01x08 - Taste Of The Top End

[bunniefuu]

I'm Jimmy Shu.

My parents were Chinese
but I grew up in Sri Lanka,

working in my dad's restaurant,
and I've been a foodie ever since.

Nearly 30 years ago.

I moved to Darwin in
the Northern Territory,

in the top end of Australia,
to open my restaurant, Hanuman.

And this tropical city has
had my heart ever since.

Closer to Asia than any other
Australian capital city,

the top end is a rich melting

pot of Indigenous culture,
the flavours of

Asian migration, and incredible
tropical produce, creating

a vibrant, dynamic food scene
that's one of Australia's

best kept secrets.

Wow, wow.

Welcome to my Taste of the
Territory.

From the time I got to the top end,
nearly 30 years ago,

the food scene here has grown
significantly and is evolving every

day as Darwin becomes more
and more cosmopolitan.

The diversity of new tropical
produce, the contemporary

fusion of Southeast

Asian flavours,
and the expl*si*n of

Indigenous ingredients,
has made the top end a foodies

paradise and an incredibly exciting
place to create and innovate,

for chefs like me.

And in this last episode,
we're going to celebrate the taste

of the top end at its very best.

Through this series,
I've introduced you to some

incredible top end foodies who've
shared their amazing stories

and food with me.

In this last episode, I thought I'd
tell you about my food journey.

I was born in Sri Lanka in 1949.

I was born into a restaurant family.

I grew up with the
smell of fried rice wafting around.

Prawns, crabs, even
ducks running around.

That was my childhood.

My father was one of the first few
Chinese to migrate to Sri Lanka.

And they were all silk peddlers.

So the silk came from China
and they were peddling

it around there.

The good old bicycle,
with a suitcase at the back.

Dad opened a restaurant
with 5,000 Rupees.

It's, I think, something like $50.

Very, very humble beginnings.

In order to get fire,
he used to hang around just

at the corner there,
waiting for these trucks laden

with coal, and the moment
they'd take this turn,

some pieces fall off the truck.

My father did a lot for us.

He used that coal
to fire his stoves.

So he had a fire, he had soya bean
sauce and he started off

with a Chinese restaurant...

Modern Chinese Cafe.

No looking back.

I think of myself as
a typical chop-suey kid.

Went to school, came back,
straight in the kitchens.

Being positioned in Colombo,
Sri Lanka, we also had to cook

for the local palate,
and that meant curries.

We made curry powders from scratch.

All the individual
ingredients, dry-roasted...

It was me who took it
to the grinding mills to be ground.

That was the time when I started
acquiring a taste and palate

for curries.

I came here to Australia
with just $50 in my pocket.

I don't know whether I'm
embarrassed to say it,

or whether I'm proud to say it.

My first job in Melbourne
was at the Park Royal Hotel.

I was just a kitchen hand.

So, that was the beginning
of my restaurant career.

From there, eventually,
I started a range of successful

restaurants across Melbourne.

And then in the early '90s,

I moved my whole life
to Darwin and opened Hanuman.

Hanuman is my life on a plate.

It's a culmination of my culinary
journey across Southeast Asia,

and my deep love for Indian,
Thai and Sri Lankan cuisine.

Hanuman is my life.

I breathe,

I smell it, I touch it.

Even in my sleep
I talk about Hanuman.

It has been a journey,
there's no doubt about it.

It's now almost 50 years I've
been in this country

which I call home.

My father is no longer with me.

But I'm sure he's looking over me.

He'd be very proud.

Today, I'm going to share a recipe
that's very close to my heart,

and represents my childhood.

It is a part of my Chinese heritage.

I think, to me, one
of the best Chinese dishes.

I've got here a very
lovely piece of pork belly.

Cut it along the ribs here.

Two pieces of bone,
four nice pieces here.

And I'm going to now
proceed with the marinade.

Now there's a lot of sugar
here, but you need that.

It all caramelises.

One-and-a-half cups of sugar.

The garlic, 90 grams, a tablespoon
full of salt, the Hoisin sauce -

a soya bean jam, I call it.

Anything you do with soya bean,
brings back memories

of my childhood.

The next ingredient
is the yellow soya beans.

In its raw form, that's
what it looks like.

And this one here is
half a cup of sherry.

I've used a dry sherry because we've
got enough of sugar here.

Dark soya sauce.

It is almost like a caramelised soya
sauce, and now that's what gives

the colour to the pork.

Fennel, cloves, cinnamon,
star anise, and my favourite,

the Sichuan Peppercorns.

And that's what makes this
amazing five-spice powder.

The hero ingredient.

Just a teaspoon of it.

Now what I need to do
here is to dissolve the sugar.

I could feel it's all ready
because there's no, sort of,

gritty sound at the bottom.

Lovely pieces of pork belly.

Give it a really good coating of it.

Here we are.

Skin-side down because that's
where I want all the flavours to be.

Now we're going to refrigerate
this for two solid days.

That way, it gives it time
for the marinade to penetrate

the meat and make it
very flavoursome.

Well, I've got some pre-marinated
pork belly, and I'm now

going to roast this over a rack,
and it's got some water at the base

there, to keep it moist.

I can get that smell.

Straight to the oven.


with the skin-side on top.

Its 30 minutes is up,
time to turn it the other way around

for another 10 minutes.

You can have this pork
belly any way you wish.

Today, I'm going to serve it
with some egg noodles tossed

in garlic oil.

Basically, I'm just blanching them.

Tossing it up in the air
to cool it down a bit,

to stop it from over-cooking.

And I want it, sort of, al dente.

I'm now going to blanch
a bit of the broccolini.

Just to give it that bit of colour.

Now in Hong Kong,
you would call it a dry noodle,

which means there is no soup.

But, it can be a little bit bland,
so all I'm doing now here,

you just season it.

A teaspoon of fried shallots,
a very good quality,

light, soya sauce, 3 teaspoons.

Half a teaspoon of your dark soya
sauce,

just to give it that little
bit of colour.

Just a little bit more than half
a teaspoon of sesame oil,

and a very generous two teaspoons
of freshly-made garlic oil.

It's looking good.

The noodles are done,
it's time to plate up.

Perfectly cooked.

And lovely browning
on the sides there.

It's shrunk.

It's nice and sticky, yummy.

The lovely green colour,
the browns, and, my surprise.

Red radishes, cut very thinly.

Pickled that in equal parts
of champagne vinegar and equal

parts of sugar.

It looks like a
chrysanthemum flower.

Five-spice, roast pork belly
with crunchy noodles,

broccolini and
pickled red radish.

This dish, to me, it's
comfort food.

It's food that everyone can enjoy.

I'm very passionate about sharing.

Food brings people together.

I believe I was put
on this earth here

for one thing, to put a smile
on everyone's tummy.

Food will always excite me.

There's always new
ingredients, new flavours.

So the pursuit will never end.

Nestled amongst the lush tropical
coastline of Darwin's East Point,

is Pee Wee's.

Simon Matthews and his wife, Lily,
opened Pee Wee's over 19 years ago.

And today, it's an icon
of Darwin's culinary landscape.

Under the helm of
Head Chef, Paul Joyce.

Pee Wee's is renowned for showcasing
the best of top end produce

and flavours, in incredibly
innovative ways.

Today though, I'm
spending the day with.

Pee Wee's young pastry chef,
Danny Giovanni, who I've been told

is a dessert wizard,
with a love for creating desserts

that combine avant-garde techniques
with local flavours.

So today we're going to make
a coconut panna cotta

in a white chocolate sphere.

So, I'm from Indonesia.

I like to mix all flavours together,
like Asian, but doing it

in a western style.

It's similar like what
we are doing today.

I'm infusing the lime zest
in the coconut panna cotta.

With Asian flavours.

- Nice.
- Mango and sesame.

We start with soaking the gelatine.

Soak it with iced water.

We pour the milk in,
into the pot, with the sugar.

And then we're gonna do the lime.

Wow, I can get the smell
of that lime zest.

It's very fresh, hey?

Pour the zest in.

Just to infuse it.

- It's not boiling, just simmer.
- Mm hm.

This gelatine is quite ready now.

We're going to squeeze it first,
get all of the excess of the water,

put it in there.

And then we're going to pour
the coconut cream in.

Everything will dissolve
into the milk and then we set it

in the cool room.

Danny. Why pastry?

Because for me, pastry
is more interesting.

You need to do it step-by-step,
a lot of techniques.

That's what I like to do.

We're gonna make
the chocolate shells.

Cocoa powder, and cocoa butter.

It's gonna be like a marble texture.

- It will stick onto the chocolate.
- Nice.

- So into this freezer here?
- Yes, please.

So we're going to temper
the chocolate now.

Put it on top here
with the boiling water.

Bring the chocolate to 45 degrees,
melt it, and bring it down

to 29 degrees.

So now we're going to
check the temperature.

It's 45 degrees now.

- Perfect.
- It's just perfect.

And then we keep stirring it to drop
it down to 29 degrees.

And that's the perfect
temperature to paint the mould.

It means it's gonna be hard,
and not melting in your hands.

It is very, very technical.

We're going to brush it
onto the mould, spin it around.

- A lot of steps.
- Yes.

It looks easy,
but it's actually not.

We're going to put this
back into the freezer.

Freeze again, oh.

Just for 2 minutes.

So now we're going to un-mould this.

There we go, shiny chocolate.

- That is beautiful.
- Yeah.

This is the panna cotta
that we made previously.

- Oh, yes.
- It takes about 2 to 3 hours.

- Oh, as long as that.
- To set, yeah.

While the bottom part
with Panna Cotta is setting

in the coolroom, we can do the top,
the decorations, with some holes.

I'll put another hole there.

The next one we're gonna make,
like sesame microwave sponge cake.

The eggs.

White and yolks?

Yeah. The sugar and flour.

Put the sesame base in and now we're
just gonna blitz it.

And I already prepared some butter.

It has to be melted butter.

You pour it in slowly.

Yes.

And we're just gonna transfer
it into the cream g*n.

Very smooth and shiny.

Very smooth, yes.

We're gonna microwave
it for 50 seconds.

And then if you see this texture.

- Oh, yes.
- It's just perfect.

So does the black sesame
give it flavour as well?

Yes. It's quite good with coconut,
black sesame and coconut, and mango.

Time for us to plate up.

We're gonna start with
the chocolate nest.

We put the panna cotta in the middle.

The sesame tuile. Microwaved sponge
cake.

Compressed pineapple, with
basil oil.

Mango marshmallow.

This is micro-coriander.

I think it goes well
with the basil from the pineapple.

Wow.

That's awesome, Danny.

That's it. And mango sorbet.

Look at that.
So many layers of flavour in that.

The techniques, mindboggling.

It's amazing.

I can't wait to taste
Danny's masterpiece,

with Pee Wee's owner,
Simon Matthews, and Head Chef,

Paul Joyes.

Oh. Look at that though.

It's a work of art,
isn't it, really?

It certainly is.

A fantastic representation
of our harvest here,

in the Northern Territory.

Think, Jimmy, that's something that
Paul's worked hard to create,

to put a cuisine together that
properly represents the produce

of the Territory.

I try to keep it contemporary.

But at the same time,
keeping to those NT tastes

and colours and flavours.

Oh, look at that silky,
smooth panna cotta.

It's really nice.
It is smooth, and it's very subtle.

- Yeah.
- There's nothing
overpowering about it.

I think this is something, you know,
that we've worked on making

the, the flavours from the Territory
blend into a cuisine,

rather than just stand
out on their own.

You know, the local food scene,
I think, is expanding in Darwin

at a rapid rate.

There's a lot more producers now.

We are creating a cuisine -
all of us - that embraces the food

that we have here.

Thank you so much
for having me here.

Fabulous food, and fabulous setting.

From the best of contemporary
tropical cuisine, to the modern

interpretation of age-old
Indigenous ingredients.

I'm off to Nitmiluk
National Park, or

Katherine Gorge as it's also called,
around 250 kilometres southeast of

Darwin.

I'm going to spend a few days
learning about the area

and the contemporary Indigenous
cuisine at Cicada Lodge,

which is 100% owned by the Jawoyn
people, the traditional owners

of this area.

My first stop is a boat ride along
the stunning cliff faces

of Nitmiluk Gorge, something that's
always been on my bucket list.

My guide for the afternoon
is Jamie Brooks, or Brooksy as he's

also called, who's been a cultural
tour guide for this area for over 20

years, and has an enormous amount
of knowledge about the flora

and fauna of this ancient landscape.

We're in the second gorge.

There's thirteen gorges all up.

And so the gorge is
about 17ks in length.



It is spectacular.

There's some extraordinary rock art
within this landscape,

and Brooksy is going to show me
an example that illustrates

the native food of the area.

So what we're looking at up
here is like a menu board.

- A menu board?
- Mm.

It's pictures of all the animals,

the plants and the people that
use to eat.

- So any families passing through.
- Yes.

They'd know exactly what sort
of foods are in the area.

All this area that we're
standing on right now,

this used to be a very popular
camping ground for Jawoyn people.

You know, there was people walking
around here with laws,

languages, traditions,
and those paintings are around



It is awesome.

So the bigger game would be your
kangaroos and wallabies.

And cause we're right
near the river, there's 46 types

of fish in there, 3 species
of turtle, uh, cherrapin,

which is like a big prawn.

This is the first time I've
seen a menu like that.

Not a bad backyard, hey Jimmy?

Amazing backyard.

- It's an amazing backyard.
- Wow.

There's a sense of magic here.

Every rockface is different.

The stillness of the water,
the history behind this,

the culture, really, really
ancient times here.

There's a lot of people
that don't know

a lot about Aboriginal
culture or, you know,

our traditions, laws, languages.

But not only people
from other countries,

but Australians themselves.

It's, it's quite nice when you see
them extremely blown away

just by the amount of history
we have here.

Even though it's not written,
it's only passed down

by word-of-mouth, but it
still exists to this day.

Our people are still connected
to the land, and when you teach

people those sort of things, they,

they're quite amazed by it.

It just stopped my soul.

I feel so connected
to this place here.

I just want to cry.

You must come here.

We don't really believe in saying
goodbye cause it sounds very final.

What our people say is 'bobo'.

It means 'until we meet again'.

On behalf of Jawoyn people, bobo.

Bobo.

- Take care of yourself, my friend.
- Thanks.

Today, I'm spending the day
with Sage Bowman-Kean,

Brooksy's stepdaughter,
who's the Sous Chef

at Cicada Lodge's
fine-dining restaurant.

The food at Cicada Lodge is known
for its innovative use of native

ingredients, and its modern menu
incorporates traditional elements

paired with incredible
flavours from the region,

in a very contemporary way.

I feel such a deep connection
with Nitmiluk National Park

and the Jawoyn country, because

I grew up here, I've
lived here all my life.

I've learnt everything
I know about the world,

about the culture, how to live

in this area.

Chef Sage, what are we making today?

I'm going to show
you the canapes we do.

It's pretty much showcasing,
like, native ingredients.

So first we've got the lemon
myrtle barramundi ceviche.

The barramundi's local
from Humpty Doo,

and we put lemon
myrtle in it.

And this is a native
herb to Australia.

So this is a macadamia crumb.

What else is in there?

I've toasted some bread crumbs,
macadamias, parsley

and some salt.

And then we finish this one off
with some avocado puree.

And then we've got the micro-herb,
just for garnish.

And that's the barramundi ceviche.

Next, we've got the kangaroo loin
that I prepared earlier.

It's got some tamarin in it
and some watercress.

And on the kangaroo loin,
we've put some pepper-leek,

which is also a native herb.

So this is all new to me,
all these native ingredients.

I'm very, very interested to learn.

Yeah, there's a lot
to learn, there's so many.

- Yes.
- Have you ever tried crocodile?

Uh, yes, I have and,
and I've actually quite enjoyed it.

This one, we get the whole tail.

- Yes.
- We get that also locally.

We confit it with chilli,
lemongrass, ginger,

for about 6 to 8 hours.



Depending on the size
of the crocodile, yeah.

The texture looks...

It's almost like, a fish fillet,
like a, a mackerel.

- Yeah.
- That's cooked and looks very moist.

Yep. We just put it on the crouton.

And this is my favourite part.

- This one here?
- Yes.

And have you heard of,
the paperbark tree?

- I have.
- This is the paperbark.

These are the leaves,
called melaleuca leaves.

I love these native ingredients,
and using modern techniques to come

up with something
really, really modern.

Yeah, it's amazing.

That's exactly what we do here.

Yeah, we just use it to smoke
the crocodile lightly.

And can I just get
you to help me, Jimmy?

So in other words, you're
asking me to start up a fire.

Ooh, I can smell it.

Yeah, see the smoke coming out?

This is so interesting, yes.

And then, these are our canapes.

Do I get to try it?

If you would like to.

I would love to.

I've been looking forward to this.

- Cheers.
- Cheers.

Just as I thought.

Lovely citrus flavours in there.

- And the smoke, you can taste that.
- Yes, the smokiness.

- I've got the chilli as well there.
- Mm.

Kangaroo loin.

Kangaroo loin with pepper-leaf
and then the tamarin.

- And the textures are perfect.
- I'm glad, thank you.

And all three very
different flavours.

And, they're of a
world-class standard.

Thank you so much.

The taste of the top end -
it means a lot to me.

It's like pure, raw, genuine food.

It's from my childhood,
and it all comes from this land.

My, uh, father is from
New South Wales and he's

Indigenous as well.

But, because I grew up
here with the Jawoyn people,

I learnt their culture
in a different way with

a different tribe.

Yeah, they showed me a lot of stuff
to do with the culture and the food.

I'm very grateful for my upbringing.

Maybe a small plan is to travel
a bit and see how I can infuse

Indigenous ingredients
into other countries' foods.

I hope that the Indigenous
culture of Australia

gets brought across the world
and everyone learns about it.

It's the oldest
culture in the world.

Cooking, food, ingredients,
has no borders.

- No.
- No boundaries, no borders.

Exploring the culinary landscape
of Darwin and the top end,

has been an amazing journey for me.

The incredibly generous people I've
met along the way,

who've shared their culture,
their stories and their deep passion

for food with me, has only
reminded me even more

why I love this place so much.

And why it's been my home
for such a long time.

The top end is like no
other place in the world.

The things that make it so special -
its multicultural tapestry,

its breathtaking landscape,
its tropical lifestyle -

are sometimes hard to
describe with words.

The only way you'll understand why
so many people come here and never

leave, is to experience
and taste it for yourself.