We’re officially two weeks deep into the Los Angeles Times‘ LA Food Bowl and that means we’ve certainly gotten our dose of scrumptious food during all of the LA Food Bowl’s magnificent events. The Los Angeles Times just wrapped up its incredibly successful Night Market event – a five day, outdoor celebration of tasty treats ranging from tacos to fried chicken, noodles, burgers and more! For the past three years since the LA Food Bowl started, the Night Market has and continues to be a standout event that every foodie flocks over to. This year’s Night Market was a huge hit with a sold-out night, several celebrity appearances and everyone leaving the event with a full stomach.
Night Market took place on May 8 – May 12, 2019 at Grand Park in Downtown Los Angeles. Night Market kicked off with the Collaboration Lab. During this awesome event, there were terrific collaborations between LA’s top restaurants and international guests. Attendees in the special VIP ticketed area were able to enjoy collaborations from Bavel x Taco Maria, Kismet x Ciya, Shibumi x Spago, Scratch Bar and Kitchen x Ari Taymor, Fiona x Cicatriz, Chengdu Taste x Jitalda, Openaire x Arlo Grey, The Bazaar x Otono and Otium x Salazar.
Bavel x Taco Maria gave guests the chance to chomp on some octopus tostada while Chengdu Taste x Jitalda offered attendees some yummy, jazz spicy fried rice. Each collaboration was so unique and left everyone’s mouth watering. The Collaboration Lab fulfilled everyone’s cravings. Whether you were in the mood for some olive wagyu from Scratch Bar and Kitchen x Ari Taymor or a teriyaki burger with spring pickles from Shibumi x Spago, the food presented at the Collaboration Lab definitely hit the spot. During this excellent event, the winners of the prestigious Restaurant of the Year Award and the Gold Award were announced. Bavel was announced as this year’s recipient of the Restaurant of the Year Award and Cassia L.A. was honored with the Gold Award.
The food-filled fun continued on day two of Night Market with the Taco Tribute event. Taqueros including Guerrilla Tacos, Sonoratown, Carnitas el Momo, Chichen Itza, Broken Spanish, Tacos 1986 and Teddy’s Red Tacos gave guests a variety of appetizing tacos to try out. Just one bite of these tacos and attendees definitely kept going back for more, more, more!
Day three of Night Market was all about fried chicken. At the Fried Chicken Party, guests were able to enjoy fried chicken cooked in many different ways. The Fried Chicken Party was a feast for everyone as attendees were able to savor fried chicken in a sandwich, as chicken tenders, or as wings! The options were truly limitless. Restaurants that participated in the Fried Chicken Party included Honey’s Kettle, Lucky Bird, Night + Market, Chef Kang Food Rehab, Hotville Chicken, Phat Birds and The Crack Shack. Some meals from the Fried Chicken Party included fried wings with spicy soy garlic and honey butter from Chef Kang, a chicken sammie with seasonal pickled veggies from Lucky Bird and a drummette, chicken oyster and leek fries from Honey’s Kettle, amongst many other flavorsome meals.
The fourth day of Night Market included a back-to-back celebration with not just one, but two, outstanding LA Food Bowl events. The day started off with some burgers and one thing we all know about LA is that it is home to some of the greatest burgers. A celebration of food isn’t complete without an event that focuses on the best burgers… so, during the Night Market’s Best Burgers event, vendors including HiHo Cheeseburger, Banh Oui, Everson Royce Bar, Hank’s, Bowery, Love Hour, Otium, Mel’s Drive In, NoMad, and Belcampo Meat Co showcased juicy, phenomenal burgers for attendees to munch on. It sure was burger heaven! During the exciting event, celebrity judges including Phil Rosenthal, Jaleel White, Benny Blanco, Claudia Alende, and Elsie took bites of burgers and declared Banh Oui as the judges’ pick of LA’s Best Burgers. Then, it was up to the guests to vote for their fave burger. The people’s choice of LA’s Best Burgers went to HiHo Cheeseburger, who gave attendees an entire, super big burger filled with ⅓ lb of beef, cheese, ketchup, lettuce, house-made onion jam and pickles with mustard grilled.
I, Alexisjoyvipaccess had a spectacular time covering and attending the LA’s Best Burgers event and it’s super hard to choose which burger is the best because they are ALL so extraordinary. From Mel’s Diner’s world famous patty melt to NoMad’s NoMad Burger and their Chicken Burger, amongst many others, all of the burgers were truly out of this world.
In addition, several activations took place throughout Night Market including a special DoorDash lounge. DoorDash, a popular food delivery service, teamed up with a few of the vendors during Night Market to give guests the chance to choose from a menu of food and have the dishes “delivered” right to their table. At the lounge, I snacked on some fried tofu with Thai basil from Bling Bling Dumplings (which was the BEST fried tofu I have ever had) and a quesadilla from Tacos 1986. Also at the lounge were some mochi from My/Mo mochi for all the sweet tooths. Bling Bling Dumplings, Gwen, Crack Shack, Tacos 1986 and Bludso’s BBQ were the vendors that partnered with DoorDash for the lounge. Other sponsorship activations at the event was presented by High West, Jose Cuervo, Sapporo, and House of Suntory.
Continuing day four of Night Market was the Noodles, Dumplings and Rice event. This sold-out event garnered a massive amount of attendees with everyone yearning for fantastic, pan-Asian cuisine. Restaurants including Porridge + Puffs, Baroo Canteen, Hui Tou Xiang, Chongqing Special Noodles, Lukshon, Sea Harbour Seafood Restaurant, Noodle Harmony and Little Sister all participated in this event.
To end off Night Market, the fifth and final day was the All Star BBQ. Highly-acclaimed pitmasters and vendors including Burt Bakman, Mutsky Bilivarn, Bill Durney, Aaron Franklin, Matt Horn, Sam Jones, Adam Perry Lang, Dave Marin, Andrew and Michelle Munoz, and Valerie Gordon were at the event to fire up some exceptional BBQ dishes and conclude Night Market with a bang.
Even though the Los Angeles Times‘ Night Market has come to a close, there are still a countless amount of delectable, LA Food Bowl events happening throughout the rest of this month of May, so be sure to head on over to LAFoodBowl.com to see the full line-up of events and join in on all of the excitement.
Check out some more photos from the Los Angeles Times‘ LA Food Bowl Night Market events below. Be sure to follow @LAFoodBowl on Twitter and Instagram and join in on the conversation by using #LAFoodBowl and #31DaysOfFood on all social media networks.
Photo Credits: Will Tee Yang, Devin Berko, alexisjoyvipaccess
