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Private Notes
Host and chef Jimmy Shu starts the series at the bustling Rapid Creek markets. Jimmy has been coming here every Sunday morning to collect produce for his restaurant, Hanuman. He shows off his favourite fresh produce growers and their amazing array of tropical and Asian produce. After the markets Jimmy heads south to Humpty Doo, 40km from Darwin to meet Muy Keav, one of his produce suppliers who has an interesting story to tell. Muy learnt to cook from her mother and grandmother and shows Jimmy how to make one of her traditional recipes – Cambodian green mango salad. Jimmy is back at the Rapid Creek Market where he meets home cook Karunika Pemaratne. Karunika is from Sri Lanka and shares stories about her childhood as she shows Jimmy how to cook her favourite Sri Lankan baby jackfruit curry. Finally, Jimmy heads down to watch the sunset on the spectacular Nightcliff foreshore where he grabs a bite to eat from the popular food truck Needle In A Haystack.
The dry season in the Top End is a time for festivals. And one of the most popular is Glenti, a Greek cultural festival. Jimmy meets some of the Greek community preparing food for the event and learns to make the Greek speciality ‒ dolmades. Next Jimmy goes inside the home of recent arrivals to Darwin – Jordanian mother and son Nadeem and Taghreed who run the food truck Flavours of Damascus. They show Jimmy how to make one of their favourite home cooked recipes – Lamb Kabsa. Jimmy visits a tiny eatery well-hidden in an arcade off the Darwin Mall. Sumatra Cafe, which serves authentic Indonesian food and has a horde of loyal followers. Finally, Jimmy settles in at one of Darwin’s original tropical homes, the historic Burnett House. Here he prepares a local specialty of pearl meat ceviche.
The Top End of Australia has some of the best, freshest seafood in the country and in this episode Jimmy will show you why. He goes to meet one of his closest friends, long time fisherman Billy Boustead who lives at Shoal Bay outside Darwin. The two friends go fishing, catch a barramundi which Jimmy turns into one of his favourite dishes, Barramundi Meen Moolie. At one of Darwin’s wharfs he meets self-taught chef Rachael Ciesolka. Rachael shows Jimmy how to cook her signature citrus mud crab dish. Next Jimmy meets Larrakia woman Leslie Gordon. Leslie takes Jimmy into the mangroves to collect traditional seafood and talks about the seafood that Larrakia people have been eating for generations. Leslie shows Jimmy how to collect and cook longbums, a traditional seafood, on an open fire. Finally, Jimmy hits one of the local pubs where he meets Justin Whitrow who runs Smokey J’s Brew and Que. Justin is an innovator and has found a unique way to smoke crocodile.
Jimmy heads 500km east of Darwin to the remote Arnhem Land coastal community of Maningrida. Jimmy visits Maningrida Wild Foods and goes out harvesting with local landowners for various bush foods that are now sold commercially. Traditional owner Leila Nimbadja shares stories from her childhood and takes Jimmy to hunt for long yam. Jimmy catches up with Don Wilton, one of only a few people in the Northern Territory with an Aboriginal Coastal Fishing Licence. Don teaches Jimmy how they cook seafood the traditional way, on hot coals on the beach. Jimmy then talks to Chef Alan Hickey at the popular Darwin cafe Speakers Corner that’s nestled inside Parliament House. Alan says they use Indigenous ingredients as much as possible and he cooks their speciality Maningrida Bush Apple Bundle, their newest experiment with bush food through a partnership with Maningrida Wild Foods.
Jimmy Shu is at the busy Parap Saturday markets where he says that street food is one of the best ways to get to know a culture. In this episode he tastes some of Darwin’s most popular street food. Jimmy talks about Darwin’s Laksa obsession and goes to Mary’s Laksa stall to meet Mary who has been making Darwin’s most famous Laksa for over 20 years. Jimmy then meets Wayne who runs the famous Vietnamese stall. Jimmy says Wayne makes an amazing banh mi which, after finding out about Wayne’s secret recipes, he just has to try. Jimmy then visits the Sunday Rapid Creek Market and shows us his favourite breakfast street food, a regional Thai braised pork delicacy that’s cooked by master street food chef Kanchana. Jimmy then goes to meet Amye Un who runs a small eatery on the Stuart Highway in town, Warung Ibu Amye serving Balinese and Timorese dishes. As Amye shows Jimmy how to make her mother’s charcoal chicken, her signature dish, as she tells Jimmy about her colourful life.
Jimmy visits the breathtaking landscapes of Kakadu. spectacular Yellow Waters. Next, Jimmy meets young Bininj chef, Ben Tyler who runs Kakadu Kitchen. Ben shows Jimmy how he and his family cook magpie goose using the traditional method of hot coals. Jimmy then shows Ben how to make magpie goose dumplings. Next Jimmy hits the famous Nightcliff Sunday market where he meets Samiah and her daughter Sitti. Samiah and Sitti show Jimmy how to make their innovative signature dish – Beef Rendang Roti Wrap. Jimmy goes to Roast & Noodle 328, a little restaurant in the Mall’s Galleria food court famous for its Hong Kong style roasted meats. Owner Danny Yeum takes Jimmy through the kitchen and shows him how he makes his signature Roast Duck. Finally, Jimmy goes to Moorish Cafe, Darwin’s first tapas restaurant and talks to owner Marc Wagnan about how Darwin’s food scene has changed so rapidly. Jimmy tries their beef brisket showcasing local beef from Eva Valley Meats.
Jimmy is off to meet Darwin’s only chocolatier Leo Cleanthous at his boutique chocolate cafe Bumble Bean Chocolates. He then goes to meet Petra, whose raw cakes have become almost a staple dessert in local Darwin homes. Petra and Jimmy then go to a local shoe shop in Nightcliff where Petra gets her lemons and limes from the owner of the shop who grows them in his backyard. Petra shows Jimmy how to make her lime and macadamia raw cheesecake. Jimmy meets Wana Sinclair, who’s a master Thai dessert maker at the Rapid Creek Market. Wana shows Jimmy how to make her signature Mung Bean Donut, something that is only available at her stall in Darwin. It’s a very traditional Thai recipe she has been perfected over many years. The episode ends with a bang at the Hanuman stall at Darwin Festival. One of their most popular items on the menu is Jimmy’s Sticky Black Rice Creme Brûlée. Jimmy talks about how he came up with this inventive dessert that fuses modern French cuisine with Asian flavours.
After seven episodes of showing the best of Darwin’s food secrets, Jimmy heads into the kitchen of his own award-winning Darwin restaurant Hanuman which he opened in 1992. He talks about his Chinese Sri Lankan background and how that has inspired his love of Indian/Malay/Nonya cuisine. Jimmy then cooks one of his favourite dishes from childhood, Chinese roast pork belly with garlic noodles. Jimmy then goes to fine dining establishment, Pee Wee’s at East Point and meets Danny, their dessert chef who shows Jimmy how to make their signature coconut lime pannacotta. To end the series Jimmy travels to Cicada Lodge, 300km south of Darwin. The Lodge is nestled in natural bush, high above the waterways of the Katherine River system. Jimmy spends the day with young Indigenous chef Sage Bowman-Kean who is the sous chef at Cicada Lodge. Sage shows Jimmy how to assemble their signature tasting platter that combines native ingredients and local produce from the area with contemporary cuisine.
