OCSA’s Inaugural Night Market

Lacole Yang

While the band Catty Wompus blasted over the speakers, Culinary Arts & Hospitality students sold freshly made food from their Night Market booths. A grill sizzled within a row of white tents, and a line of students stood in front of the container lot for their tickets. As Jaren Tseng (CAH ’25) rolled rice and seaweed into a tray of sushi with cucumber filling, he explained that any culinary student could sign up to sell food of their choice. He had spent around six hours preparing, despite also being swarmed with studying for AP exams. Other booths sold boba, tteokbokki, tanghulu, chicken tortillas, sliders, mochi, chicken, soda and more.

Night Market is a “unique catering opportunity” for culinary students to “show off their skills,” said Tseng. The proceeds go toward funding CAH, with Night Market being the newest addition to the conservatory’s fundraisers, which have previously included the Culinary Throwdown and the bake sale.

“I like this event because it’s a place where people come together, and we can raise money so that our conservatory can do more in the future,” said Kaitlyn Chung (IM-WS ‘27). Adding on, Erin Lee (VA ‘27) shared, “It’s a pretty fun and new experience for me, and it’s fun to meet new people.” The students sold tanghulu and dalgona at their booth called the Sweet Spot. The tanghulu was made fresh “by washing fruit and putting it on skewers where after, you’ll dip it in melted sugar and then an ice bath. After that, you’ll take it out and eat it, so it’s like a fruit with a crunchy sugar layer around it,” explained Chung.

Not only were current students catering, CAH alumnus Cloyce Martin from the class of 2019 was selling sliders with Hailey Heren (CAH ‘25). Martin said at the “alumni gourmet grill,” they sold an “all beef slider on a hawaiian roll with balsamic caramelized onions and a house-made manchego aioli.” He gave his tips on making the best sliders: focus on “having every element come out hot and fresh” with “a good balance of texture between the bun, the grease, the butter and then having some element that counters that, which in this case [is] the aioli.”

Not only did Martin’s booth sell out, but so did the booth next to his, as well as every other booth by the time the event ended at 5 p.m. Martin heard “lots of good things about the rest of the food as well. It’s exciting to watch.”

Someone even approached Martin to tell him his slider was the best slider they’ve had in their life. “Compliments like that are lovely.”

His final thoughts on the event were that “it’s awesome hearing the music and seeing all the smiles of everyone having their food. It’s also fun to be able to incorporate other conservatories, so we can hear the beauty of music and the marriage of food together, and it’s a wonderful thing.”