Northern Liberties Night Market

I had the pleasure of kicking off my summer with the Philadelphia Night Market! One Thursday a month, May through October, food trucks, bands and beer stands colonize a Philadelphia neighborhood for the ultimate summertime experience. This month the market was held in Northern Liberties at 2nd and Market. When my friends and I arrived we were overwhelmed with all the people and activities (not to mention long lines!) because the Night Market draws quite a large crowd.


While we were walking, we got to sample some Frobana. As we were all trying to figure out what flavor of ice cream we were tasting, the lady handing it out shocked us all by informing us that it was not ice cream but was actually frozen banana with nothing else added! Indeed, they were putting frozen bananas through a machine on the spot and offering it with chocolate and other toppings.

The only complaint that I have about the whole experience was that the lines were excruciatingly long. There were so many choices of food trucks - from kabobs to tacos to wood oven pizza - all with long lines of people waiting to grab a bite.

Because two of my friends had recently lived in Chile, we decided to wait for over half an hour in line for the Delicias food truck (normally located at 34^th and Market) which makes Chilean and Venezuelan fare. We ordered a chorpian and a sweet plantain arepa. The choripan was basically a sausage sandwich with spicy chorizo, caramelized onions and some pico de gallo.  The sandwich had just the amount of spice and the pico de gallo was a nice and refreshing addition. The arepas were little sandwiches made from corn patties and different fillings. Ours was filled with sweet plantains and a cheese that tasted like a crumbled queso blanco. I thought the arepa was more interesting than the choripan – sweet, a tiny bit salty, and extremely satisfying. Even now, a few days later, we've been scheming to get back to the food truck and have such tasty treats again. The combination of having the spicy and then the sweeter sandwich while sitting on a stoop was a perfect pair for a surreal summer night.

Don't miss the next Night Market on June 28^th at 9^th and Washington!

- Leyla Mocan