Dandenong Market - What's To Eat There?

Hello Fellow Nom Seekers!

Over the years, various friends and acquaintances have been mentioning the food stalls in Dandenong Market as a place to go for cheap, authentic ethnic foods.  I ventured out there for the first time a few Sundays ago and was not disappointed.  Being a Sunday, I found out that some of the food stalls were closed but enough were open to give me an idea of what it is all about and to sample a few.

I was most impressed with the dumpling caravan named Sansan.  They had a special on - six dumplings with various fillings (seafood, chicken, pork, etc) served with a large piece of chicken breast schnitzel, prawn crackers and a drink for $9.  The dumplings were exquisite - the wrappers were very silken in texture and one of the thinnest I have ever tasted.  Apparently the dumplings are hand made.  The fillings were juicy and flavourful even though I couldn't really tell the difference between the various fillings.  The chicken schnitzel, well, hey, it's a schnitzel and all schnitzels are universally loved by me.  On the whole, very good value for a delicious lunch.  

Sansan - the pick of the eats at Dandenong Market

Big pile of yum - dumplings, schnitzel and prawn crackers

Check out how thin the wrappers of the dumplings were

I also sampled the Doughworks caravan which served Turkish style bread and kebabs.  The place was really busy and I thought - surely that is a sign of good eating to be had?  A lady was rolling out dough for the bread and it was quite an impressive show.  

A bit of live dough rolling action

The customer service unfortunately at Doughworks was a little lacking.  I placed my order and after dutifully waiting for 5 - 10 minutes realised they had forgotten my order.  So I queued up and gave my order again to another lady.  Other lady promptly forgets my order and asked me a few minutes later whether I would like to order anything.  Grr... By that stage I was beyond waiting and wanted to give up but since I have already paid, persisted in waiting and waiting.  The guy assembling the kebabs added insult to injury by declaring that my order is coming but it is in the back of the queue as all these other people (and he sweeps his arms out) orders were ahead of mine.  After waiting an interminable period of time for my chicken kebab, chips and drink ($11), I was disappointed that the kebab was rather ordinary.  The chips were tasty but then again, it was crop dusted with chicken salt and flavour enhancers,.  

Kebab - not worth the wait or aggravation

Kiddo sampled a spring roll from one of the Asian stalls and declared it delicious.  

Spring rolls purchased from here

I'll finish off with a few random photos of the food related surroundings:

Cooking demo at The Kitchen

Dandenong Market - worth exploring.  I would just go for the Sansan dumplings alone.  

Official Dandenong Market website -  go here for opening hours and stall details.  

Until next time..