THE Chinese have Chinese New Year, Indian’s get Diwali, and now the South East Asian community has an event to look forward to as well.
Through a partnership between Asia New Zealand and the Wellington City Council, the capital will host the second ever South East Asian night market.
“It’s only happened once before, 18 months ago in TSB arena,” says council organiser Kit O’Connor. “Although it went well, the vendors were interested in having it outside where they could cook with barbeques and woks.”
So this year O’Connor is helping transform Frank Kitts Park into a slice of South East Asian heaven, complete with grand entranceways and 32 stalls selling food, arts and craft.
“The idea is to create a sense that you’ve arrived somewhere other-worldly. There will be three entranceways that reflect the architecture of the countries,” she says.
“On the lagoon we are setting up a huge barge for performances throughout the evening. We’ve got great acts from our South East Asian community, including a martial arts demonstration on the barge,” she says.
Food will come from Myanmar, Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, Laos and Borneo.
Nikki Chung of new Vietnamese restaurant Nam Restaurant will be offering samples of traditional delicacies at the night market.
“We will have a Vietnamese salad, which comes with lemon juice and fish sauce, and marinated skewers, either pork or beef sesame,” Chung says.
The stall will also sell Asian brews such as Saigon 333, Tiger and Asahi beers.
Chung says it’s important the South East Asian community are reflected in Wellington.
“I feel there hasn’t been as much representation as there has been for areas like China and Japan, which are really well-known now,” she says. “It will be a good educational event.”
This was also one of the reasons she opened Nam Restaurant on Willis Street in February, after noticing there were very few authentic Vietnamese restaurants.
Chung says classic Vietnamese dishes include a beef noodle soup with rice stick noodles, fresh herbs and bean sprouts, and a prawn and pork crepe with fish dipping sauce.
South East Asian Night Market, Frank Kitts Park promenade, 4-10pm, March 20.