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.