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00:00I was 19 years old when I first came to Australia. I was at a crossroads, running
00:12away from family tragedy. My dad had just died and I didn't know what I was going
00:18to do in my life. And I found this sort of land of colour, of light, every day seemed
00:25like today. And I can remember saying, this is me. I've escaped. This is my life. What
00:31I found in Australia inspired me. And I've since built a career travelling the world in
00:37search of perfect, simple dishes. Love them to bits. Today, Australia is so much more than
00:44just another travel destination. My wife is Australian. This is delicious. No calories.
00:50And this country has become my second home. This is the life, isn't it?
00:54So after a lifetime of food journeys, I'm finally retracing some of that first trip.
01:01Ow! I want to discover how Australia and its food is changing. This goat curry is really
01:08special. Takes me right back. Fabulous! I shake your hand but I've got pie and sauce all over
01:14it. Now I'm ready to go. And I'm bringing my inspiration home to create new recipes. That's
01:20looking good now. I suspect it's going to be another journey of a lifetime.
01:25Like many newcomers, my first view of Australia was Sydney Harbour, one of the largest natural
01:46harbours in the world. It's also the gateway to Australia's oldest city. Sydney is the
01:53country. Sydney is where my first Australian adventure began in 1966. And it's where I'll
02:00be spending the first leg of my nearly 5,000km road trip across the state of New South Wales,
02:08an area three times the size of the United Kingdom. For me, there's no better way to experience Sydney
02:17Sydney than on one of the many ferries that crisscross the harbour. It was here that Sydney
02:24was founded as a British convict settlement on the lands of the Gadigal people at a place
02:29now known as the Rocks, between the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House. I remember when I came here,
02:38the Opera House was just being finished. The form was there, so I could see how beautiful it was.
02:45They were just putting the tiles everywhere. I can remember then the food was simple and familiar really.
02:55But what I also remember even then was the produce was spectacular. First time I ever had oysters and they were wonderful.
03:05And also the first time actually I'd ever had scallops. I suppose looking back, I realise how much my love, appreciation and actually knowledge of food has changed over those years.
03:20And I think it all kicked off with my early visit here. And I think the same applies to Australia really.
03:27And I'm really here to find out sort of how it's changed and also why it's changed.
03:36I'm taking the ferry east past the city to one of Sydney's many harbourside suburbs, Double Bay.
03:43I'm here to meet someone whom I believe led the charge in transforming Australian food.
03:50To get his take on what drove this change.
03:55Neil Perry emerged as a superstar of modern Australian cooking in the 1980s, championing quality produce and Asian flavours.
04:06A few years ago, Neil opened a new restaurant, Margaret, which he describes as a cosy neighbourhood bistro.
04:16Pretty humble for a restaurant that's just been voted one of the best in the world.
04:22Mr Stein, how are you?
04:24Well, more important, how's your fish? My gosh.
04:27The fish is awesome. If we get this inside, I'll pull it out and show you. It's going to be incredible.
04:32I'm here, ahead of the diners, to see how Neil's approaching food these days.
04:37Such a nice restaurant. Thank you, mate.
04:39True family restaurant, named after mum.
04:44And it seems the menu here is still dedicated to serving up top grade produce cooked over an open fire.
04:52Smells good. Is that charcoal or...?
04:54Yeah, it's timber burning, so... Oh, wood.
04:56Yeah, yeah. What?
04:57So the iron bark, we burn it right down to the embers and we cook over the embers every day, and so that starting fire is just fed for the entire day.
05:05It'll run from now, right through to this evening, and it's the heart of the kitchen.
05:11Oh, this is fab.
05:13So here we are.
05:14Here, in his prep room, Neil's chefs process 1,000 kilos of top grade seafood every week from across the country.
05:21There you've got the beautiful coral trout. This is the cousin of pearl perch, so it's the Western Australian pearl perch.
05:27I mean, that's just the most beautiful fish.
05:30And so there you've got two examples of something from one side of the country and one from the other, up north, and then, you know, we'll get a delivery...
05:36I'm speechless, Neil. That is a lovely fish.
05:38What do you think is so special about Australian cuisine, really? What makes it different?
05:46Well, I think it's our relationship with Asia. I mean, you know, we're part of Asia, really.
05:50And the Chinese came here first. Gold Rush days came in in the 1800s.
05:55That was our first real exotic experience with Asian food.
06:00Neil's cooking has always reflected these influences from the moment he opened his first restaurant, the Blue Water Grill.
06:09Because you sort of know Chinese food backwards.
06:11Well, I do, because I started with that one first when I was very young, with my dad taking me down to Chinatown.
06:17We had Chinese friends who were restaurateurs, so I got to eat amazing Chinese food when I was younger.
06:22I was kind of eating, you know, chilli mud crab and ginger and shallot lobster and...
06:27Oh, my gosh, Neil.
06:28...and white cut chicken, and so that informed the Blue Water Grill.
06:35So I came here in 86, the Blue Water Grill was open, and I just thought, this is cutting edge, this is where it's all happening.
06:42Yeah, yeah.
06:43I suppose that's the thing I really like about you, is you're just still so enthusiastic about your produce.
06:48Yeah, well, it's the whole basis upon which my career's been built, and I don't see any reason to change it.
06:54We just try to take the best things and get out of the way of it.
06:57Neil has kindly offered to show me his favourite way of cooking this lovely fish.
07:02Yeah.
07:03Here's one of those beautiful coral trout.
07:05Yes.
07:06And all I'm going to do is give it a nice dusting of oil.
07:10Yeah.
07:11We don't want it to stick to the grill, but we don't want to, by the same time, we don't want to...
07:15Flares up.
07:16Yeah.
07:17You can really take as much salt as it needs, so you can give it a really good seasoning.
07:20I always say the difference between a professional chef and a home chef is seasoning.
07:25And then I'm just going to take this weight.
07:29Ah.
07:30Just give it a little bit of pressure to get the skin a little bit crisp.
07:33Yeah.
07:34It's the age-old way of cooking over fire.
07:37Exactly the way I do it as well.
07:39Yeah, yeah.
07:40But, you know, one of the nice things about cooking over fire with meat or fish is it's
07:46just a very supportive flavour.
07:49Well, it doesn't matter what you do to that.
07:51Yeah.
07:52You can't make it any better than that.
07:53No.
07:54No, no, no.
07:55Everything else is just embellishing or gilding the lily.
07:58Exactly.
08:02The freshest piece of fish.
08:04Beautiful fresh lemon.
08:05Yeah.
08:07Beautiful mineral salt.
08:09And, of course, then you don't get anything more pure than olive oil.
08:19Wow.
08:22Such a good fish as well, isn't it?
08:24Coral trout is like almost without peer.
08:27You know, you get that slight crustacean flavour.
08:30Yeah, yeah, yeah.
08:31The density of the flesh.
08:32Perfectly cooked, I have to say.
08:34Oh, thank you.
08:35Oh, that's good.
08:43Neil's enthusiasm for the importance of Asian flavours to Australian food intrigues me.
08:50So I'm heading back into the city to explore Sydney's Chinatown.
08:56It's the largest Chinatown in the Southern Hemisphere.
09:03When I arrived here in the 1960s, one in 500 Australians had Chinese ancestry.
09:09Today, that figure is one in 20.
09:13And you can feel it.
09:14This is one of the most vibrant Chinatowns I've ever visited.
09:20Writer Jennifer Wong knows a lot about it.
09:24Jennifer, it's nice to see you.
09:25Hello.
09:26Welcome to Sydney's Chinatown.
09:27I've just been wandering around.
09:29It's enormous.
09:31How long have the Chinese been here in Sydney?
09:341818, we can kind of put like a date on it.
09:37And then people came for the gold rush in the 1850s and the 1860s.
09:43People are coming by boat.
09:44Three months from Canton to Hong Kong to Sydney.
09:47Three months.
09:48So where they would land was, of course, the rocks.
09:51And there's a saying that the first Chinatown goes from the rocks, the feet of the dragon.
09:56Dixon Street is the belly of the dragon, all of this food.
10:00But there are suburbs that could legitimately be called their own Chinatowns.
10:05Yeah.
10:06You're Burwood, you're Chatswood, you're Hurstville.
10:08These are all places with large Chinese populations.
10:11You could walk down the street and imagine that you might be somewhere in the middle of Asia.
10:17Feeling blue, Rick.
10:19Jennifer's taking me on a tour of her favourite places.
10:23So these are all local Asian Australian artists.
10:25And they all have a connection with Chinatown.
10:27Including one of the oldest grocery stores in Chinatown.
10:32Jen, Rick, nice to meet you.
10:34Thank you, Chris.
10:35Chris Lam was a banker before taking over the family business.
10:39This is my roots, my Rick.
10:41I grew up in the shop.
10:42Mum and Dad have lovingly curated this shop and run this shop every day for four decades.
10:49And I wanted to honour that.
10:50I'm well impressed with that, actually.
10:54So how have things changed?
10:56The shop itself hasn't changed a lot since the 80s, Rick.
10:59It doesn't look like it, which I love, don't get me wrong.
11:01And I'm trying to preserve it, I'm trying to keep it that way.
11:03The smells.
11:04The smells.
11:05It's five spice.
11:06You know?
11:07Five spice, salted fish, greens.
11:09We carry a lot of specialised Asian ingredients.
11:17This is an amaranth green.
11:18It comes in two variations.
11:20You can get this green or have a red amaranth leaf.
11:24Oh, yeah, I've seen it, yeah.
11:25And what would that be, stir-fried, I guess, or steam?
11:28Stir-fried with a bit of garlic.
11:29You can steam it.
11:30Put it in soups.
11:34Chrysanthemum, a product of Korea originally.
11:38Right.
11:39And it's used in hot pots.
11:41Have a taste of that.
11:42I love it.
11:43But the first time I would have tasted that, I'd have thought, that's poisonous.
11:46Because it's got this really sort of, like, taste like a flower.
11:50It's a weed, yeah.
11:51Well, aren't these all weeds?
11:53Yeah, well, I suppose so.
11:54People come from all over and we're known for the quality of our greens.
11:59We source it directly from the farmers that have been growing this for multiple generations.
12:06Chris's roots here run deep, something he's clearly very proud of.
12:12So, Rick, I wanted to show you this mural done by Aboriginal Chinese artist Jason Wing
12:19and Aboriginal artist Amanda Gibbs.
12:22The serpent is symbolic of the Aboriginal dream time.
12:28The dragon symbolises East Asian immigration to Australia.
12:34And, to me, what it says is that the Gadigal land welcomed our people when we didn't have a home.
12:41And, for me, it reflects what it means to be Chinese Australian or Asian Australian.
12:48It is a love letter to Chinatown from us, from the artist and from the community.
12:58Well, Rick, it would be remiss of me as a Cantonese person not to take you to yum cha.
13:06Yum cha, I love yum cha.
13:07You love yum cha?
13:08Yeah, yeah.
13:09You know it means drink tea? Are you ready to drink some tea with me?
13:12I'm more than ready, yes.
13:14I prefer it to beer, actually.
13:16Did you really just say that?
13:17Yes, I did, I did.
13:18I heard it here first.
13:20Yum cha is a classic South Chinese brunch in which an array of small share plates are served along with tea.
13:30Here at the Royal Palace Seafood Restaurant, trolleys piled high with dumplings and other delicacies offer their wares to a packed crowd.
13:40Yum cha may have started as a Cantonese tradition, but it's become a popular Sydney institution.
13:47A few things you need to know before we start. We need a game plan.
13:52Because you look like the way you do, they're going to look at you and think that all you want to eat is a deep fried spring roll.
13:57And they're going to want to put their steamer baskets on this table.
14:01Right.
14:02And they want us to say, yes, we want it.
14:04But yum cha is about learning to say no.
14:07Oh, yes, I've seen that.
14:09I get what you're saying.
14:10Yeah, right.
14:11Yeah, yeah.
14:12Because I'll order everything.
14:13You want to avoid a situation where you end up with seven plates of fried food.
14:17Yeah.
14:18Today we want to have a combination of fried, hand fried, deep fried, but also steamed.
14:27What are your favourites when you go to yum cha?
14:29Dumplings, really.
14:30OK, like a steamed kind of situation.
14:32Steamed, yeah, yeah, yeah.
14:34Oh, these look good, Rick. Look at that.
14:36They do.
14:37A little crab roe on top.
14:40Is that what you had in mind when you think of yum cha?
14:42Yeah, yeah, yeah.
14:43Classic two dishes of yum cha.
14:44We literally say them all together.
14:46Prawn dumpling, pork dumpling.
14:49So already we have ticked the box of a very basic yum cha fundamental.
14:54Right.
14:55What about some tea?
14:56We're going to combine a chrysanthemum and flower tea with a pu-erh, which is like a kind of dark tea.
15:04It's a blend I've never tried before.
15:11That's really nice.
15:12You like it?
15:13Yeah.
15:14So, go for it.
15:15Be my guest.
15:16Good.
15:17After talking about Asian food all morning, I finally get to eat some.
15:22And it's been worth the wait.
15:24How is that?
15:25Good?
15:26Thank you so much.
15:28Oh, that looks really nice.
15:30A yum cha staple.
15:32Chinese greens with oyster sauce.
15:34Simple and delicious.
15:36Try that on the sides.
15:38This is taro on the outside.
15:40Now, taro is like a root vegetable that's extremely stodgy, even more so than a potato.
15:45A taro dumpling filled with ground pork and fried.
15:50This is taro.
15:51This one is one of my favourite dishes.
15:53Right.
15:54And inside here is the fried dough stick that you know from having congee, right?
15:59Yeah, yeah.
16:00Try it.
16:01Just try it while it's hot.
16:02It's got the fried dough stick in the middle.
16:05It's so good.
16:10I love that.
16:11Well, and the textures.
16:13I mean, that's the whole point, isn't it?
16:14I know.
16:15I know.
16:16But also, I love the fried taste.
16:18Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
16:19That's what I love about Chinese food is just making something out of the humblest bits.
16:24And what could be more humble than chicken feet?
16:27And then you eat it closer to your mouth then.
16:30You can bring the bowl up to your mouth as well in Cantonese, yeah.
16:33So, this is a really good one to eat while it's piping hot.
16:37It's delicious.
16:38Boiled with a range of spices including star anise and fermented black beans.
16:44What's that saying about the only thing we don't eat are the legs off the table or something?
16:48Yeah, yeah.
16:54One more cup of tea for the road.
16:57What have you thought about today?
16:59I've so enjoyed it, really.
17:02It's always about the theatre of it, the enjoyment of it, the conviviality of it.
17:07And you've got this really large restaurant full of all races under the sun almost.
17:13And everybody's having fun because the whole service is so enjoyable.
17:20I think just asking myself the question, is this what makes Australian food so special?
17:33Yes, indeed it is.
17:34Because I just think that the general assimilation of something like Cantonese cooking and yum cha into the sort of national identity is what is so special about Australia.
17:47I'm taking my exploration of Asian food in Sydney a step further and heading deeper into the city's historic streets and alleyways.
18:00I want to know if Australians are simply embracing Chinese food or going further and making it their own.
18:09And I'm meeting a chef who I've heard is daring to do just that.
18:13Dan Hong grew up in his family's Vietnamese restaurant in Sydney.
18:17He's now taking much-loved Cantonese dishes and serving them up with his own twist in his fine dining restaurant, Mr. Wong.
18:26Hey, Rick.
18:30Dan.
18:31Very nice to meet you.
18:32You too.
18:33Welcome to Mr. Wong.
18:34Oh my gosh.
18:35It's really atmospheric.
18:39We opened 12 years ago.
18:40We wanted to replicate almost like 1940s or 50s Shanghai.
18:45Rates.
18:46Yeah.
18:47Sort of Empire of the Sun type stuff.
18:49Yeah.
18:50We wanted a great experience where the service was good.
18:54We had a really good wine list.
18:56Yeah.
18:57We had really good desserts and we wanted to use the best produce in Australia.
19:04So I've just got to ask you this because it is a bit pricey.
19:07I mean, you could get sort of similar Cantonese food in Chinatown for half the price.
19:12You are right.
19:14But I'm trying to normalise people paying, you know, the same amounts for Chinese food than they do, let's say, for an Italian restaurant.
19:22Our dim sum team, these guys dedicate their lives to making dumplings.
19:26Yeah.
19:27You'd pay the same amount for three tortellinis made by an apprentice.
19:32Yeah, yeah.
19:33You are preaching to the converted because, you know, I mean, Chinese food is so special.
19:38Why shouldn't you pay the same money as Italian or French?
19:42Exactly.
19:43And it seems Dan is elevating the Cantonese classics from Peking duck to cha su.
19:50Traditionally used for barbecue pork, Dan's found a new use for this red barbecue glaze.
19:56So this is my signature Glacier 51 cha su roasted toothfish.
20:02I came up with this dish because toothfish is such a rich fish.
20:07It's almost like the Wagyu of the sea.
20:10And expensive.
20:11Very expensive.
20:12Over a hundred dollars a kilo.
20:14Really?
20:15Yeah.
20:16This is the traditional cha su marinade.
20:18Yeah.
20:19So there's just six ingredients.
20:20So in goes the fermented tofu.
20:24And with all the juice.
20:28And then the hoisin sauce.
20:32And this ground bean paste as well.
20:34This is somewhat sweet as well.
20:37And then just a little bit of the red food coloring.
20:40And that's very quite traditional.
20:42Yeah.
20:43And this is the rose wine.
20:46Oh.
20:47Tis it. Tis heady stuff.
20:48Yeah.
20:49Lovely.
20:50And then just the sesame oil.
20:53So it's very simple once you've got the ingredients.
20:56Very simple.
20:57And then slowly whisk in all the ingredients together.
21:02Smell that rose.
21:03And will that come out in the final dish that day?
21:05Yeah.
21:06I mean it all will come out.
21:07Yeah.
21:08This is quite a strong marinade.
21:09Yeah.
21:10That's why after we marinate we actually wash the marinade off.
21:15Okay.
21:16So here's the toothfish.
21:17Fabulous.
21:18Fabulous.
21:19Can I have a look at the skin side?
21:20Just see what it...
21:21Yeah.
21:23Wow.
21:24What an absolutely beautiful fish.
21:27Sustainably caught 4,000 kilometers off the coast of Australia, deep in Antarctic waters.
21:34All I'm doing is just cutting it into I'd say about 200 gram strips like so and then I'll just take the skin off.
21:45Well the skin is actually really delicious and gelatinous but the marinade has such a high sugar content it tends to burn.
21:52Once we marinate this it needs to sit for 48 hours to really let that marinade penetrate in.
22:03So what we have here this is the finished after two days and you can feel it's a lot firmer.
22:09So it looks very lovely.
22:10And then we just skewer it and then we cook it over on the charcoal grill.
22:15Right.
22:17Put it on like so.
22:19And we just want to get some color on both sides.
22:21Yeah.
22:22Yeah.
22:23Before we finish it off in the oven.
22:25Oh look at that.
22:26Oh brilliant.
22:27And then we're just going to finish it in the oven for about two minutes.
22:30Of course.
22:35So basically I'm just going to drizzle some honey over it.
22:38Just honey that.
22:39Just honey.
22:40This is straight honey.
22:44And that's just like char siu pork.
22:51Alright.
22:52My char siu tooth fish let me serve you.
22:54Oh thank you very much Dan.
22:58Fabulous.
23:00It's firm but soft at the same time.
23:02Yeah.
23:11It's exquisite.
23:13There's a perfect balance of flavor and texture.
23:17The clean succulents of the fish offset by the sticky sweet char of the glaze.
23:22That is just you know.
23:24I mean Australia is very lucky.
23:27Yeah.
23:28I think you could only do this in Australia because it just happens to be from Australia.
23:33Great.
23:35You know while I was watching you I was thinking how can I get this to England because you know.
23:39How can I get this fish but it wouldn't be the same.
23:42It's Australian.
23:43So what inspires you I mean this obviously inspires you I mean I'm inspired by everything that I eat from the finest Michelin star Chinese restaurants to you know humble street food.
23:58And then even just in Australia especially in Sydney just these new waves of migrants coming in.
24:05It's not just Cantonese it's Sichuan it's Hunan it's Yunan and that's what really inspires me and really excites me about Sydney.
24:14Fabulous.
24:15That's enough talking.
24:16Let's get back to this is it's sensational.
24:25I could spend days exploring the city in its many restaurants.
24:28But I must admit what first drew me to Sydney wasn't its food but its beaches.
24:35On the edge of the Pacific Ocean Sydney boasts some of the most famous surf beaches in the world.
24:43And I couldn't wait to experience them for myself.
24:45Even then in the 60s Sydney's ocean beaches were crowded with some lovers surfers and swimmers.
24:58I loved it.
25:05But as I've discovered there are also hundreds of more secluded beaches dotted all over the city's 55 square kilometer harbour.
25:16Each with their own unique charm.
25:19And I'm heading to one of these beaches right now on what's known as Middle Harbour.
25:25To visit an old friend who's painted Sydney's coastal life to international acclaim.
25:31He's actually one of Australia's most famous artists.
25:35Ken Doan.
25:37I started getting a real appreciation of Ken Doan's work in the 80s when he was doing all those iconic paintings of the harbour bridge.
25:45And the beaches and the sun and the colour.
25:49It just said everything to me about Sydney in Australia.
25:54Ken's lived and painted here for more than 50 years.
25:56Morning.
25:57Hi mate.
25:58Nice to see you again.
25:59Very nice to see you.
26:00I've never been here before.
26:01It's fabulous.
26:02It's a unique part of Sydney Harbour.
26:03It's called The Cabin.
26:04And it's the source of a lot of the early paintings came from the feeling of being here or the feeling of looking at it.
26:05Of looking at the sea or looking at the yachts.
26:06And it's the source of the beach.
26:07And it's the source of the early paintings came from the feeling of being here.
26:09Morning.
26:12Hi, mate.
26:13Nice to see you again.
26:14Very nice to see you.
26:15I've never been here before.
26:17It's fabulous.
26:18It's a unique part of Sydney Harbour.
26:22It's called The Cabin.
26:25And it's the source of a lot of the early paintings,
26:28came from the feeling of being here
26:30or the feeling of looking at the sea
26:33and looking at the yachts in all kinds of weather.
26:37So you've lived here for 60 years.
26:40Have you seen lots of changes in Sydney generally over that time?
26:43The buildings are taller and the city's more compact.
26:48I'm feeling older, but it's still a great place to live.
26:53Well, I couldn't agree more.
26:54I mean, for me, I came here in the late 60s
26:58and compared with sort of grey England,
27:03this was just, well, it was just like how you paint.
27:06I just love going into artist studios.
27:14It's just so interesting.
27:16And that's what you're working on now.
27:18That's the painting I work on at the moment.
27:20It's another reef painting.
27:22Not so much what it literally looks like,
27:25but what it feels like.
27:27And, you know, it's an opportunity to just show beautiful colours.
27:32Yeah.
27:33Like, I'm not as good as a five-year-old.
27:36Five-year-olds are unbeatable.
27:38Do you know what? I'll just tell you this.
27:40I was filming with a guy in Cornwall, an artist,
27:43and I said to him, you know, people might say a five-year-old could do that.
27:47And he said, exactly. That's what I'm trying to get back to.
27:50It's true.
27:51I'm better than most eight-year-olds,
27:53but five-year-olds are unbeatable.
27:56In the 80s, you were so big time,
28:01because you had all those, you know,
28:03iconic Sydney Harbour Beach pictures,
28:06but then they were giving you a hard time for being too commercial.
28:11Yeah.
28:12Well, I think unless you have an independent income as an artist,
28:16you need to make money.
28:18I've made 12 T-shirts with a drawing of Sydney Harbour on them.
28:22People like them very much.
28:24Vogue liked them very much.
28:26That led to other things,
28:28but I didn't ever see them as selling out.
28:30I always saw it as selling in.
28:34I promised Ken I'd make him lunch while I'm here,
28:36with a dish inspired by another colourful coastal location.
28:41Got the recipe from the Yucatan in Mexico
28:43with two fishermen just doing it on board their little fishing boat.
28:47And it's a ceviche of kingfish and cooked prawns.
28:54So, first of all, the kingfish.
28:56Just going to cut it into chunks, I suppose is the right word.
28:59Chunks.
29:00Like that.
29:01If you can't get kingfish, you can use tuna or salmon.
29:06So, there's my kingfish all ready to go.
29:10And now I've got some prawns.
29:12Actually, in the original recipe, they didn't do the prawns,
29:15but I'm putting prawns in as well just to make it a bit more interesting.
29:19Just a bit of seasoning on there.
29:21And now for all important lime juice.
29:25And this is what actually cooks the fish.
29:28It's amazing the way the lime, the citrus,
29:31does actually turn the fish translucent with the cooking process.
29:38And now for the other ingredients.
29:40First, an echelot, which in the UK we call a shallot.
29:44I think just half an echelot will be perfectly satisfactory.
29:49Put that on top like that.
29:52And now chilies.
29:54And originally the recipe was for habanero chilies,
29:57but they are quite hot.
30:00Even if you take the seeds out, they're still pretty hot.
30:03So, this is a jalapeno chili.
30:05I would say they're sort of medium heat on what they call the Scoville scale,
30:11which is the way you measure the hotness of chilies.
30:16And habaneros are number 10.
30:18Jalapenos be about six.
30:22And now some nice tomatoes.
30:25Again, just chopped.
30:26I mean, what I like about this dish is very sort of impromptu.
30:29It's almost like sort of preparing for a picnic, really.
30:33I just think the whole joy of this dish is the sort of ruggedness of it, really.
30:42Now, avocado.
30:43And again, this wasn't in the original recipe,
30:45but I just thought it would make for a lovely addition.
30:50So, chop those up into chunks.
30:54The last ingredient is coriander.
30:57I can chop it, but I'm just going to tear it up.
31:00So, that looks pretty nice.
31:02I mean, you'll note that the fish still looks a bit raw,
31:05but seriously, that's how I like it.
31:08When you taste it, it doesn't taste raw.
31:11But if you leave it too long, it'll go overcooked.
31:14And it's much better like this.
31:21Yeah, it looks fabulous.
31:23I hope so.
31:24Oh, such a nice, fresh taste, isn't it?
31:28It is.
31:29And this fish is fabulous.
31:30I have to say, this is the life, isn't it?
31:42It's going to be bad, isn't it?
31:43That's right.
31:44That's right.
31:53Sydney is a city defined by its waterways,
31:56and I'm making my way over another part of the harbour
31:59across the Anzac Bridge.
32:01I'm heading to Sydney's Western Suburbs
32:04for the Sydney Markets in Homebush West.
32:07It's just 15km from the centre of the city,
32:10and I would call it the stomach of Sydney.
32:17This is the largest fruit and vegetable market in the country.
32:21On Fridays and weekends, its retail arm is open to the public,
32:26and I can't think of a better place
32:28to see how Australian food is changing.
32:30I can see there's lots more variety of vegetables here
32:34than you'd probably get in a normal supermarket.
32:37There's about 1,500 stalls here
32:40selling almost every kind of fresh produce you can imagine,
32:44including some I've never seen before.
32:46Excuse me, what are these?
32:49Long ends.
32:50It turns out long ends are similar to lychees,
32:53just one of the many tropical fruit on this stall.
32:56Collinis.
32:58I haven't seen Collinis before,
33:00but they look like a sort of...
33:02a bit of a riff on cauliflowers.
33:04Fabulous, fabulous.
33:06And it's not just the variety.
33:08Everything here looks bigger and brighter.
33:11I mean, look at those peppers there.
33:13Doesn't that make you want to eat them?
33:15You just don't get passion fruit like that back home.
33:18Look at those chestnuts there.
33:20I mean, you know, I've never seen chestnuts as big as that in Europe.
33:23Somebody's immediately going to say,
33:25well, you haven't been to northern Spain then, have you?
33:28This market has been influencing Australian taste for generations.
33:34And in the time I've been visiting Australia, it's grown enormously.
33:41Already in the 60s and 70s, the market and its produce was being shaped by people from different culinary backgrounds.
33:49From Chinese market gardeners to post-war migrants from Italy and Greece.
33:57Their enthusiasm for their favourite staples was transforming the Australian palate.
34:03Today, these families, with a long history here, are still well represented.
34:08Hi, good morning. How are you?
34:10Very, very well. Very nice to meet you.
34:12How long have you been selling in this lovely market?
34:15Well, my father-in-law started the business in 1940.
34:191940?
34:201940.
34:21So we've been...
34:22So you've been...
34:23You've been...
34:24A long, long time.
34:26Eileen Yip is the fourth generation of a family of Cantonese Australian market traders who specialise in onions, garlic and potatoes.
34:36Born in Sydney, she's been running the family business for over 20 years.
34:41What changes have you seen in the market then?
34:43The face of the Australian person has now changed.
34:46So you see a variety of fruit and interesting vegetables that you wouldn't have seen before.
34:53I've noticed, yeah, absolutely.
34:54We have about...
34:56Oh, it could be about 36 varieties of potatoes.
34:59Great!
35:00Eileen tells me her potatoes cater for Sydney-siders from all different backgrounds.
35:05I mean, I'm very interested in this one.
35:07Yeah.
35:08Well, this is a great Peruvian one.
35:10Yeah.
35:11See the two-tone of the colours?
35:12Yeah.
35:13It's a great hit with people from Peru.
35:15They can't get enough of it.
35:17At the moment, this is all that we have left.
35:19Sometimes they will buy cartons of it.
35:22It's not cheap, $7 a kilo.
35:24So where would they be grown these days?
35:26Tasmania.
35:27What is that?
35:28Is that a big royal blue or that's not a...?
35:30No.
35:31This is purple bliss.
35:32Purple bliss.
35:33Sometimes it comes purple Congo.
35:35It's another in-demand South American potato, now grown in Australia.
35:42It would seem as a taste of home here for almost everyone.
35:46I'd just like to try your best flavoured apple here.
35:50The best flavoured apple at the moment is the Fuji.
35:52This apple is nice and crunchy and it doesn't oxidise.
35:57It won't go brown after you cut it.
36:00That's Australia for you.
36:01You're developing something that doesn't oxidise.
36:04Yeah.
36:05I mean, that's delicious.
36:07How long have you had this store for?
36:09Well, come August this year, it's going to be 44 years I've done this.
36:12Where are you from originally?
36:14I was born in Sydney but my background is Italian.
36:17Oh, wow.
36:18There we go.
36:19And I've had my grandfather and my father doing this business and then I've taken over.
36:23And I just loved it.
36:25That's so interesting because I think really the sort of immigrant communities over the years
36:31have made so much difference to Australian food.
36:34Oh, they have.
36:35They have.
36:36It's sort of brought ideas and brought quality as well.
36:40We had the cactus pear.
36:42You know, the pickled pear.
36:43Absolutely.
36:44In Calabria you've had the cactus.
36:45In Calabria you had it.
36:46It was growing perfectly everywhere.
36:47Yeah.
36:48Here it was the noxious weed.
36:49Yeah.
36:50Now it's a delicacy.
36:51Yeah.
36:52Which is unbelievable.
36:53So now, almost obviously, I'm keen to see what the new communities are cooking.
37:02And also, can they cook in the same way as they cook back at home?
37:12Since I first visited in 1966, Sydney has more than doubled in size, growing from a city
37:19of just over 2 million to more than 5 million people.
37:24And many live here in Western Sydney.
37:27About half the people here were born overseas and more than a third speak a language other
37:33than English at home.
37:35I'm curious to see how this multiculturalism is shaping the culinary landscape.
37:40I've come to the conclusion, often visiting many cities, that if you really want to know
37:45what's going on with food in a city, you get out of the centre, you get out of where all
37:50the sort of glitz and glamorous restaurants are, and you head for somewhere like here,
37:55the inner west.
37:57I'm meeting a journalist called Nick Jordan.
38:00He's created a digital guide to the more than 150 different cuisines that you can find in Sydney.
38:08And he's suggested we meet at a small Australian Filipino cafe called Tita.
38:14Nick, hi.
38:15Hi, Rick. Nice to meet you.
38:16Very nice to meet you.
38:17I'm curious to get Nick's take on the city's next big food trend.
38:23This is my idea of what the future is, because this is...
38:28It looks Filipino to everyone, but it's also Australian.
38:31And it represents a lot of people's experience in Australia with Filipino ancestry.
38:36Cafe owner Ken Rodriguez moved to Sydney with his mother nearly 20 years ago.
38:42He's making us his signature dish using traditional Filipino sausage called longanitsa.
38:53So we make our own longanitsa in-house, so it's just pork mince, brown sugar, paprika,
38:58pepper, and salt.
39:00It's our version of an Australian breakfast roll.
39:02Yeah.
39:05Oh, beautiful.
39:06This is exactly what I was talking about.
39:08It's part Australian.
39:09It's part Filipino.
39:10It's a bacon and egg roll, but it's got Filipino sausage.
39:13And this here, it looks like ketchup.
39:15You can see here.
39:16Yeah.
39:17This is a...
39:18This is like quite an interesting Filipino sauce made with banana.
39:23Banana ketchup was invented in the Philippines during World War II,
39:27when tomatoes were scarce and imported food expensive.
39:31But there were plenty of cheap bananas.
39:34It's made with banana puree, sugar, vinegar, and local spices.
39:44Scrumptious.
39:45It's very Moorish.
39:46Mm.
39:47It's unique to here.
39:48Like, I don't think anyone is serving this in the Philippines in this same style.
39:53I don't think it would be very common in many other countries.
39:55I like that this is a Sydney food.
39:58And it's cafes like this that Nick is bringing to people's attention in his digital guide.
40:03Everything is divided by cuisine.
40:04Yeah.
40:05And when I say cuisine, I don't mean just Thai, for instance.
40:07Yeah, yeah.
40:08It's divided into Southern Thai, Northern Thai, Central Thai.
40:12So we have a list of...
40:13There's more than 150 different cuisines on here.
40:16You can see, look, this Chinese is like divided into its many different regional specialities.
40:21And if you click on any of these, say, Fujin, there's not many of these restaurants, but it's one I particularly like.
40:27And you zoom out and you can see, there you are.
40:29These are the sort of Fujinese restaurants in Sydney that are really valued by people from that region.
40:36I must say, it must be such a fascinating job.
40:39Why did you suddenly decide to go into food in such depth?
40:43It was people.
40:45And wanting to hear a lot of different stories, food is just an easy way to get into that.
40:50It so is.
40:51This is a very multicultural society.
40:53Yeah.
40:54But people might not be engaging with it.
40:56And I hope food is a very easy way for people to experience another culture and another cuisine and meet other people.
41:03I think that's what's so exciting about cooking in Sydney, really.
41:06This sort of ease which people have of ideas from other cuisines, really.
41:13It's all moving.
41:20Nick's sending me to a place that he says has been instrumental in helping newcomers from different backgrounds take their first steps into the Sydney food scene.
41:35It's a not-for-profit organisation called Food Lab, and it's run by Jamie Loveday.
41:41Rick.
41:42Very nice to meet you.
41:43Nice to meet you.
41:44Welcome to our kitchen.
41:45What a kitchen.
41:46I didn't quite expect it to be so pristine and such nice equipment.
41:52Well, we're very proud of that.
41:54Well, I bet you are.
41:55Gosh.
41:56Sort of makes my kitchen look a bit sort of second rate, really.
41:59We get told we're the cleanest kitchen in Sydney.
42:02Really?
42:03Very proud of that.
42:04So Food Lab, just tell me what it's all about.
42:09We're a co-working commercial kitchen for refugee, migrant women and First Nations people.
42:14Wow.
42:15And we also run a business training program to help people go from an informal business to a formal, scalable food business in Sydney.
42:23So really, you're helping sort of very small-time entrepreneurs to do things properly, I guess.
42:30Yeah.
42:31Teach people the basics of safety, food regulations, tax law, finance and all of that.
42:38But I guess what's interesting to me is that you're right at the sort of cutting edge of what's coming into this country, really, in terms of food.
42:45And the cutting edge of talent as well.
42:47Talent.
42:48The entrepreneurs in our kitchen today are cooking, I believe, some of the best food that you can get in Sydney, in Australia.
42:56I can see a few cooks beavering away here, and I'm keen to taste what they're making.
43:02Hi, how are you?
43:03Very well.
43:04How are you?
43:05I'm good.
43:06What are you cooking?
43:07Biryani, chicken biryani.
43:08I love a biryani.
43:10Yes, this is for my signature dish.
43:12This biryani can teach my for my grandmother.
43:15Great.
43:16Nadia brought this recipe with her from Islamabad when she moved here a few years ago.
43:22Smelling so nice.
43:24Her cooking has been such a hit with her Pakistani friends that she's starting her own catering business.
43:31And Food Lab is providing her with the commercial kitchen she needs.
43:36And this is for my homemade masala.
43:39Great.
43:40Is that cinnamon?
43:41Yes.
43:42Got a whole chunk.
43:43I put my, this masala is in layer by layer.
43:48So it's more flavoury and the smell is very good.
43:51Aha.
43:52And now finally is decoration time.
43:55And put in the stove.
43:57How long, how long for them?
43:59This one is in 15 minutes.
44:0115 minutes?
44:02Yes, 15 in...
44:03Low heat.
44:04Low heat, yeah.
44:05Oh, that's lovely.
44:10Gosh, what a lovely aroma.
44:13Can I try some?
44:14Yes, yes, of course.
44:15Perfect.
44:16Thank you very much.
44:22That is so good.
44:25Quite hot.
44:26Yeah.
44:27I mean, chilli hot, but I'm loving that.
44:30There's cinnamon in there.
44:33The chicken is so succulent.
44:37Pop.
44:39Perfectly cooked.
44:40Love it.
44:41Love it.
44:47I'm returning to where I started, the birthplace of this city on the harbour's edge.
44:52I've been struck by the range of influences born out of its history that are finding their way onto the main stage of Sydney's food scene.
45:01Well, I must say it's very nice for me to be back at the Opera House because I cooked here once on stage. It was a very special occasion for me, I can tell you.
45:10I'm here today to meet a First Nations chef I've heard a lot about.
45:17Mark Olive has spent more than 20 years bringing native ingredients into the culinary spotlight.
45:24Rick, how are you?
45:25Very, very well.
45:29His flagship restaurant, Middon, now occupies prime position on the site where Aboriginal people traditionally gathered to meet and eat.
45:37Cheers.
45:38Cheers.
45:39Cheers.
45:40Now, over a native plum margarita, Mark is going to introduce me to some of his favourite herbs.
45:47So what have we got here then?
45:48Ice plant, samphire, cacalla, lemon myrtle, salt, bush and water seed.
45:55Cheers, Payne.
45:58Got the lemon myrtle.
45:59Take a leaf.
46:00Now what I want you to do is crush it, bruise it, rub it in your hand, warm that warm hand.
46:06Yeah.
46:07Get all of that oil coming out of that.
46:09Yeah.
46:11Now smell.
46:13Isn't that yummy?
46:14Mmm.
46:15Mark uses its intense citrusy eucalypt flavour to season many of the meat and fish dishes he serves.
46:23Now have you heard of an ice plant?
46:25No, I haven't.
46:27Now look, this is really going to blow your mind.
46:30And when you look at it.
46:32It's got ice on it.
46:33It feels like it's got, looks like it's got ice.
46:36Yeah.
46:37Now just throw it in your mouth.
46:38Just bung it in.
46:42Isn't that amazing?
46:43It's got so much moisture in it.
46:44It's like, oh, really nice lemony sort of tart in the ocean.
46:50But this is great with seafood, even beef, you know, like a beef fillet.
46:55It's really nice.
46:56You get that nice crunch, but that saltiness really flavours that fillet as well.
47:00It's amazing what you can do with these different flavours and the different textures.
47:05Before we go any further, Mark served me a local spanner crab tart with native herbs.
47:14Delicious.
47:16That he sourced from all over Australia.
47:22So how did you learn about all these ingredients?
47:24I had to do a lot of research, understanding what foods were around here, speaking to welders.
47:29So it was a good 10 years.
47:32Out there scratching around and looking and trying different things.
47:37Mark's research and determination has helped him gather traditional food knowledge
47:42and elevate native ingredients to their rightful place in the contemporary Australian pantry.
47:49And his innovation continues with dessert.
47:52A macadamia semifredo served with preserved pink lily pillies, or rye berries, as they're often called.
48:01I love these rye berries.
48:02They're beautiful, aren't they? They've got a nice crunch. The fresh ones too.
48:06And they're slightly astringent in the middle. I presume it's a seed.
48:10But it's the seed.
48:11A lot of people are growing this stuff in their backyard now, which is one, exciting,
48:17but two, it's just going to make our food scene here much more richer.
48:21It's really nice. I mean, apart from anything, it looks so pretty.
48:24You know, that's part of the thing with a sweet, isn't it?
48:27It's got to look great, but that tastes really lovely.
48:29You know, it was always seen as bush tucker.
48:33Yeah.
48:34So, you know, you just pull it straight out and you eat it.
48:37That's what people's perception of eating kangaroo was like.
48:40It sort of used to be a novelty, and now you've made it something quite serious,
48:44which, good for you.
48:46I really appreciate that, Rick. Thank you.
48:48Cheers.
48:50Cheers, Rick, and thanks for being here.
48:51When I first arrived in Australia, I was quite a sort of sheltered young person, teenager,
49:04and a bit shy.
49:06Australian life really sort of grew me up in a way.
49:11It gave me the confidence to try new things,
49:15and I'm feeling that same kind of energy and excitement now.
49:18So, this is a nod to Chinatown, and the dish I'm making is salt and pepper crab,
49:24with a side order of bok choy and oyster sauce.
49:31So, first of all, three chillies.
49:34And what I'm doing here is just taking some what I would call finger chillies
49:39and slicing them reasonably thinly.
49:42Right, so there's my chillies.
49:45Next, some spring onions.
49:46This time cut into sort of, I don't know, two, three centimetre length, something like that.
49:52This is all for my stir fry.
49:55And now, some shallots, which I'm just going to slice in this case.
50:01Next, some garlic.
50:06Just slicing.
50:07And lastly, some ginger.
50:09Just going to...
50:10So, that's all my veg ready.
50:12Now, the other and the most important flavour element in salt and pepper crab is salt and pepper.
50:30Just running round here, we've got MSG, five spice, sugar, Szechuan peppercorns, salt, white peppercorns.
50:42So, just going to tip this into a mini mortar and pestle.
50:45But if you're using a spice grinder, just turn it off before everything is turned into a powder.
50:53So, that's nice. It's got a little bit of texture there.
50:55I could just pour that right over the veg.
50:57So, next phase, I've got here a couple of blue swimmer crabs.
51:04I'll just show you how to take the back off them.
51:09If you're making the same dish in the UK, you use brown crabs.
51:14But you don't have to feel that you need to use just crab to make this dish.
51:19You can make it very easily also with squid or calamari or indeed prawns.
51:28OK, now there we go.
51:29Now, the only sort of bit that I would need to take out of this are what we call the gills.
51:33And that's these sort of feathery things on either side.
51:38What I'm pulling out now is the stomach.
51:40That's just behind the eyes.
51:42You don't want that.
51:43It's full of grit and nastiness.
51:46So, the next thing I'm going to do is break off the claws.
51:50And that's where there's some lovely meat, by the way.
51:52Breaking off the claws.
51:55Like that.
51:57And now I'm also going to just take the mouth out there.
52:00But the rest of it, I'm going to cut up.
52:04So, just cut the crab in half like that.
52:07And then just cut each half in half.
52:11And that's ready to go.
52:12The great thing about blue swimmer crabs is the shell is quite soft.
52:16So, it's quite easy to extract the meat from the shell.
52:21And I just really like the whole business of chewing on a crab leg.
52:25While I'm talking to people.
52:27And now for the claws.
52:29And they do need a bit of a crack.
52:34Touch like that.
52:36Because it makes it much easier to get the meat out.
52:39Note I'm just cracking every joint.
52:42So, now we're ready to go and dip the crab pieces in cornflour.
52:50And then deep fry them.
52:52I'm just checking the temperature.
52:53And you do really need some sort of thermometer.
52:55You can use a piece of bread just dropped in.
52:58And it comes up to the surface.
53:00Frying very quickly.
53:01You know you're up to temperature.
53:03Here with the thermometer, I'm on about 180 degrees.
53:06Which is fine.
53:07It'll cook very quickly.
53:09So, now I'm just dredging the crab just in cornflour.
53:13And I find flour just doesn't really crisp up enough.
53:17Cornflour does.
53:19So, I can start frying the crab now as I do the rest of it.
53:23So, just dropping it in.
53:30Just note that I haven't got a lot of oil in that.
53:35And the reason for that is that there's still quite a lot of moisture in this crab.
53:40If I put too much oil in it would go over the side and you'd be in all kinds of trouble.
53:45I don't need to fry this for very long simply because the crab's already cooked.
53:49So, all I'm really doing is trying to crisp up the crab.
53:58That's looking good now.
54:00These can come out.
54:02Now for a bit of stir-frying.
54:05First some oil.
54:07My hot wok.
54:09And then all these, the salt and pepper mixture.
54:13All in at once.
54:26Stir and fry, stir and fry.
54:29So, that's pretty good.
54:32Driven off some of the moisture but I like a bit of crispiness in the, in the stir-fry as well.
54:38So, in that goes the crab.
54:40Just a bit of stir and frying.
54:49And then we're ready to serve that up.
54:53And now for the bok choy.
55:00Into my boiling water.
55:02Two or three minutes only.
55:04Just a, always like a bit of crunchiness in my bok choy.
55:15That looks very nice.
55:16So, now we've got some oyster sauce to go just over the top.
55:21Like that.
55:23And some soy sauce.
55:26Not too much.
55:27Teaspoon or so.
55:30And finally, a bit of roasted sesame oil.
55:34I love this veg.
55:35It goes so well with the crab.
55:37Classic combination I'd say.
55:39I really like this Chinese dish.
55:44That it's crisp.
55:46And that it's dry.
55:47You can pick it up in your fingers.
55:48And that's a great way of eating crab like this.
55:51Probably the only way.
55:53Try it with a knife and a fork.
55:54You'll see what I mean.
55:57And you can bite on it.
55:59It's delicious.
56:01You've got lovely sort of back flavours of the five spice,
56:04the white peppercorns, the Sichuan pepper.
56:08It's a perfect dish for me.
56:10And then, contrast.
56:13Just the sort of softness and wetness of this bok choy.
56:24Great Chinese food is all about simplicity.
56:27You can't get much simpler than that.
56:29It just brings out the best in the crab.
56:30And then this lovely, luscious bok choy to go with it.
56:34I'm in heaven.
56:43Next time, I'm heading north to the central coast
56:47to see how the great Australian outdoors is shaping how it live.
56:54Play.
56:55Now I'm ready to go.
56:57And eat.
56:58I'm going to just sit here and cook my kangaroo and bacon.
57:02Bloody good chicken.
57:05That's great.
57:06Very good with a beer.
57:07Absolutely.
57:08Continue to cook.
57:09I'm going to turn the pan out.
57:11Like we can.
57:12I'm going to go.
57:13Nice and heat.
57:14And I'm going to take a bit.
57:15We'll be right now.
57:22Make sure you want to call those exports.
57:23You're welcome.
57:24And you are welcome.
57:26I'm going to be right back now.
57:28We will be right back.
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