Bamboo Lounge and Chow take out golden bowl in 2024 Darwin International Laksa Festival
Top End hospitality kingpin Jason Hanna, owner of triple Golden Bowl winner Chow, says even he didn’t know which laksa recipe his crew had submitted to the coveted annual competition until the dish was unveiled joint winner.
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Top End hospitality kingpin Jason Hanna, owner of triple Golden Bowl winner Chow, says even he didn’t know which laksa recipe his crew had submitted to the coveted annual competition until the dish was unveiled joint winner.
Darwin Waterfront favourite Chow! added this year’s crown – shared with Bamboo Lounge, the first time in the Darwin International Laksa Festival’s history the Golden Bowl has two winners – to the titles it won in 2021 and 2023.
Chow’s award-winning dish was its rare beef and beef brisket laksa.
Mr Hanna, who counts among his vast stable Good Times, Nirvana and Lazy Susan’s, said he “didn’t know” whether his Chow crew would play it safe with their classic Malay laksa, or take a chance on the brisket, which was only cooked up recently.
“I wasn’t sure which one we were going to present,” he said.
But they chose right – and the judges, and Mr Hanna, agreed.
“When I tried the beef, that brisket just sucks up all the juice,” Mr Hanna said.
His uncertainty as to what his own crew had in store for the Golden Bowl typifies the secrecy surrounding the judging process, which features six mystery judges and the withholding of even the top 10 finalists until after a final decision has been made, so as not to corrupt the judging process.
“There’s no such thing as the best ever laksa, it’s obviously subjective,” he said.
“Anyone who made the top 10 or even just missed out does a great laksa.”
Asked to nominate his favourite laksa of late – excluding his own restaurants – he gave a plug to Angkor Takeaway at Bishop St, Woolner, although couldn’t help confessing a soft spot for Good Times’ version, as it was the first of his restaurants that started cooking up the dish.
Mr Hanna said Bamboo Lounge’s khao soi (Thai-style laksa) was a worthy offering to share the 2024 glory with.
Dual Laksa Festival winners crowned after ‘hot’ competition
November 3, 9pm: The Territory has once again created an outback twist to a Southeast Asian delicacy, which will have laksa diners shouting ‘Waiter, there’s a croc in my soup’.
An Aussie outback twist to the Laksa recipe has taken out the regional Golden Bowl for this year’s Territory Laksa festival.
After tasting more than 4000 laksa creations, the judges said the competition was “so hot” they could not pick a single winner for the coveted Golden Bowl from the 2024 Darwin International Laksa Festival.
So this year the grand prize will be split in half, with the expert judging panel unable to decide between two delectable Darwin dishes from Bamboo Lounge and Chow.
This is the first time Stuart Park’s Bamboo Lounge has taken home the top gong, while the award sets Chow up for the Laksa Hall of Fame as the tied three-time title winner with Chok’s Place.
But once again the competition has proven that the outback does laksa a little wilder, with Katherine’s Jatti Pool Bar taking out the regional Golden Bowl with a smoked crocodile dish.
Katherine was also home to the regional People’s Choice winner, with the Vietnamese-Australia fusion cafe The Meeting Place dishing out an award-winning ‘Outback Laska’.
Territory chefs once again got creative with the always adventurous ‘Inspired by’ category, with laksa inspired beer, dumplings, hotdogs, cheesecakes, chocolates, coffee, sorbets and ice-creams, ice tea, smoothies and cocktails and many more.
But it was the empanadas from Alice Springs’s Yaye’s Café and savoury muffins from Darwin’s Makan Stop which delighted the judge’s taste buds and took out the top prizes.
SEE THE WINNERS
People’s Choice Best Inspired-By (Regional) – Laksa Empanadas by Yaye’s Café, Alice Springs
People’s Choice Best Laksa (Regional) – The Outback Laksa by The Meeting Place, Katherine
People’s Choice Best Inspired-By (Darwin) – Laksa Muffin by Makan Stop
People’s Choice Best Laksa (Darwin) – Kopi Stop Laksa by Kopi Stop
Golden Bowl (Regional) – Smoked Crocodile Laksa by Jatti Pool Bar and Bistro,Katherine
Golden Bowl (Darwin) – Bamboo Lounge and CHOW!
SEE THE GALLERY
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