Exploring culinary Asia at home and away

Australia boasts an amazing selection of Asian-style restaurants – from cheap eats to fine diners specialising in authentic and modern dishes from across the region – staffed by some exceptionally-talented, and in some cases world-class, chefs.

So how do you ensure your Asian-inspired menu is as good as – or preferably outshines – your innumerable competitors? The trick, according to many of Australia’s top Asian culinary talents, is to keep building upon your knowledge; bearing in mind there will always be new ingredients and techniques to discover as well as new trends emerging.

Helen Brierty, who has run multiple award-winning Thai restaurant and cooking school The Spirit House in Queensland’s Noosa with husband Peter for 14 years, believes it is her chefs’ thorough understanding of authentic, regional Thai cuisine – honed during regular visits to the country itself – that sets the restaurant’s contemporary Thai menus apart from the rest.

Open House: Which ingredients are essential to creating authentic Thai dishes?

Helen Brierty: Kaffir lime leaves, Thai basil, galangal, krachi, ginger, golden shallots, lemongrass, garlic, coriander, chillis, limes, fish sauce, palm sugar, coconut vinegar, tamarind, roasted chilli paste, soy sauce, shrimp paste – plus all the Asian spices. We use them all daily in marinades, pastes, salads, sauces, dressings and dipping sauces.

OH: Are there any more unusual ingredients chefs should know about and what are your favourite ways of using them?

HB: Pickled garlic and Thai eggplants are fantastic in curries; Chinese sour plums are divine with duck; banana blooms make tasty additions to salads, as do fresh green peppercorns, pomelo and green pawpaw; and cha plu leaves are great in miang kam.

OH: Where do you source your ingredients?

HB: They are all sourced from the Brisbane markets and local growers. We are blessed here on the Sunshine Coast to have such an array of growers who can supply us daily with some of the more exotic ingredients and aromatics.

OH: Do you use many imported ingredients?

HB: Yes – all those essential Thai ingredients that aren’t grown or produced in Australia, such as Asian spices, coconut cream, fish sauce, shrimp paste and various vinegars.

OH: Do you aim to create authentic Thai?

HB: Our curry pastes and sauces are mostly authentic, but many of our finished dishes are adapted for Western tastes. Most of our clients don’t have as high a tolerance for hot chillis as native Thais, so we tone things down a bit.

OH: How do you keep your menu fresh and innovative?

HB: We fly our senior chefs to Thailand every year to learn about, taste and savour traditional and contemporary regional Thai cuisine. They always return inspired, motivated and amazed at how much they still have to learn. We change the menu every three months according to what’s in season.

OH: Are you working on any new dishes right now?

HB: We are designing a new dessert menu for summer and experimenting with a tapioca ball with lychee blossom honey.

OH: Why do you think Thai food is so popular in Australia?

HB: It suits our warmer climates. It’s fresh, healthy and quick to prepare – and offers infinite variety. Tastes are evolving as more Australians holiday in Thailand, Bali, Vietnam and other parts of Asia.

OH: Do you think Australians generally have a good understanding of regional Thai cuisine?

HB: We wish Australians would appreciate that rice is the centerpiece of any Thai meal. All the other dishes are there to complement the rice, offering different experiences of taste and texture. Australians expect a large dish of meat or seafood with rice on the side, whereas it’s exactly the opposite in Thailand. Also, Australians tend not to understand that dishes selected for a Thai meal should offer a combination of sweet, sour, hot and salty flavours plus a variety of different textures, such as wet, dry, crisp and soft.

OH: Which is your favourite dish on the menu and why do you think it works?

HB: The twice-baked red crab soufflé was a very popular dish over winter. It’s a great example of how elements of Thai and Western cuisines can work well together. 

OH: Which drinks go best with Thai food?

HB: Beer! Or white wine varieties such as Verdelho, Pinot Gris, Semillon/Sauvignon blends and Gewürztraminer.