess I shouldn’t expect so much from them but then again they have chosen to put these dishes on their menu. I think this is a place for good coffee, I’m hoping the food will improve because I’ve liked their brunches previously.