Cairns and its abundant surrounds top the informed foodie’s bucket list
Lush, fertile and hitting its culinary stride, Cairns and its abundant surrounds top the informed foodie’s bucket list
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Bamboo shoots as big as a baby elephant’s foot, fat tamarind pods, and every shape, size and colour of chilli imaginable. The mad abundance at Rusty’s Market in Cairns casts an instant spell — I’m transfixed eyeing off young ginger roots with stems still attached, weighing up coarse-skinned cassavas and bright green coconuts, mentally sorting through towering bundles of spray-free herbs, so fresh and vibrant you can smell them from the street outside.
It’s impossible to visit and not feel inspired to cook up a tropical storm.
During my most recent visit, pre-lockdown, my thoughts wandered to my favourite curry-making companion — my daughter Sophie, who was back in Brisbane missing out on all this bounty.
We’ve travelled north together before and been stopped in our tracks by the heady drama of the region, with its lush fields of sugar cane, mystical rainforest and idyllic coves and beaches.
As a food writer, I fly to Cairns regularly, assessing restaurants, accommodation, cafes and bars, generally taking the pulse of the dining scene. It’s fabulous and it’s fun, but so much better when you have someone special alongside.
Sophie is busy juggling ownership of a cafe-bar with a part-time university degree, but while strolling the aisles at Rusty’s, I couldn’t stop DMing shots of my latest finds. Her replies were swift, enthusiastic and not a little envious. Like me, she’s fallen hard for the Sunshine State’s tropical north and we’re both keen to see our favourite eating and drinking destinations throw open their doors again, once restrictions ease.
It’s the diversity of the produce that always grabs my attention — from coffee, cacao, tea and vanilla, to jackfruit, papayas and plantains, as well as sweeter treats such as rambutans, mangosteens and rollinias.
To experience the region’s magnificent produce at its finest, there’s Nu Nu at Palm Cove. Here co-owner and chef Nick Holloway has morphed into a de facto food ambassador for his adopted home, since quitting inner-city Melbourne in the early 2000s.
Holloway’s dishes are vibrant and discriminatingly local. You might find sweet filaments of locally caught mud crab tucked into an Asian-style omelette with greens and a white pepper broth at breakfast, or salads dialled up with pickled prawns, local coconut and heart of palm from Innisfail, or reef-fish teamed with briny, buttered surf clams.
Sipping an icy sundowner, a salty bowl of crisp cassava chips at your elbow, a gentle breeze wafting in off the Coral Sea — with dreamy views of the palm-lined beach front and centre — is an essential Cairns and Great Barrier Reef experience.
Or, you could try preparing a selection of the produce yourself at Oaks Kitchen & Garden — a Southeast Asian-style cooking school, garden and dining destination run by chef Ben Wallace and wife, Rachael Boon, a self-taught gardener and artist.
In 2017, this couple traded inner-city Melbourne for a patch of rainforest paradise 15 minutes outside Port Douglas. They’ve transformed an overgrown block into a verdant holding bursting with plantings — from makrut lime and Malaysian passionfruit to lemongrass, turmeric, Thai eggplant and more. During the recent lockdown, Wallace built an onsite charcoal cooking pit and the two swivelled from weekend chefs’ table lunches and garden tours to debut a Saturday night curry takeaway menu. Plans to now spark up a restaurant of their own in Port Douglas or Palm Cove are under way.
READ MORE: Fields of flavour
In fact, the region’s food scene as a whole is gathering momentum, in part fuelled by a recent $500 million investment by the Crystalbrook Collection and its three Cairns hotels, Riley, Bailey and the Flynn, due to open to guests in October. The trio has added a swag of eateries and bars, including the swish Rocco at Riley, the city’s first rooftop watering hole.
Cairns’ small bar scene already packs a considerable punch, kicking off back in 2016 with the arrival of pint-sized, speak-easy-style hit, Three Wolves.
Its savvy owners now also have Gin Social at The Hilton and the rum-fuelled Flamingos Tiki Bar in a basement on the Esplanade. Last year they opened micro distillery Wolf Lane, whose newly minted Navy Strength Gin scooped honours as the world’s best in The Gin Guide Awards 2020.
Mt Uncle Distillery, tucked inland among the banana plantations of Walkamin, is another award-winning local gin maker.
Prefer a beer? Sink a Tropical Ale overlooking the water at Hemingway’s on Cairns Wharf, it’s a sibling to marina-side Hemingway’s at Port Douglas. Or support turtle rehabilitation with a visit to Barrier Reef Brewing’s low-key Two Turtles Tap Room, on the way to the airport.
Need perking up? You’ll still need to stray off the beaten track to find some of the region’s best specialty coffee, such as roaster White Whale Coffee Roaster’s Cairns Espresso Bar, The Chamber Room and Blackbird Laneway. Quirky Tattooed Sailor, a small batch roaster with cafe attached, sits not far from White Whale in the gritty suburb of Bungalow, the work of co-owners Ian Chill and Oliver James.
James has form. He opened the city’s first hipster alleyway joint, Caffiend in 2009. Caffiend now has new owners and a new location, but it’s still pouring strong — and James is still pushing quality coffee. In January he and Chill opened a cafe called Guyala (white bellied sea eagle in local language), which boasts water-view digs on Cairns Esplanade.
Key to these local operators’ success is a focus on pleasing locals, rather than trying to second guess a sometimes fickle tourist market. You’ll find a unique taste of the tropics at unpretentious Noa in Edge Hill and the Italian-leaning Hopscotch at Holloways Beach. In Port Douglas, visit no-fuss Little Larder and onsite bakery-cafe Grant Street Kitchen.
As COVID-19 restrictions loosen I’ll be suggesting to Sophie we fly north again soon. After all, it’s perfect for a spot of rejuvenation — not just for us, but for the hardworking producers and local businesses we’ll support by travelling back there.
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Start planning your visit to Cairns & Great Barrier Reef now.
Visit tropicalnorthqueensland.org.au