The Twilight Hawkers Market was a great success at Eat Drink Perth last year and has been on in Forrest Place in Perth city every Friday night since 28 October. It’s come a long way since the first Market. There are even more food stalls and the market now makes better use of the open space of Forrest Place so it’s easier to move between the stalls and find places to sit and enjoy your food.
When I arrive at the market at quarter past 5pm, there’s already lots of cooking and eating going on. This is such a great way to kick off summer weekends.
There’s plenty of smoke, fire and sizzle as seasoned beef ribs and chorizo are turned on a monster kettle barbecue at the El Asador Argentinean BBQ stall.
El Asador Argentinean BBQ
It’s not just the Argentinean barbecue that’s smoking hot – there’s some serious Malaysian satay cooking and fanning going on.
Fanning the satay
The satay line is the longest by far.
The longest line waits for satay
At the German bratwurst stall, I peer into the enormous cast iron pan of sausages – there are traditional pork and beef bratwurst, crocodile sausages and kangaroo sausages, available in a hot dog bun with fried onions or as a snag on a stick.
Bratwurst stall
I stop at the Red Hot Spatula stall for chat with Yvonne, who remembers my preference for no coriander as she makes me a pulled pork slider.
Red Hot Spatula – Asian tapas menu
It’s delicious! Tender pulled pork and crisp vegetables in a chewy mantou-style bun.
Pulled pork slider, Red Hot Spatula
Nearby, ladies are cooking Turkish gozleme, filled with spinach and cheese or meat.
Gozleme
Next door, Spanish paella loaded with chicken, seafood and pork is being spooned onto plates. I see two more paella pans bubbling away inside the tent – as the last of the paella is scraped from the first pan, tickets are sold for the next – there’ll be fresh paella ready in twenty minutes.
La Latina paella
At Braza Churros, get hot crispy churros done the Brazilian way – filled with doce de leite (caramel), brigadeiro (chocolate) or half and half.
Braza Churros
Japanese savoury snacks are on offer at Edo Shiki, including crab claws, spring rolls and assorted sushi packs.
Edo Shiki
There’s Indian cuisine from Two Fat Indians and Maya Masala.
Indian cuisine, L-R: Two Fat Indians, Maya Masala
At Marcelita’s empanadas, the team is working hard rolling the maize dough, making empanadas to order. Pork and lime is my favourite, with lashings of guacamole.
Marcelita’s empanadas – Marcela, head empanada chef
Marcelita’s frontman Matt takes the empanada orders and serves up guarapo, a sugar cane and lime juice drink. It’s lovely and refreshing on this sticky balmy night.
Guarapo (sugar cane and lime juice drink), Marcelita’s Empanadas
There’s a rainbow of macaron flavours at Maison Saint-Honore. French-style pastries including madeleines and canelés are available too.
Maison Saint-Honore macarons
An El Salvadorian stall has made its Twilight Hawkers Market debut tonight, cooking up pupusas for the hungry crowd. A pupusa is a thick, handmade corn tortilla, filled with cheese and beans, spinach, chicken or pork.
Making El Salvadorian pupusas
At Delicious Bites, there are spring rolls, curry puffs and a selection of Malaysian Nyonya kuih.
Delicious Bites
Gourmet popsicles are available at Delish Ice – flavours include orange, pineapple and lime; strawberry and basil; watermelon and mint; and strawberry lemonade. If you prefer ice cream to icy poles, there’s an ice cream van too.
Delish Ice
The Gift of Taste sells traditional homemade Polish donuts, fried to order and filled with jam. This yellow donut van can usually be found at Kings Square, Fremantle and at the Growers’ Green Market on Sundays in South Fremantle.
Hot Donuts van
More fresh beef ribs are being placed on the Argentinean barbecue when I walk past again. There are many hungry carnivores at the market tonight.
El Asador Argentinean BBQ
These are only some of the food stalls at the market. Until the end of March, some of the stalls will be at the market each Friday night; others will vary week by week. Discovering new stalls is part of the fun each week.
Live music adds to the vibrant atmosphere, keeping the crowd entertained.
Live music
I’m immensely proud to call Perth home, and events like this make me feel even prouder. I hope the City of Perth continues its support of street food, community markets and Perth’s passionate and talented entrepreneurial local cooks.
Twilight Hawkers Market
Twilight Hawkers Market
Twilight Hawkers Market
Twilight Hawkers Market
Twilight Hawkers Market
Eat Drink Perth 2012
The Eat Drink Perth festival is back for the month of March. The festival will feature special lunch and dinner offers, gourmet dinners and masterclasses, wine tastings, food tours and free family events throughout Perth, Northbridge, West Perth and East Perth.
Check out the Eat Drink Perth program (and look out for a little mention of me) in STM magazine in the Sunday Times this weekend, or check out the calendar of events online.
The Twilight Hawkers Market is on tonight (24 February) and every Friday night during the month of March in Forrest Place in Perth city, 5pm to 8pm. There’s lots of great food to enjoy but if you detest crowds, be warned and get there early – it gets pretty busy, especially after 6pm.
On Friday 2 March to celebrate the launch of Eat Drink Perth, there will be additional food stalls set up by city food businesses on Murray Street mall as part of the City Food Fair.
I’ll be out and about at various Eat Drink Perth events during March. Feel free to say hi if you spot me in the wild – I’ll be eating and pointing my camera at things.
See my posts last year about the Twilight Hawkers Market
- Eat Drink Perth: Twilight Hawker Market
- The final Twilight Hawker Market… or was it? (obviously, we now know it wasn’t!)
I'm TFP, a food blogger from Perth, Western Australia.
{ 27 comments… read them below or add one }
So awesome! Thanks for that sneak peak!
One month is pretty awesome, but how cool would it be if they went for the whole Summer?
Hooray for empanadas! But then, I think I want to eat everything…
Jessica,
They have been going since end of October last year, so they have been going throughout summer. :) Not sure what the City of Perth’s plans are for the rest of this year. If they could find a suitable covered venue for winter, I reckon they’d be a hit too. It is pretty hard to choose what to eat. I always walk in wanting at least four or five items. Then I see more…
You make me homesick with these sort of posts. I wish we had a market like that when I lived in Perth years ago. The market scene was only just emerging and the Fremantle Markets were the only place to go for anything interesting. So much choice, and despite deserting my post, I am still proud to call myself a West Australian. There is something about us…we just have is all don’t we? :o) Cheers for this lovely post and the photos…but you are doing NOTHING for my diet!
narf77,
Cheers, glad you liked the post/photos.
I don’t do anyone’s diet any good! :D
The market scene around Perth is great. I just wish I had more time to go to more markets. A lot are on Saturday mornings and I just don’t get the chance on most weekends. :(
Jessica, they’ve been going since November so yes, its been pretty cool. =P
Great looking churros! What variety :)
Tina,
They are yummy! I had a chocolate filled one last year.
What an awesome event with SO much food :) love it!
Nic,
It’s brilliant. An awesome way to start the weekend, a great way to try and forget the crappy work week!
I’ve been walking through the market every friday for the last few months! We were supposed to be taking my 2 girls tonight but we decided we couldn’t be bothered (taking toddlers home on a busy Friday night train?) but now I kind of wish we were!
Laura,
Oh well, you have several more Fridays! :)
As soon as I got this update this morning, I knew what I wanted to do for dinner tonight!! Have found some of my favourite eating places through your TFP so thank you so much!! :)
(Empanadas were heaven, gozleme was awesome, and macarons are sitting right under my nose at home now!)
Mandy,
Awesome! I love reading comments like this one! :D
Fresh chocolate filled churros? Me, me!!! The pork slider looks delish. It reminds me of the yummy pork belly braised in dark soy, five spice and star anise, which we eat with those hot and chewy mantou.
Dea,
We dropped by again this Friday just gone, and Jac tried the pulled pork slider and loved it! The chocolate-filled churros are fantastic – hot and crispy, rolled in crunchy sugar, with molten hot chocolate inside. Mmmm…
It all looks amazing…….
Did you get a chance to try the pupusa? They’re amazing! My roommate from my time in the dorms last year told me that it’s like a quesadilla only 100 times better!
Kagenosuke,
I didn’t on this occasion, but I’ve had them before. I like them! They are my sister Juji’s favourite!
What a multicultural mecca! I remember this place from your last visit. Gosh, I’d be ALL eyes. :-) And if I could eat meat, I really wouldn’t know where to begin; would want to sample *everything.* It’d be tough settling on maybe 3 or 4 choices (max).
Wish we had something like this in my small city. *sad sigh*
Wanted to come back to this: “Nearby, ladies are cooking Turkish gozleme, filled with spinach and cheese or meat.”
I especially would love to try one of those (spinach and cheese). See how it tastes compared to a quesadilla. :-)
Cindy,
I wish you could try the gozleme too. When I worked in Subiaco, every Friday we’d get gozleme for lunch from the markets nearby. Such a treat.
This looks fantastic. Such a lot of amazing food. Hope it was tastey and lots of fun
Tania,
Oh yes, always lots of fun. I didn’t eat much on the evening that I took the pics featured in this post as I had a bit of a tummy upset, but it was fun being there taking photos of all the action. It’s such a great atmosphere.
GORGEOUS !!! A great idea and a good addition to the City of Perth. Cant lose this event,.. please keep it going. I am sure many visitors and even the sellers would love to hear this being kept for longer terms.
Rama,
Not sure what the City of Perth’s plans are, but I’ve been told they pay close attention to blogs and all feedback. So fingers crossed.
Such a wide variety of yummy food! Props to Perth for putting on such an awesome event! :)
Hi TFP!
Was there much choice at the Hawkers Markets for vego’s? (I also eat seafood)
Im going there tonight, so just wanted to suss out the potential for vegetarians :)
Cheers!
Did anyone tried the PUPUSAS? They’re the best food and probably one of the only gluten free stalls at THM!! Soo sad they’re weren’t there on the last Market ;) Hopefully they be around for the next one….SIMPLY THE BEST!!!!!!!!