A no go at the Richmond Public Market

The Richmond Public Market. Photo by David Lansing.

My favorite thing to do in any city is make a pilgrimage to the public market. This is the way to really get a sense of a city’s culinary aspirations. So I talked Mijune into taking me to the RPM—Richmond Public Market.

She tried to lower my expectations as we walked in. “It’s very small,” she said. “And, really, the market part isn’t all that great.”

She was right. There were a couple of relatively small produce markets on the ground floor but I didn’t see anything there that I hadn’t seen at one of the local Asian supermarkets like T&T or the Osaka Market. Plus the whole thing seemed kind of dingy and tired. It reminded me a bit of the night markets you see in poorer sections of Hong Kong.

Upstairs was a food court and that looked a lot more interesting. There were stalls selling Hong Kong-style milk tea, coconut buns, beef soup, lamb skewers. Nice. But neither Mijune or I really had a desire to chow down. Something about the place just didn’t feel right. So we left.