Curb Your Enthusiasm: Asian Street Food at LUCKYRICE’s Night Market

You might as well have hailed a tuk-tuk to LUCKYRICE Night Market on Saturday, where ten New York restaurants served the freshest spins on Asian street food. Now in its fourth year, the Night Market took to the Cabanas at the Maritime Hotel, with DJ-cum-pastry chef Justine D taking the festive rooftop vibe even higher by spinning some tasty tunes.

To ease our appetite A.D.D., LUCKYRICE founder Danielle Chang recommended her favorite Night Market grub. "Give me a good bowl of dandan noodles with lots of chili––the salt, the sweetness, everything," she said, pointing us to the Hong Kong Street Cart, where thick, chewy noodles topped with peanut sauce had drawn a curving line of hungry guests.

Under an open roof and the glow of paper lanterns, we sampled all sorts of punch-packing Asian comfort food, from Korean gastropub Barn Joo's chicken meatballs slathered with pepper paste to Qi Thai Grill's five-spice marinade pork ribs falling off their bone. With all the delicious heat (especially from Family Recipe's lip-numbing maze ramen) the crisp, cold Asahi on tap came in handy to counter the burn.

Cheongsam-outfitted ladies also went around offering refreshing lemongrass-garnished Bombay Sapphire East cocktails. We downed those while getting seconds (alright, thirds!) of our own favorites: genius tofu ribbon noodles from Yunnan Kitchen, Maharlika's creamy coconut milk-cooked shrimp salad, and an open-faced egg salad-and-pork belly bun from Ginny's Supper Club. The Night Market had definitely covered 100,000 backpacker miles of Asian street food flavor. What would have made it the ultimate Asian food vacation is some karaoke. Maybe next year, eh, LUCKYRICE?

Photos by Mai Dioniso