The food forecast for 2017 is tropical, with sudden gusts of glamour. Australian chefs are going troppo with mud crab, fresh ginger, coconut water, raw macadamias, heart of palm and uniquely Australian reef fish such as coral trout. Coconut, guava, rainforest honey, rosella (hibiscus) and tropical green ants inform both sweet and savoury courses. Jewellery and textile designers can’t leave pineapples and bananas alone either, while René Redzepi of Copenhagen’s Noma is building an outdoor restaurant in the beachside jungles of Tulum in Mexico, ready for his $600 per diner April pop-up.
Oh, and happy 50th birthday to Queensland’s Sunshine Coast – thanks for all the swell times.
Bali high
To make 2017’s coolest tropical cocktail, combine coconut vodka and Falernum – a spiced almond and lime liqueur – with pineapple juice, passionfruit puree and lime juice over ice and shake. Alternatively, cruise into the 1960s Capri-inspired Da Maria in Bali hot spot Petitenget and order one made by someone else. Da Maria is the Bali hangout of Maurice Terzini, the restaurateur behind Bondi’s Icebergs and Da Orazio Pizza + Porchetta. The blue and white walls writhe with passionfruit vines and the menu is as troppo as it gets, from simple Italian pizza to spanner crab risotto and fresh watermelon served over crushed ice.
Cool bananas
Sunnylife’s inflatable pineapples, banana plates and watermelon trays are as much a part of the holiday season as a barbecued snag. The Sydney-bred company has a talent for packaging up fresh, bright, exotic motifs and selling them to the world. “Everyone is chasing an endless summer,” says co-owner Ryan Glick, who reports the company’s overseas revenue is about to surpass its Australian revenue. Watch out for the Sunnylife x Tiffany Cooper capsule collection in March, as the offbeat French illustrator portrays the tropics, Sunnylife style. To be launched exclusively through Colette (Paris), Selfridges (London), and Bloomingdales (NYC).
Tropical luxe
Australia’s top chefs are turning up the heat on tropical ingredients to express Australia’s sense of place. The biggest hit of Matt Moran’s recently rebooted Aria restaurant in Sydney was a luxe dish of far north Queensland’s latest premium seafood, champagne lobster. It’s served on a raft of brioche sponge, topped with Sterling Caviar and teamed with a beurre blanc sauce studded with tiny baubles of native finger limes (pictured, right). A supremely Australian dish, it was immediately labelled “a total diva” by restaurant critic Terry Durack.
For Moran, it’s all about balance. “It’s the way the butteriness of the brioche, the sweetness of the lobster, the saltiness of the caviar and the acidity of the finger limes come together,” he says. He’s an even bigger fan of finger limes than of the high-status lobster, which he swaps out for his much loved Moreton Bay bugs when the latter is out of season. “Finger limes are the unsung heroes of native Australian produce.”
From Hawaii with love
What started as a small home-schooling project for the Parsons family in Maui – getting the children involved in growing a few chillies – soon got out of hand. Now the family grows and harvests papayas, lychees, mangoes and avocados, along with different varieties of hot peppers. They turn them into bright, tropical sauces and relishes under their Adoboloco label, which has just been released in Australia.
Made from fresh Maui pineapples, apple cider vinegar, habanero peppers, sea salt and garlic, with no sugars, binders or preservatives, Adoboloco’s Pineapple Habanero Hot Sauce is the Australian barbecue’s new best friend, its sweet, fresh pineapple flavour backed by a slow chilli burn.
“The habanero has such a good tropical flavour,” says Hawaiian-born-and-bred Tim Parsons. “It has tones of passionfruit that work so well with pineapple, with a warm, even heat.”
Try it in cocktails, over grilled fish, in pulled pork burgers, and for that love-it-or-hate-it touch of pineapple on your pizza.
