A mouth-watering glimpse at the menu for the Sunshine Coast Asian Food Festival has been revealed – and it doesn’t disappoint.
Visitors will be able to savour unique street-food style dishes by chefs from Spirit House, Sum Yung Guys, Rice Boi and host Spicers Tamarind Retreat’s own Tamarind Restaurant, led by acclaimed executive chef Daniel Jarrett.
“For all of these chefs, it’s an opportunity to put a spotlight on the amazing produce we get to use every day and show off our skills for more people in an afternoon than we’d usually see in a week,” he said.
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Mr Jarrett was raised on the Sunshine Coast, where he lives with his young family, and has been delighting foodies as a chef for the past 25 years, the past 12 of those at Tamarind Restaurant. He’s built an extraordinary insider’s knowledge of the region’s produce and suppliers.
For the 2023 festival, he and his team are offering aromatic Chinese-style sticky, juicy, tender slow-cooked pork ribs coated in a hoisin and five spice-flavoured sauce.
The head chef of Yandina’s Spirit House, Tom Hitchcock, says he’s has had the Sunshine Coast Asian Food Festival on his hit-list since it began five years ago.
“Asian cuisine has a big part of my background and I want to showcase our local produce in Spirit House style,” he said.
“It will be interesting to see what all these chefs, who specialise in different Asian cuisines, come up with.”
Mr Hitchcock and his team will be offering a prawn roll made with Mooloolaba king prawn meat in barbecue-toasted Taiwanese milk buns, covered with a slaw of cabbage, kaffir lime, shallots, spring onion, Vietnamese mint and Thai basil, with a green nam jim dressing of local Green Valley finger lime, mayonnaise and chervil.
He said the dish was inspired by his time in Thailand.
“I would walk down the road from where I was staying in the afternoon to get a milk bun shaped like a hot dog roll with various toppings and fillings,” he said.
“So, for this dish I kept the traditional combination of prawns and green nam, which is traditionally used as a seafood dipping sauce.”
Sum Yung Guys in Noosaville has built a strong following for its individual take on classic Asian street food. The ‘guys’ in question – chefs and co-owners Michael ‘Moe’ Rickard, Jeremiah Jones and Matt Sinclair – are showcasing a version of the much-loved dish of Hainanese chicken, made with steamed chicken thigh, spring onion, ginger relish, chilli sauce and garlic rice.
Rice Boi’s Mitch Smith, who is also the executive chef and co-owner of a host of restaurants on the Sunshine Coast, from the modern Greek cuisine of Spero in Mooloolaba to a bunch of casual Asian-themed bistros with Giddy Geisha in Maroochydore, Rice Boi in Mooloolaba and Piggyback in Palmwoods, and fine-dining with RB Dining in Mooloolaba.
Mr Smith says his stand will be serving a 10-hour slow-cooked beef short rib in a Penang curry sauce.
The beef is from Hamilton Park Wagyu, which has operations around Gympie, as well as its own butchery and retail outlet, the Phat Wag. The slow-cooked rib, in a young coconut braise, will be finished with the curry sauce and the reduced braising liquid, then topped with the likes of Thai basil and kaffir lime for freshness.
The festival will also have live music, drinks, market stalls and masterclasses, served on the seven-hectare property just outside Maleny.
As director of Maleny Food Co gourmet gelato and sorbet, Norman Scott says they’ve been working with Spicers Tamarind Retreat for the past few years on a unique Asian-flavoured frozen treat for each Sunshine Coast Asian Food Festival.
“We source our milk from a local dairy farm here up on the Blackall Range, and wherever possible we use local produce like macadamias, ginger and fruits, and we’re putting an Asian spin on those kind of flavours for the festival,” he said.
There will be craft beer from Moffat Beach Brewing Co, cocktails from Sunshine and Sons Cocktail Bar, Brockenchack Wines (a Coast-owned Barossa Valley winery) and Champagne by the glass and bottle from Taittinger. Sunny Coast Water will have non-alcoholic beverages, including kombucha.
“The people who come to the festival just love it,” Mr Scott said.
“There’s a little bit of music, they can have heaps of great food, a couple of drinks, and relax in the gardens.”
The Sunshine Coast Asian Food Festival is on Saturday, August 5. Adult tickets start from $135. It is part of the Curated Plate, a 10-day celebration of the region’s produce, producers and chefs, supported by Tourism and Events Queensland, the Sunshine Coast Council and Visit Sunshine Coast.
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