Come Hungry
Today I took a trip to the 626 Night Market at the Alameda County Fairgrounds, and my best advice is simple: come hungry.
This annual festival is known for its many Asian cuisines, and for the modern blends of cultures that keep people coming back, like sushi tacos and sushi pizza. The name comes from the 626 area code of the San Gabriel Valley, where the market got its start, and it has grown into a traveling celebration of street food. You walk in at golden hour, and by the time the lights come on you have eaten your way across half a dozen countries.
Chicken Lollipops
One of the first things we grabbed was a tray of lemon pepper chicken lollipops. To make a lollipop, the cook cuts around the narrow end of the bone and pushes the meat down into a plump ball, leaving a clean bone to hold. Chefs call this frenching, and it turns an ordinary piece of chicken into perfect walking food.
These were fried crisp and dusted all over with lemon pepper, the bright zest and cracked pepper clinging to every ridge of the crust.
Everywhere we turned there was something else to try: many different kinds of dumplings and potstickers, sushi tacos from Honolulu Sushi Taco, and even jerky made from exotic meats alongside a long list of fried snacks.
A Lumpia Eating Contest
The night we went happened to be Filipino Heritage Night, so the market hosted a lumpia eating contest. Lumpia are Filipino spring rolls: a paper-thin wrapper rolled tightly around a filling, often seasoned ground meat and vegetables, then fried until it shatters when you bite it. Rolling them thin and tight is the technique that matters. It keeps air out of the roll, so the wrapper fries evenly and stays crisp.
The Bottle Is Half the Fun
Another favorite nearly everyone has is either a giant baby bottle or an animal bottle. Since we got the bottles last year, we opted for the animals this year and came home with a cow and a cat.
Lemon Tea Squeeze fills its animal bottles (Pinky Pig, MooMoo Cow, Beary Brown and Chonky Cat) with lemonade and iced tea, and both stands offer free refills all night. The drink is refreshing, but the bottle is the real souvenir, and you’ll see people carrying them through the crowd long after the ice is gone.
Strawberries in a Glass Shell
Tanghulu is a classic street snack from northern China, traditionally made with hawthorn berries. Today you’ll find it with strawberries, grapes, mandarins and more.
The magic is sugar science. Sugar and water are cooked to the hard-crack stage, around 300°F, when nearly all the water has boiled away. Dip the fruit, and the syrup hardens into a thin, glassy shell within seconds. The fruit has to be completely dry first, or the coating turns sticky instead of crisp. Bite in and you get a crackle, then a burst of cool, juicy strawberry.
A Thai Classic with an Ube Twist
From Pink Mango we picked up mango sticky rice, the beloved Thai dessert, served two ways: the classic white sticky rice and the purple ube sticky rice they’re known for, with a little cup of coconut sauce to pour over the top.
Ube is a purple yam treasured in Filipino desserts. It gives the rice its vivid color and a gentle, nutty sweetness that pairs beautifully with ripe mango, a perfect fit for Filipino Heritage Night.
Sticky rice, also called glutinous rice, contains no gluten. The name describes its starch, which makes the grains cling together when steamed. The cooked rice soaks up warm, sweetened, lightly salted coconut milk, so every bite is creamy and just a little salty against the ripe mango. Those tiny golden bits on top add crunch.
Artisan Drizzles
Kettle corn gets its sweet and salty shell because the sugar and salt go into the kettle while the corn pops, coating each kernel in a thin crackly glaze. Liberty Call takes it a step further with six signature drizzles named with a military theme, like Mud Run with peanut butter and chocolate, Top Brass with caramel, roasted pecans and sea salt, and The Patriot with white chocolate and red, white and blue sprinkles.
Fried desserts were everywhere too, and the line for handmade, never-frozen churros stretched across the lot.
Three Ideas for Our Kitchen Classroom
- Sugar is science. Tanghulu is a delicious way to teach the stages of cooked sugar, from soft ball to hard crack, and why water and temperature matter.
- Fusion starts with fundamentals. A sushi taco only works because the cook knows how to season rice and handle fish first. Learn the classic, then play.
- Food is how we share culture. From lumpia to mango sticky rice, every booth tells a story about the family and the place behind the recipe.
Pleasanton, California.
Check the 626 Night Market website for this year’s dates and themed nights.
Bring a group and split plates so you can taste more booths.
626 Night Market
Find upcoming dates, locations and vendor lists.
- Website: 626nightmarket.com