Food and culture in the neighbourhood – a culinary love letter from the South Pacific

Our near neighbours in the vast Pacific are often overlooked by Australia in its slavish focus on America, Britain and Europe – yet this is our own backyard. The lack of knowledge has ranged across many aspects of the culture and history of the Pacific, including its culinary traditions. Yet, behind the scenes over more than a decade, a culinary revolution has been underway. This is the story of New Zealand chef, Robert Oliver, his fascination with the traditional food of the Pacific Islands, and an internationally award-winning cookbook, described as a ‘culinary love letter from a smattering of islands in the South Pacific’, which has developed a life of its own.

For a while it seemed that our neighbours in the vast Pacific might have once again been overlooked – this time in a good way, as COVID-19 initially failed to get a grip in the region. Unfortunately these hopes are increasingly being dashed as the risks of trade routes reassert their place in daily life.

Extracting coconut from the shell the traditional way on Moorea Island, Tahiti.

Despite being Australia’s nearest neighbours, in effect our own backyard, being overlooked has been a frequent occurrence with the region. This has been the case with many aspects of its culture and history, including its culinary traditions.

A long and enthralling story
However, there have been notable exceptions. This is a long story – and an enthralling one – about a food revolution across the vast Pacific Ocean and its many and varied peoples that still has a long way to run. Back in December 2016 I posted an article to my Facebook page, ‘tableland’, which is complementary to this blog, and like it is about food, farming and cooking. The article was about the story of New Zealand chef, Robert Oliver, and his fascination with the traditional food of the Pacific Islands. Then I thought no more of it – until a few weeks ago, when I discovered the story had a new chapter, possibly several new chapters.

In search of wild mushrooms

Growing up in the Central Highlands of Tasmania, foraging for wild mushrooms was a regular part of life. Now living in Canberra, a landscape markedly similar to where I grew up, mushrooms have an altogether more deadly reputation. However, it all comes down to specialist knowledge about the subject, as I discovered on a chilly evening with one of Canberra’s mushrooming experts.

Life in the national capital is always interesting. Recently, as the days began to cool, I was reminded of my childhood in the central wilds of Tasmania. It was in a landscape much like here, when we roamed the endless paddocks on the hunt for mushrooms, though there were only two kinds of fungi on our horizon – mushrooms and toadstools.

Topical gatherings around fascinating topics
Following in the French tradition of topical gatherings around fascinating topics, I attended an evening called Cafe Champignon. Fungologist Alison Pouliot, formerly of the ANU Fenner School of Environment and Society brought fungi into a local lounge room near me. As the invitation to the evening noted ‘in a welcome reminder that the world is definitely becoming more fungal and less viral.’ It was a fine thing to do on a chilly Canberra night.

In search of wild mushrooms - how not to poison yourself

Alison’s new book (co-authored with Dr Tom May, a Senior Research Scientist in Mycology at Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria) is ‘Wild mushrooming: a guide for foragers’. She read tantalising snippets from this and from her previous book, ‘The allure of fungi’, and answered some of the big questions – which fungi are delectable? Which are deadly? How do we differentiate them? Why does Canberra have the gruesome repute as the deathcap capital? And even, how can fungi give us new ways of thinking about the living world? It’s clearly a very popular subject and Alison has had some appreciative coverage in assorted media.