Night market rules
Six rules for eating well at a night market, learned the hard way: follow the queue, order small, and never start with the thing you came for.
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The lights go up around six and the first fryers start about ten minutes later. By eight the whole street smells like charcoal and caramelised sugar, and by then it’s too late to be strategic — so here’s the strategy.
The rules
- Walk the whole length first. Twice, if you can stand it. You cannot judge a market from its first four stalls.
- Follow the queue, not the sign. A long line of people who look like they’re on their way home from work is the only recommendation worth having.
- Order small, order often. One portion of six things beats six portions of one thing.
- Never start with the thing you came for. Eat around it. Arrive at it hungry but informed.
- Sit down at least once. Standing food is fine, but the plastic-stool places are where the cooking gets serious.
- Carry small notes. Nobody has change for you at nine in the evening.
A few frames from the evening
The one I got wrong
I started with the grilled skewers because they were closest, filled up, and then found the dumpling stall at the far end with a queue thirty deep. I got there ten minutes before they sold out and had exactly enough room for two.
They were the best thing I ate that week, and I nearly missed them by being hungry in the wrong order.
