Advertisement - Click to support our sponsors.

Celebrate next week's opening of the
Summer Games with a dinner that
recognizes Australia's barbecue
tradition and the nation's
new cuisines

Recipes for an Australian barbecue

---

By Betty Shimabukuro
Photo composite by Dean Sensui
Star-Bulletin

arely do art, reality, athletics and grub coincide so perfectly -- allowing you to observe history, party on and play with fire, all at the same time.

We speak here of the Olympics, which begin next week with a lone runner climbing those stairs to light that massive flame.

And we speak of barbecue, which for all intents and purposes is the national party cuisine of Australia, home of the 2000 Summer Games.

The opening ceremony in Sydney is set for 4:30 p.m. Sept. 15, a Friday. Perfect timing for a party, and a perfect opportunity to explore Australian cuisine.

That Australia actually has a cuisine is a surprise to many. For several sad decades, the food of this great land was the food of Mother Britain -- roasts, potatoes, gravy and puddings.

Tanya Woolcott, wife of the Australian consul general, Peter Woolcott, remembers all too well her grandmother's Sunday roasts. "And during the week she would serve stews and potatoes, potatoes, potatoes. I don't know why we didn't end up 300 pounds."

AUSTRALIAN EATS Balmain bug: A small lobsterlike crustacean, named for the Sydney neighborhood where trawlers used to dock. Pie floater: A meat pie served in a puddle of soggy peas -- the chili dog of Sydney Vegemite: This dark, salty yeast extract is used as a spread, like peanut butter. It resembles boot polish made from soy sauce, says Tanya Woolcott. "I've never met anybody from outside Australia who tasted it twice, and no one from Australia who could live without it." Witchetty grubs: Large white larvae that grow in the root systems of gum trees. Long eaten by Aborigines. Yabbies: Freshwater crawfish, larger than Louisiana crawfish. AUSTRALIAN DRINKS Wine pairings: An Aussie barbecue offers a good opportunity to try an Australian wine; many are priced at priced at $12 and under. For fish, consider Barossa Valley Estates Chardonnay or Thomas Mitchell Marsanne; for chicken, Australia's showcase Shiraz, for example Victoria's Crest, Tyrell's Longflat or Varossa Valley, served slightly chilled. For more on this topic: Sam Choy's Diamond Head is holding a wine-tasting featuring Australian wineries, 5 p.m. Friday. Chris Muraoka of Johnson Brothers will offer a selection of wines. Cost is $20, includes appetizers. Call 732-8645. Wanna beer? Fosters is about all you can get in Hawaii -- and even that is brewed now in Canada. (A stubbie, by the way, is a bottle of beer; a tinnie is a can.)

By her mother's time this was changing, and in her own kitchen, a roast appears maybe once a year. "We all feel so enormous and full after that."

If she were hosting an Olympic party, Woolcott says, she'd plan a barbecue showcasing salmon and ribs or chicken, with marinades that lean toward Asian flavors. Salad would be a crunchy Asian slaw. The concession to the traditional cooking of her grandmother would be dessert -- Pavlova, a fruit-topped eruption of meringue.

In this meal you'd get a pretty good idea of reality cooking in Australia today.

What's happened between the times of grandmother and granddaughter is nothing short of enlightenment. "Australia's really woken up to itself in the last years," Woolcott says.

Sydney, especially, is a thriving place of markets and chic restaurants where chefs work the cutting edge, fusing local ingredients with Asian and Mediterranean cooking styles. Here, chef Tetsuya Wakuda pursues that most difficult of fusion styles, contemporary Japanese, at his renowned Tetsuya's.

The new cuisine of the continent goes by Modern Australian, or Mod-Oz. Ethnic restaurants -- Vietnamese, Malaysian, Singaporean, Thai -- fill streets that once held a single Chinese spot, maybe, and that one worshipped at the altars of sweet-and-sour and deep-fried.

Australia joined the larger culinary world as the nation opened itself to immigration in the 1970s. Newcomers brought with them the herbs and spices of Asia.

"Australia is emerging from the shadow of 'the old country,' finding its place in the Asia-Pacific region and realizing that the cuisines of its Asian neighbors are more relevant to its climate than those of Europe," Charmaine Solomon writes in the 1999 cookbook, "The Food of Australia: Contemporary Recipes from Australia's Leading Chefs."

Solomon, author of "The Complete Asian Cookbook," was a pioneer in bringing Asian cuisine to the continent. She moved to Australia 35 years ago from Sri Lanka, and recalls having to send home for stocks and spices.

All that has changed, she says. "There is an exploration taking place, a happy discovery of new ingredients and fresh flavors. East and West are not only meeting, they are embracing."

This exploration extends back in time, to the ingredients favored by the Aborigines. Ranging from kangaroo meat to seeds, nuts, fruits and vegetables gathered in the bush, these indigenous flavors are further expanding the culinary possibilities.

"The Food of Australia" opens with a recipe for Pumpkin Risotto Cakes with Smoked Kangaroo -- smoked 'roo apparently something you can buy off the shelf. It moves through black-bean dishes, macadamia-nut croquettes, new-age sushi, tea-smoked ahi and dishes touched with mango, nori, wasabi and bok choy.

Mod-Oz, it seems, would be perfectly comfortable at Alan Wong's.

For all that, a dinner off the grill -- "the Aussie barbie" -- remains the great culinary past-time, rooted in the outdoor life of sheep-shearers and cattle drovers who learned to cook kangaroo, emu and goat over open fires.

"The Food of Australia" recounts what writer Tony Baker calls the nation's original joke: the bushman's recipe for cooking cockatoo in the great outdoors. Catch the bird, the story goes, and boil it in a pot with two stones. Then throw out the cockatoo and eat the stones.

Thankfully, they've come a long way, barbie.

---

Cox News Service contributed to this report.

---

Periplus Editions Ltd.
Pavlova, popular in both Australia and New Zealand, is a
meringue dessert named for the famous ballerina.This fancy
version is from "The Food of Australia." A simple version
for home cooks is printed here.

Put a little something
on the barbie

---

Star-Bulletin staff

Tanya Woolcott, who hails from Sydney, Australia, offers this menu for a simple barbecue celebrating the start of the Olympics in her hometown next week.

These are the dishes she would serve her guests, accompanied by oven-roasted potatoes and perhaps some hot dogs and burgers for the kids.

"The Australian barbecue is probably the biggest thing that you would think of," Woolcott says.

Many countries have a long culinary tradition, but not her homeland. "There's nothing like that now that's handed down and handed down." Immigrant cuisines, therefore, have become a critical part of the new Australian cooking style.

The marinade for the grilled chicken shows a definite Asian influence. "We have almost become a part of Asia now and that's influenced our food greatly," Woolcott says. "It's brought a lot of lightness into the food."

The salad should also be Asian in temperament, she says. This recipe comes from "Blue Ginger: East Meets West Cooking with Ming Tsai," Clarkson Potter, 1999.

Dessert is an English-style treat, a recipe of Woolcott's grandmother, Adele Ellison.

Salmon Barbecue

3 pounds salmon fillet, cut in 2-inch strips
2 pieces green onion, in 2-inch strips
1/2 teaspoon fresh dill
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon butter, cut in pieces
2 peppercorns

Place fillets on foil. Place other ingredients on top. Wrap fillets in the foil. Grill over direct heat 3-4 minutes, then open the foil and turn the fillets. Reseal and cook 3 more minutes. Serves 8.

Approximate nutritional information per serving: 320 calories, 19 g total fat, 4 g saturated fat, 100 mg cholesterol, 100 mg sodium.*

Chicken Drumsticks

8 drumsticks

Marinade:
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 tablespoon honey
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon ginger, cut in strips

Combine marinade ingredients. Marinate chicken overnight. Remove ginger and grill. Sprinkle with sesame seeds. Serves 4.

Approximate nutritional information per serving: 275 calories, 13 g total fat, 4 g saturated fat, 120 mg cholesterol, greater than 1,000 mg sodium.*

Napa Slaw

3 cups napa cabbage, cut in 1/8-inch strips
1 cup shredded carrots
1 cup bean sprouts
1/2 cup chopped scallions

Dressing:
1/2 cup fish sauce
1/2 cup rice wine vinegar
1/2 tablespoon chile flakes
1/2 bunch basil, cut in 1/4-inch strips lengthwise
1/2 tablespoon sugar
Salt and black pepper to taste

To make dressing: Wisk together fish sauce, vinegar, chile flakes, basil and sugar. Toss vegetables together and add to vinaigrette. Toss well, taste and add salt and pepper to taste. Let sit 10 minutes before serving. Serves 6.

Approximate nutritional information per 1-cup serving (without added salt to taste): 60 calories, 1 g total fat, no saturated fat, 10 mg cholesterol, greater than 1,800 mg sodium.*

Pavlova

3 egg whites
1-1/2 cups superfine sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Topping:
1 cup whipped cream
1 cup quartered strawberries or other fruit

Beat egg whites until stiff. Add sugar, 1/3 cup at a time, beating until sugar is dissolved. With the last amount of sugar add cornstarch and vanilla. Beat well. Form into a slightly flattened dome on a baking sheet covered in parchment paper.

Bake 20 minutes at 350 degrees. Reduce heat to 250 degrees and continue baking 30-40 minutes until a hard shell is formed with the inside still soft. The shell may crack. Crack may be concealed with whipped cream later.

Cool. Cover with whipped cream and fruit.

Nutritional information unavailable.

Click for online
calendars and events.