Special Report: Food Carnival on Party Pier
There are a few Food Fests around GZ in the last weeks of this month (others being in Tianhe Sport Centre and Panyu). Party Pier, as one of our favourite night time hangout, is hosting their own. However, this wasn't an event with good publicity. We only saw this "International Beer & Food Carnival" announcement on their Chinese-based social media Weibo, and little was known to the expat community. So what are the Chinese getting here? Here we go!
What attracted our attention was their FREE & UNLIMITED supply of draft beer advertising... Okay it was Zhujiang beer... But as long as there is something free to wash down the food, we wouldn't mind! And it's coming from the beer factory behind so at least it's fresh.
Party Pier transformed their open yard next to their monthly Full Moon Party Stage into booths of food/drink importers, restaurants/BBQ takeaway. Given the cool weather (under 10oC) with chilling wind, the atmosphere just wasn't there even at prime dinner time 8pm. Hardly anyone sat down.
This first section was all too Chinese - perhaps it's the tacky banner design, or the local staff in service, so even we sampled our German Käsekrainer cheese sausage and Vietnamese shrimp cha gio spring rolls with nuoc nam dipping, they felt average. In fact there were more Chinese food with half of the booths serving different street foods from TAIWAN. Where are the "international" ones?
The second area, originally an exhibition hall with a glass ceiling, became the European food hall. As disappointing it is as the outside, the minimalist display of imported wine/ canned foods /snacks/ olive oil with staff hiding behind their desk simply did not sell. Nevertheless, this shaded dining area attracted a hungry crowd to consume what they just freshly bought from the other areas, where they can sit with their jacket on.
The last section was again in open-air, where each establishment on Party Pier have their own booth. Wave, for example, was serving kebab. Chinese band there created some background music. Yet whether it was jazz or Cantopop, hardly anyone was in the mood of sitting down for long in the cold. We completed our visit with a warming desert - double-layer milk pudding with puff pastry (酥皮雙皮奶) - from Shinhing Restaurant (Hong Kong). Again not getting any options from other parts of the world...
We got back to the metro station via their shuttle bus running every 10 minutes. This was the best arrangement of this event (if not counting the free beers), and the rest was quite a failure. If this is an evening event for cooked food running daily from 4-9pm in late Dec, at least set up a heated area for people to eat. Promotions, presentation of restaurants and overall design had to be up to international standard. Accompanying entertainment should be well-planned. We have been to more enjoyable food fests in other parts of GZ where everyone ate more in greater variety. Party Pier, being the upmost popular nightlife district in GZ, didn't manage to organize a good party, made us rather unimpressed.
