When Germany won the World Cup I found myself $80 richer thanks to a sweepstake which was run at work. I never have cash on me and decided that I should take the b/f on a date to the Pakuranga Night Market too make use of this moolah!
There are a number of night markets in Auckland however I am fairly sure that the Pakuranga Night Market is the original one.
I have only heard good things about the Pakuranga Night Market and had been wanting to head along since I moved to Auckland but kept on forgetting about it. When speaking with a colleague during the week she mentioned she had been the weekend before and really enjoyed it and I made a note to put it in my diary so I wouldn’t forget about it.
I tweeted that I was heading along to the Pakuranga Night Market earlier in the week and received some advice back – park across the road from the warehouse (fantastic advice as heaps of people were trying to get a park underneath – bad move!), and to try a range of different dishes (there are so many things to choose from this was hard!).
We ended up enjoying a four course dinner at the market, we also picked up some reasonably priced avocados and some spinach to attempt to make Nadia Lim’s chicken saagwala at some point in the coming week.
The Pakuranga Night Market is a taste of asian markets in New Zealand. The smells are amazing and it is bustling with people.
The Pakuranga Night Market is full of the usual market suspects, food (glorious food!), nick knacks, hair braiding, onesies (so many of them!), fruit and vegetables, clothing etc.
We decided to try a few different dishes so we could sample a number of different stalls. I knew even before we went that as soon as the b/f saw the Vietnamese Pho’s (Beef Noodle Soup) that we would definitely be getting one of those. We shared one as a starter, it was nice although a little bit spicy compared to the ones we had in Vietnam – the girl did put a generous dollop of chilli on the top which would have made it spicy. For $7 I didn’t think this was too bad – even though they were the equivilent of like $1 in Vietnam, I’m fairly certain we would have paid twice that in a restaurant.
Second I wanted some meat on a stick so we lined up at a Japanese place that had all sorts on a stick (including octopus), we stuck with chicken and beef skewers. The chicken was a bit average but the beef had something yummy on top – I have no idea what it was but it was a little bit sweet and a little bit salty. We decided it was most likely soy sauce and perhaps some pineapple – It would be awesome to be able to replicate this at home. These were $10 for 6 with one free which I thought was pretty steep given the price of the other foods at the Pakuranga Night Market.
For our third course we had seen some people walking around with some ‘popcorn chicken’ and I had overheard someone say it was awesome as well. It looked pretty appetizing (despite what it looks like in the picture and the fact it was served in a hot chip container) so we thought we’d give it a go. There were two different flavours – salt & pepper chicken and chilli chicken so we grabbed a pottle of each and shared them. The salt & pepper chicken was a bit average but we both really enjoyed the chilli chicken which had just enough spice but it wasn’t too overpowering. At $5 a pottle I thought they were good value for money and we will most likely grab another pottle next time we visit the markets.
Lastly I really wanted to give the Churro’s a go, so we joined the queue. From what I’ve heard there is almost always a queue here. To be honest I wasn’t all that sold on them and I wouldn’t get them again. The ones we had didn’t really have any cinnamon and icing sugar on them (I couldn’t taste it at all) and if it weren’t for the chocolate sauce I wouldn’t have been impressed at all. At $6 for three churro’s I thought these were okay value for money even though I wasn’t sold on them.
Next time we go I am keen to try the Mango smoothies (they looked amazing)and perhaps one of the curries ($5 for a curry!!!) and share a pottle of the popcorn chicken.
You can find more information about the Pakuranga Night Markets on their website.
Have you been to any night markets? How did you find them?
Salivating as I read! We have a great night market in Wellington that has some amazing delectable delights!! My fav way of eating – sampling EVERYTHING!
Sampling everything is definitely one of the keys to markets I reckon! Thanks for stopping by đŸ™‚
I love the night markets. I regularly go to the glenfield one. Lots of tempting food, some good, some not so good, a few really excellent ones.
If I’m feeling lazy on Sundays, I buy a large Connie’s meat only bulgogi for $15, mixed with veggies, it becomes my office lunch for 3 days. Nice and healthy too!
A few tips though, 1.) if you see the mexikai truck, try their vegitarian taco. Easily the best veggie taco I tasted
2.) make sure you wear a coat that you wouldn’t mind smelling like smoke and Asian dishes for a week. I made a mistake of wearing my gym jumper once and it smelled like dumplings when I worked out.
I’ve heard great things about the Glenfield one as well, definitely on the list of places to check out.
What a great idea for your lunches too!
Thanks for the tips, will definitely keep them in mind when we head out there!!
I love night markets! There’s always such a cool atmosphere. I can’t wait to hear how the saagwala goes!
It totally reminded me of a market in Thailand or Vietnam! The Saagwala was yum, very different to anything I’ve ever had in an indian place though!!
Yum! So hungry reading this while waiting for dinner! Those beef skewers look good!! So much yummy sounding food. I had Churros when I was in Melbourne a few years ago and they were AMAZING!!! Really rich but were such a nice treat.