626 Night Market 2019 Food Trends Report

Fro-yo girl here. I’ve been going to 626 Night Market at Santa Anita Park in Arcadia every year since 2015, looking for emerging Asian food trends. Sometimes, 626 Night Market is the first place to offer Asian street foods. It was the first place I had a Korean hot dog/corn dog and taiyaki sundae. Over the years, I’ve noticed that the market has become more diverse both in terms of vendors and attendees. It’s also become less cutting edge and trendy in some ways, but it’s still very popular. Smorgasburg is trendier but less Asian, of course.

It’s fun to see people out with their friends and family, stuffing their faces, playing games, dancing, and having a good time. The food tends to be overpriced and not that good, but I think of it more as an experience. It’s hilarious to see adults holding giant baby bottles.

I did not see yogurt in any form this year, not even yogurt drinks. I do realize that yogurt is no longer trend – though they could offer plant-based yogurt to be more on-trend. It seems like the 626 Night Market offerings favor indulgent comfort food, not healthy. I did see acai bowls, sorbet, ice cream, churros, and waffles (Hong Kong, liege, taiyaki). Does anyone eat acai bowls at night??

This year I noticed a few trends:

Filipino food: There were so many Filipino vendors this year.

Cheetos everything: Flamin’ Hot Cheetos appeared as more than a coating for corn on the cob and corn in a cup. You could get it on fries, flavoring taco shells, and inside burritos.

Nashville hot chicken: Everyone knows how crazy popular Howlin’ Rays is. Dave's Hot Chicken also has been blessed with long lines. 626 Night Market featured multiple hot chicken vendors.

Boba merchandise: You could win or buy boba plushies. Vendors also had Air Pod cases that looked like boba drinks and boba drink stickers, cell phone cases, t-shirts, and art.

One thing I’d love to see is Indian street food. There wasn’t one Indian vendor. Maybe there aren’t enough Indians in the area. It’s also not trendy, though it should be. There wasn’t much Vietnamese food either, but the Vietnamese have their own night market in Westminster (Orange County). It’s mostly Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Mexican food.

I’ve gone on different days and times. While others advise you to get there early, it’s usually too hot to do so. I prefer going late Sunday night after sunset. The lines are shorter and they’ve rarely run out of food by then. 626 Night Market returns two more weekends this year: August 9 - 11 and August 30 – September 1.

Free parking. Admission is $5.

You know you love me. X0 X0, fro-yo girl.

Looking for more frozen yogurt news, discussion boards, and resources? Check out the International Frozen Yogurt Association website at http://internationalfrozenyogurt.com/. The IFYA is the independent voice of the frozen yogurt industry.

626 Night Market Dessert Trends Report

Fro-yo girl here. I returned to the 626 Night Market, “the original and largest Asian-themed night market in the United States” with some friends during Labor Day weekend. They changed the layout again (the food trucks were outside in the parking lot) and they seemed to have as many vendors as ever, including plenty of new ones. The art section was much smaller though. 

The 626 Night Market is a showcase for new Asian food trends. This year some new foods included rainbow grilled cheese, cute bentos, cotton candy topped with bacon or a soft shell crab, shot glass cookies filled with milk and sushi donuts.

There were more Thai rolled ice cream and churros vendors than ever (ice cream rolls and churros were already at the 626 Night Market last year). The Blue Nova, SoCal's first ice cream rolls truck, just launched. Drinks continued to be very popular. Main Squeeze started the light up bottle trend last year. This year the drinks came in light bulb shapes with a mini lightbulb light) and giant light up baby bottles.

Desserts included fried ice cream, potted ice cream, fish waffles filled with soft serve, snow ice, Hawaiian shaved ice, churros (with ice cream), cronut ice cream sandwiches, cookie shot glasses filled with milk, Hong Kong egg waffles, funnel cakes, ice cream rolls, liquid nitrogen ice cream, grass jelly, dessert tofu, milkshakes, halo halo, and cotton candy.

While I didn’t see any froyo, A+ Tea House did offer yogurt drinks. The rolled ice cream places only had ice cream. Last year one place, Snow House, Tea Bar had strawberry froyo rolls. The trends didn’t seem as innovative this year. The only one that surprised me was the cotton candy topped with a soft shell crab from Cap’n Crispy. I wish they had higher end vendors like Sul & Beans, Honeymee or Beeline.

The 626 Night Market will presumably return next summer (given how popular it is, it should be back). Free parking. Admission is $3.

You know you love me. X0 X0, fro-yo girl.

Looking for more frozen yogurt news, discussion boards, and resources? Check out the International Frozen Yogurt Association website at http://internationalfrozenyogurt.com/. The IFYA is the independent voice of the frozen yogurt industry.

New Desserts at 626 Night Market, Includes Froyo

Fro-yo girl here. The last 626 Night Market of 2015 is this weekend (Friday, Saturday, Sunday) at Santa Anita Park. While some vendors from the August night market returned (e.g., Ice Cream Garden, Ridges Churro Bar, Dolcissimo ice cream macaron sandwiches , UniqCone) there were also new dessert vendors. The handpulled noodle stall (China Tasty) was new and they had a guy making noodles on the spot.

New Desserts:

Nimo Yaki: Nimo Yaki is a a fresh fish shaped waffle (taiyaki) served plain (with red bean, $4) or filled with ice cream ($6). The soft serve ice cream is available in two flavors, vanilla and chocolate (or you can choose both). The wide mouth fish is made on a waffle iron. Red bean paste is added to the batter. The fish is stuffed with soft serve ice cream, then garnished with sprinkles and a wafer roll cookie. The vanilla ice cream wasn’t a high quality ice cream and the garnishes were run of the mill. The fish is a doughy waffle. It’s novel (and inspired by Korean street food) but the execution was disappointing.

Snow House Tea Bar: They had frozen yogurt! It was called fried yogurt with fresh fruits. You can get strawberry yogurt or mango yogurt ($8). The yogurt is poured in a thin layer on a cold metal plate and then scraped with spatulas and shaped into rolls. I tried something similar years ago at a place called Ice Pan in Los Angeles (it closed) and I wasn’t a fan.

Go late (it’s open till 1 AM) to avoid the long lines for food. The longest line is for ramen burgers. Free parking. Admission is $3.

http://www.626nightmarket.com/

You know you love me. X0 X0, fro-yo girl.

Looking for more frozen yogurt news, discussion boards, and resources? Check out the International Frozen Yogurt Association website at http://internationalfrozenyogurt.com/. The IFYA is the independent voice of the frozen yogurt industry.

Innovative Froyo Shop Spotlight: CrèmeBee in Alhambra, CA

Fro-yo girl here. CrèmeBee’s offerings aren’t innovative in Asia but they are in California. Their offerings reflect several Asian dessert trends: (1) raw honey with organic milk soft serve, (2) cotton candy on top of milk tea or soft serve, (3) nice looking parfaits.

The raw honey with organic milk soft serve was popularized by Honeymee in SoCal. Honeymee opened its first location in LA’s Koreatown. CrèmeBee’s soft serve is organic frozen yogurt; Honeymee’s is ice cream.

The cotton candy is made to order which makes a difference because packaged cotton candy tastes awful. There are two flavors: blue raspberry and purple grape. They make their own marshmallows and they’re cut into cute shapes (white clouds and yellow moons). Other toppings include raw honey, honeycomb, honey boba, pudding, honey castella cake, caramel sauce, chocolate sauce…sensing the honey theme? The plain CrèmeBee is served with raw honey ($3.95).

There are eight creations/parfaits to choose from ($3.95-$5.75) and one flavor of organic soft serve frozen yogurt. They also sell honey flavored teas and floats.

* Cloud 9 with blue raspberry cotton candy, cloud marshmallows and raw honey ($5.75): It’s super cute with that big blue cotton candy cloud. To eat it, you remove the cotton candy and put it on the tray. Tear off some cotton candy and eat it with or separate from your frozen yogurt. The frozen yogurt is plain/milk flavored. It isn’t tangy at all – it’s sweet, creamy and smooth but not as thick as Honeymee’s. The cotton candy is super light and has a hint of blue raspberry flavor. The soft marshmallows were really good – not as sweet as the packaged kind. The portion of frozen yogurt is small and there was a huge hole in the middle but with the cotton candy it felt like two desserts.

The shop is mostly white with a cute bee/honeycomb theme. I think it used to be another froyo shop called Splash Tea & Yogurt and before that A Tea Yogurt and Bluecherry Yogurt. That's four froyo places in the same spot.

CremeBee is having a grand opening celebration on August 29, 2015. The first 50 people will get free froyo. Everyone else will get 25% off that day. Doors open at 1:30 PM.

You know you love me. X0 X0, fro-yo girl.

Rating: 4/5

* CREMEBEE, 137 W Main St., Alhambra, CA 91801

Looking for more frozen yogurt news, discussion boards, and resources? Check out the International Frozen Yogurt Association website at http://internationalfrozenyogurt.com/. The IFYA is the independent voice of the frozen yogurt industry.