Hundreds of pork and chicken skewers smeared with banana ketchup glaze, are sizzling on two four-metre-long charcoal barbecue grills, at the popular food stall, Hoy Pinoy.

One hungry attendee stops behind a long line for the Filipino skewers, but a friend challenges the decision. "It's the first stall – there's a whooole market down there."

Agitated, the man hungry for skewers responds: "Oh, fine," dragging his feet towards the next vendor.

Hoy Pinoy is not the only food stall boasting a long line of hungry customers at Melbourne's first 11-night Asian food market, called Lunar Markets.

Sixteen stalls and two food trucks are dotted along the Harbour Esplanade in Docklands, serving up the best of Australia's Asian culinary scene, during the Chinese New Year.

The festival started on Thursday and will run to February 14.

Groups of families and young hipsters swarm around the pop-up stores, pulled apart only by the occasional visit from a roaming dragon.

Among the mouth-watering delights are O-Bun's fried silken tofu bun, with picked mustard, coriander and peanuts; mountains of glorious pad thai from Bangkok Street Food; award-winning bacon and cheese dim sims from Dans Dim Sim Kitchen; and miso butter popcorn from Everybody Loves Ramen.

More impressive, perhaps, are the weird and wonderful desserts. There's Sambal Kampung's peanut butter and Nutella spring rolls; caramel and lychee waffles from Waffle on a Stick; and the crowd-pulling strawberry watermelon cake with pop rocks coated with raspberry powder, from Black Star Pastry and N2 Extreme Gelato.

With Chinese New Year on Monday, many of the vendors are cooking food from their own heritage, privately summoning childhood memories of many New Year celebrations at home.

Chinese Australian David Dong, who is managing Let's Do Yum Cha, says around this time of year in China, his entire extended family are under a single roof, preparing a delicious feast. They usually cook deep-fried pork, and make pork and chive dumplings from scratch.

He admits he doesn't have time to make thousands of dumplings from scratch for the Lunar Markets, but says serving food from home during Chinese New Year is comforting.

"I'm working here with many of my Chinese friends at an Asian food market. It does make me feel like I'm at home."

The Lunar Markets is presented by The Age.