Not just noodles but a skewer 'factory', too

Thi Pham, of the Pham Sisters Vegan, at the Canberra Night Noodle Markets on Friday night. Picture: Jamila Toderas

Once the charcoal is red hot and ready at Hoy Pinoy, it's like a well-practised skewer delivery system.

The Melbourne-based Filpino street food business prepares between 2500 to 3000 skewers each night for Canberra's Night Noodle Markets, and even more for the busier weekends.

Regina Meehan runs the business with her husband, James, who is a chef and across in Adelaide this week running a similar, but smaller street food stall there. They developed a conga line-type cooking system to ensure they could keep up with demand.

The skewers get gradually shuffled down a four-metre long, two-sided customised charcoal grill until fully cooked, then shifted across and embellished with one of the several sauces, including green papaya and banana ketchup, recipes which the couple developed themselves.

Dozens of bags of charcoal are fed into the grills over the course of a night.

Hoy Pinoy's conga line-type charcoal skewer cooking in action at the Canberra Night Noodle Markets. Picture: Jamila Toderas

"We don't have any menus up on boards; we rely on the marvellous charcoal cooking smell to waft out and attract the people over and then we show them what they can have," Ms Meehan said.

"James and I met in high school and after we were married we thought about starting this type of business for a long time, because my family is Filipino and we both love this kind of food.

"In 2013, we finally did it and it's going very well."

Across the park is another family business introducing something new to the Night Noodle Markets this year: vegan dishes.

Action from the Canberra Night Noodle Markets. Picture: Jamila Toderas

The Pham family, also from Melbourne, includes sisters Thi and Camilla, mother Mai and father, Dinh.

They started the Pham Sisters mobile eatery business about two-and-a-half years ago, specialising in vegan dishes.

The "meat" is all soy bean and special sauces provide the flavour.

Crowds at the Canberra Night Noodle Markets on Friday night. Picture: Jamila Toderas

"We love it here; everyone is very friendly and the feedback on our vegan dishes has been very positive," Thi Pham said.

"It's important to have vegan alternatives at events like this."

Thousands of people visit the noodle markets, located up from Reconciliation Place in Parkes and serving each night until March 9.

Held at the same time are the Enlighten Illuminations, now in their 10^th year. The projections begin at 8pm.