Brisbane has become the epicenter of modern and creative Asian cuisine. Incidentally, Brisbane’s Asian restaurants are also some of the best restaurants in Brisbane. For your road trips in Australia, these restaurants are a must-visit.
FantAsia
FantAsia Brisbane offers Asian fast food. By using traditional cooking methods and local, seasonal produce, FantAsia delivers fresh and authentic Asian flavors without the price and wait of typical Asian cuisine restaurants.
The main attraction at FantAsia is the Tokyo Beef entree, which complements the lemongrass and ginger tea.
Sake
Sake Restaurant and Bar focuses on contemporary Japanese cuisine with hints of California and European flavors. The restaurant offers private dining rooms as well as communal banquet dining area.
Sake’s signature dishes include steamed prawn dumplings and ‘glacier 51’ tooth-fish lettuce cups.
Asian-Szechuan Bang Bang Cuisine
Inspired by the traditional cuisine of the Sichuan Province, Asian-Szechuan has brought Southwest China flavors to Brisbane. Cooking methods that date back 2,000 years add to the customary tang.
Black fungus and tofu skin salad with garlic and chili oil is offered as an entrée. The less adventurous can opt for a classic dish like Sichuan beef hot pot.
Golden Barbeque
Focusing on classic Chinese BBQ, Golden Barbeque offers large portions and authentic flavors. This hidden gem offers a mom and pop environment with economic prices. Check out their staple dish of BBQ duck.
Taigum Gardens
Taigum Gardens has a vast array of Chinese cuisine options inspired by multiple Chinese delicacies. Large portions and high-quality meats can be expected from this quint restaurant, which is geared to adults. Must-try dishes include the crispy honey beef, the traditional roast duck, and the mango ice cream.
Happy Boy
Located on Mein St., this hidden gem focuses on Chinese cuisine with hints of French and Italian inspiration. Happy Boy offers a small, charming space in a converted warehouse. Recommendations include the dried fried green beans, salt and pepper prawns and pork belly sliders.
Bird’s Nest Yakitori & Bar
Bird’s Nest brings traditional Japanese Yakitori to Brisbane. Using solely fresh, free-range meats and organic produce, Bird’s Nest offers multiple gluten-free and vegetarian options. They specialize in skewers with beef, chicken, veggies, tofu and/or pork belly.
Paddington Curry House
Specializing in Indian and Nepalese cuisine, Paddington Curry House provides complementary rice with every curry order. Staples include paneer tikka, an Indian cheese marinated in tandoori spices then grilled to perfection, and traditional chicken malai tikka. Their goat curry is a staple for every curry fanatic.
Citron Restaurant
For anyone who enjoys modern twists to their Asian cuisine will fall in love with Citron. Owned and operated by Robert Foley, previously of Piccolo Restaurant, and notable chef Mark Newman. Citron is the only restaurant in town where eaters can find green tea salt calamari with ginger chili dipping sauce.
Fat Noodle Restaurant
Fat Noodle was created by famed chef Luke Nguyen, and includes a mix of Vietnamese, Chinese, Thai and Malay dishes. Nguyen’s signature dish is Fat Pho Noodles, which consists of a 20-hour beef broth, bean sprouts, fresh Thai basil, fresh chili and rice noodles.
The first season of Food Hero has made the name Sarah Benjamin popular whole over the world. She was known not only for her fond of cooking and passion for culinary world but also for her gregarious and down-to-earth personality. Born in food-crazy and industrious country, Sarah Benjamin has an undeniable passion for food and travel. Her straight-thinking personality is developed in a helping family. Yes, she was grown up in a warm family of a British father and a Chinese mother.
Sarah Benjamin
Development of Cooking Passion in Sarah Benjamin’s Life
Singapore is known for its craziness about foods and culinary-related things. This is certainly a good environment for the development of her cooking and travelling passion. Her obsession with food was also supported by her family since young age. Little Sarah was used to help her grandmother cooking Chinese specific cakes and foods, such as Yam Abacus, particularly when they were to welcome important celebrations, such as Chinese New Year.
Therefore, she admitted that her grandmother and grandaunt were culinary role models for her. Uniquely, her grandaunt was blind; therefore, she helped Sarah cooking by using hearing, smell, and touches, despite the fact the she could chop the ingredients! A unique tradition in her family was preparing foods, which were enough for twice the number of people who wanted to eat them. Therefore, there were always many foods on their dining table. How could she not fall in love with culinary things?
Sarah Benjamin used to prepare foods for her family and friends. Yes, she always smiles after finishing preparing delicious and healthy foods for her loved ones. She loves home cooked meal and stays away from junk foods. She brought this tradition until the time for university. When she moved to Scotland for political and sociological study at the University of Edinburg, she began to develop her passion in cooking Asian specific foods. She started her own cooking blog and shared great cooking experience and food styling.
Sarah Benjamin
Sarah Benjamin’s Professional History in Cooking
After graduating from Edinburg University, Sarah did not immediately return to Singapore. In Singapore, she then worked as a marketing executive for a restaurant chain. She still frequently appeared as a corporate host. Aside for her professional job, Sarah Benjamin actually prefers to try out need foods and new cooking recipes at home. Therefore, her mission to feed people and make them happy really makes sense.
Sarah Benjamin’s popularity began when she won the first season of Food Hero. It is an online and on-air program held by Asian Food Channel and Food Network. The program received mostly positive responses from the spectators in many countries of Asia. Sarah Benjamin is one of the two winners for the program. Sarah Benjamin from Malaysia and Michele Lean from Malaysia were announced by Scripps Network Interactive – a provider of home design, food, and travel contents – as the winners.
As Michele Lean does, Sarah Benjamin excelled more than 300 participants of the program and she won it because of her spirit and unique character when it comes to culinary and traveling passion. As the reward, Sarah would become a host for Must Try: Asia – program owned by Scripps Network. The program is suitable with her passion since she and the team would visit many areas in Asia, try out the foods, and find out unique things about the culture and culinary traditions of the country.
Amidst her busy schedules, Sarah Benjamin keeps writing in her food and culinary blog. She shares unique culinary creations with online community, where she can get great responses, supports, and ideas from the readers. Her capability to write in Mandarin, English, Malay, Korea, and Cantonese is an advantage since she can reach more readers, thanks to her multi-cultural family.
How Sarah Benjamin Develops Her Passion in Food and Culture
Her passion in food and culture is not questionable. Sarah Benjamin is creative in creating fresh recipes, which other people might never think of. She is always encouraged to create her own recipes, and always shares them in her food blog. Writing (whether in her blog or notebook) is her way to make the ideas for recipes real. She is really food of cooking Asian foods even though she cooked European cuisine for the first time. As an adventurous cook, she tries out any new things in the kitchen.
Despite her skills and passion, Sarah Benjamin still focuses on her wonderful adventures in hosting the cooking shows. In the near future, her focuses are writing her own cookbooks, sharing them in her blog, inspiring others to have fun in the kitchen, and hosting more shows to encourage others to love their country’s cuisine and culture. She realizes that every country has its own unique recipes and spices, which cannot be found in other countries; so are the cultures.
When trying out cuisines in different countries, she is always inspired to develop new ideas. For her, a discerning eater is able to distinguish between flavor and texture. This way, she can develop new styles and technique in cooking. The most important thing is having fun in cooking as well as eating.
Interesting Facts about Sarah Benjamin
Aside from her cooking and culinary passion, Sarah Benjamin has an interesting personality, since she was grown in a helping and sensible family. She has a unique way of seeing the world, thanks to her multi-cultural parents, experience in journalism, and multi-lingual competence. She also loves fashion, photography, and playing cello and piano. She also has special interests in travelling, as she loves to see new places, meet new people, and learn others’ cultures. Anytime she visits a country, she always learns something new.
When she was a child, Sarah Benjamin had many unusual bedtime stories, which spanned some centuries, thanks to anthropologist and sociologist parents. They even included myths, history of Singapore, Malay culture, and society. Her mother (who is a researcher) frequently told her the history from some Asian countries, including local folklore from Indonesia. Her parents also took her for fieldwork to interesting areas in Malaysia and Indonesia. It is not surprising that Sarah Benjamin socializes well with local people. She used to stay in kampong houses when they did field trips.
Must Try: Asia
Food Hero winner Sarah Benjamin and the ever-innovative Chef Malcolm Goh travel across Asia’s most popular capitals and tuck into the city’s signature dishes in Must Try: Asia. Whether it’s Singapore’s famous Chicken Rice or Bangkok’s tasty stir-fried rice noodle, this adventurous duo will show you how creative you can go in re-creating these iconic dishes in your kitchen! Only on the Asian Food Channel.
After the first season of Food Hero, her name keeps rising to popularity. Yes, she is Michele Lean, one of the winners of the program. She is known for her passion in culinary world. Born in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on September 1st of 1982, Lean spent most of her early life in the Capital City of Malaysia, Borneo, Melbourne, and Hong Kong. It is even difficult for her to answer the question, “We are you from?” since she considers them all her homes.
Michele Lean
Michele Lean is a passionate traveler, as she has traveled to different parts of the world, such as Indonesia, China, Canada, and Australia. She loves beach and marine life very much. For this hobby, she calls herself a beach girl, as she is always amazed with the beauty of sea, sand, and sun. The woman with full name Michele Yi Wen Samantha Lean is also fond of technology and architecture and crazy about cartoon characters, such as Stewie and Daria from Happy Tree Friends and Family Guy.
Michele Lean’s Education
As she has traveled and breathed in different cities for extended period, Michele Leans also studied in different countries. She studied as Island School Hong Kong, where her passion for television developed, thanks to CNN Hong Kong. In Malaysia, she studied at Garden International School. In her hometown, her talent in the world of selling consumerism was ignited. In Malaysia, she took internship programs at Herald Sun online department, CNN International Asia Pacific, and the Sun newspaper.
In Melbourne, Australia, she studied at University of Melbourne, from which she graduated with Bachelor of Arts in Media and Communications in 2007. She had part time career in acting and modeling in this city. There, her camera experience begun and her knowledge of print and online media developed after working as editor-in-chief for Veeza magazine. Her acting skills were polished in New York Film Academy. In other words, Michele Lean is a perfect blend of different cultures and skills.
Professional Career
In 2007, she moved to China, where her professional career in television began to rise. In the same year, she was recruited by China Central Television for English-based CCTV-9, in which, she hosted an English language program in traveling, called Travelogue. Later, she hosted a music variety show called Centre Stage. With Travelogue, she gained much experience and knowledge about Chinese cultures, from the lives of Chinese ethnic minorities to the nightlife in the busy city of Beijing.
Michele Lean
Her broadcasting experience began when her Travelogue’s program was filmed in Xinjiang, China. The program, called Ethnic Odyssey, provided her with great opportunities to try the life of ethnic minorities. She lived with nomadic Kazakh in the mountains of Altay. She rode horse as the main transportation facility from one location to another. But overall, she loves the diversity, color, breathtaking scenery, music, and archeological sites in Xinjiang. Her adventurous experiences with Travelogue have been released on DVD version in China.
From the moment on, she appeared in different TV programs in different countries, such as Malaysia and Australia. She even hosted a special program, which was aired throughout Beijing Olympics in 2008. In 2011, she hosted Outlook English, a two-episode series in CCTV-10, Beijing. Then, since became a guest-judging panel of Star of Outlook 2011 for the same channel. In Malaysia, she appeared in Icon Magazine – a luxury and society publication – from 2009 to 2010.
Insights about Foods and Cultures
Her mother and grandmother are very good cooks. They love experimenting with different ingredients That is why Michele Lean loves culinary world. She was always involved in the process of cooking and serving foods during her childhood. Despite a little girl, she was taught how to make sophisticated dishes, omelet (particularly for her father, who loves egg very much), cereal, juice, and sandwiches. Her love for cooking developed formally, when she received a culinary scholarship – Culinary Trust 2012-2013 – offered by Le Cordon Bleu in Ottawa, Canada.
During her travel around the world, Michele Lean has tried different types of foods, whether Asian and Western. She notices how geography, history, and culture of a country influence the taste, particularly in the usage of spices. For her, the best way to experience a true culture of a place or a country is by eating the local foods. She believes that foods give us a universal understanding of a country’s culture, where language is not a barrier anymore. Without words, you can learn a country’s culture through foods.
For the 32-year-old TV presenter, a tasty food represents a balance between textures, use of spices, and flavor. This is only served by a cook, who cares and loves the food she/he serves. She finds that each country she has visited has some best foods, which cannot be found in any other countries. In Indonesia, she loves kek lapis, or layered cake, but she also found great foods in Malaysia, China, and Australia.
Vision of Culinary Industry
Michele Lean loves the culinary industry very much, as she has been forged by some culinary TV programs, which she hosted. After Travelogue, she hosted Foods Wars, where she took the contestants to a journey in cooking. As she loves food concepts, she may some day pursue a plan to open a restaurant as a business. In addition, she would like to challenge the misconceptions related to foods. Her principle is try every thing even though it is not physically appealing. “You will never know how it tastes before you try it.”
She has pursued her career in travel and food, as they are her greatest passions. That is why Lean has not had a plan to pursue another business in different sector. Even though she may someday have a different business, I should have something to do with culinary world and travel.
Finally, for those who are interested in culinary world or looking forward to being a chef, Lean advises you to try everything as long as you are not allergic to it. In addition, besides the talent, learning from the right source is important, whether it is a mentor, a restaurant, or a formal school.
Food Wars Asia Premieres on Food Network, Tuesday, 7 April 2015 at 8.00pm (7.00PM JKT/TH)
Food Hero Michele Lean, travel lover and passionate about all things food, sets out to find the most celebrated dishes in Singapore and Malaysia, food that defines destinations and create local rivalries spanning generations. From Singapore’s famous Fishball Noodles to Malaysia’s Nasi Lemak, Food Wars Asia pits nation’s most famous culinary rivals against one another for a final showdown, where a blind taste test will settle the debate once and for all on who makes the best dish in town.
Want to participate Food War TV Show?
Know two great places in your country that’s serving the same dish and you can’t decide who’s best? Leave your comments on www.facebook.com/foodnetworkasia!
Among many celebrity chefs that color America’s culinary world, Martin Yan is the most prominent figure in promoting Chinese food, combining it with modern twists and solution for practical and easy cooking. His cheerful character helps him to become one of the most recognizable chefs in TV, especially with his famous show ‘Wok with Yan.’ While most people know him from his appearance in TV shows, Chef Yan is a genius and renowned figure in the world of Chinese and Cantonese culinary.
Educational Background
Martin Yan has been exposed to the world of culinary and fresh products since very tender age. Born in Guangzhou on December 22nd 1948, Martin Yan has a father who is a famous restaurant owner and a mother who is a grocer. Therefore, he has been familiar with the world of cooking and fresh products since he was very young. However, he only started to cook seriously at the age of 12 and mostly learned to cook Cantonese and Shanghai food which is his root.
Martin Yan then decided that cooking is his way, and so when he moved to Hong Kong in 1961, he started working part time in his uncle’s Chinese barbeque restaurant to support his college as well as to learn more about Chinese cuisine. His experience here would further increase his cooking repertoire in Chinese culinary.
Later, he continued his cooking study, first at Overseas Institute of Cookery in Hong Kong, and then University of California where he got Master Degree in 1975, in food science field. However, only after 3 years did people start to recognize him.
The Fame Time
At first, he worked at the same university where he got his Master Degree as teacher, but in 1978, he started his first cooking show called Yan Can Cook, which quickly became a huge hit. Basically, the show concept is like traveling cooking, in which Chef Yan travels to various places and interacts with people, and then he will talk about the area’s specialty or specific features before creating dishes that are related to the areas he visit. Not only tourist destinations, in one episode, he even traveled to a jailhouse.
Yan Can Cook was one of the biggest hits in the 70’s cooking show, and it has been broadcasted to several counties including Indonesia. His recipes and his cheerful personality helped launching his name into public eyes. Until now, he has been a guest to more than 3,000 cooking shows in America and Asia. He even served as a judge in an episode of Hell’s Kitchen.
Yan’s Role in Chinese Cuisine
Martin Yan is considered a pioneer in introducing the richness of Chinese culinary world to the Western world. According to him, while Chinese food definitely already got a good place in Western world’s tables, many people still have no idea that ‘Chinese food’ does not encompass the richness of that culinary tradition.
There are so many variations in Chinese food according to regions, and each has its own characteristics. Therefore, Chef Martin Yan has made it his mission to introduce the more complex and sophisticated Chinese foods to public, including telling them about Cantonese, Shanghai, Beijing, Sichuan and Xian cuisines.
Currently, being a chef is not just about cooking, creating recipes and running a restaurant or kitchen. A successful chef with good look can become ‘celebrity chef,’ just like in the case of Chef James Martin. While Chef Martin spent years learning about catering, savory cooking and pastry making, he is also well known in England and even in the world through his various TV shows since 1996.
Background
Born in 1972 in Yorkshire, England, Martin was originally a farmer kid who enjoyed cooking with his mother. He continued his interest in coking via a professional study in Scarborough Technical College, were he studied catering and had training at several famous restaurants, including Hostellerie De Plaisance in France.
With such impressive background, Martin was able to find his first job before age 20 as staff at Maison Troisgros, also in France. He then returned to England and worked at several famous restaurants there such as One Ninety Queen’s Gat, The Square and Harvey’s, before becoming pastry chef at Chewton Glen Hotel.
First TV Debut
Chef Martin first became TV celebrity in 1996 when he appeared in James Martin: Yorkshire’s Finest, in which he explored the culinary richness of his hometown. However, his name then started to soar when he appeared inBBC 2 cooking program, called Ready Steady Cook. Interestingly, at one point during his appearance in that program, he also gained world record as the fastest carrot chopper in the world, when he peeled and chopped 515 grams (almost a quarter pound) of carrots in 60 seconds.
Further Celebrity Debut
Chef Martin appeared in BBF Food show Stately Supers as well as reality show in Channel 4, where he and the host visited home cooks at their own houses for comfort food cooking challenge. Then, he got his first presenter gig in BBC1 in a weekend show called Saturday Kitchen. By this time, his name soared among BBC viewers as one of their celebrity chefs.
After Saturday Kitchen, Martin appeared in various shows such as Can You Cook It?, The Great British Village Show, James Martin’s Christmas Feast and Eating with the Enemy. One of his most successful programs was Operation Hospital Food, where he improved menu quality at Scarborough General Hospital. This show was highly appreciated by viewers, and becoming one of Chef Martin’s most successful shows.
TV Appearances in 2013
Chef Martin apparently has not lost his celebrity charm. This 2013, he appeared at several shows. Between February and March, Chef Martin explored United States and sampled various cakes and snacks before reviewing them in United Cakes of America. He was also involved in judging panel in June show, The Roux Scholarship, together with Angela Hartnett and Raymond Blanc.
His most recent appearance was in June, when he appeared in The Great British Budget Menu and showed various nutritious, delicious recipes with cheap ingredients. Besides all his TV appearances, Chef Martin is also a successful restaurant owner with two restaurants; The Leeds Kitchen at Alea Casino (closed due to the closing of the casino) and the latest one in The Talbot Hotel in North Yorkshire.
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