Sushi Sammy

Published 26th June 2010



Recently I walked into Smithfield Shopping Centre and there at ISP Fish Market was a familiar face –Sammy; in his element behind the counter filleting and slicing seafood, his dexterous hands working his razor sharp knife through the freshest of fish. He looks up, smiles broadly and says ‘hai’ just as he did for years from behind his sushi bar at his Yama Restaurant in Spence Street.

Masami (Sammy) Kawano paved the way for Japanese restaurants in Cairns when he opened Yama restaurant in 1987. Arriving from Melbourne he was aware of the quality of this regions yellow fin tuna, however at that time; procuring sashimi was a challenge. Sammy had to bring tuna from Sydney until he could convince local fishers to supply very fresh, unfrozen sashimi grade tuna.

His other dilemma was that local people were unfamiliar with Japanese cuisine and this also took some time before acceptance set in. With the Japanese tourist boom in the ‘90’s things changed and with that more Japanese restaurants appeared in town.

Interestingly, when you walked into Yama’s you would find not the Japanese tourists but the Japanese tourist operators. It seemed that this was their special (home away from home) eating spot, and away from work. ‘Don’t tell the tourists about Yama’?

Now at ISP Fish Market, what a great partnership this is with the McAtamney family and Sammy Kawano? Here is a reputable local fishing family business with the expertise of a seafood master chef offering a quality product to the Smithfield and beaches area. You can find Sammy there in person at ISP on Thursday, Friday and Saturday and he makes up enough sushi & sashimi for Sunday.

Fruit Wine Awards

Published 19th June 2010



Without a grape wine industry in the tropics our emerging fruit wine alternative has flourished with wines made from mango, jaboticaba, lychee, Davidson plum, pitaya, mangosteen, ginger and passionfruits, to name a few.This region has the most commercial fruit wineries than anywhere else in Australia and so it’s befitting to hold the 2010 Australian Fruit Wine Awards in Cairns.

Next Saturday fruit wines from all over Australia and New Zealand will vie for the gold, silver and bronze medals; judged by experienced and passionate fruit wine judges Amanda Conrad and Wayne Hewitt from Hobart.

I helped out last year and was surprised to see there were over 60 fruit wines and liqueurs entered with 40 from this region. The judging categories are similar to grape wine; Light Flavoured Dry Wine, Full Flavoured Dry Wine, Light Flavoured Sweet Wine, Full Flavoured Sweet Wine, Fortified Wine (Dessert Wine), Sparkling Wine and Liqueurs. I particularly enjoyed some of the fortified wines and tropical flavoured liqueurs.

Last year the Victorian ‘Thieves & Duffers’ won the Best Fruit Wine of the show and this year’s wine judge Wayne Hewitt’s Rebello had a stunning strawberry sparkling winner. However our local Murdering Point scored the best sweet wine for its Pinnacles Passionfruit wine and de Bruey’s Boutique Wines took out the Best Liqueur trophy with two of their Flagship Coffee Elixer and Tropical Temptation liqueurs.

The Australian Fruit Wine Awards is held each year in conjunction with the Cairns Show Wine Awards in a separate room downstairs in the De Jarlais function centre. This year the new Cafe and Market has been added to showcase local foods of the region.

So on Saturday 26th between 3-6pm you can come along to the public tasting of grape and fruit wines as well as local foods. For more information go to www.cairnswineawards.com.au .

Whey to Go - Buy Local Milk

Published 15th June 2010




It’s simple to just buy a bottle of milk from the supermarket and not think about where it comes from or what is actually in the bottle. Buying the local brands can have an enormous positive flow on effect that supports the local dairy industry and the region’s economy.

But there is more to our local milk! It has a purity that can only be achieve when all the milk in your glass comes from a 70klm radius as it does on our southern tableland. A glass of milk from the Brisbane area could be blend of milk from a radius of 700klm. With such a small output of milk from this region the product moves quickly, and because of our hot climate the milk is refrigerated from the milking shed to the consumer. This means our milk is really fresh.

You may not realise that milk takes on the flavours of its environment and our southern tablelands with high altitude and high rainfall produces rich tropical pastures that imbues milk with a definite tropical flavour of its own. Whereas other drier regions use a much higher percentage of silage or grains for stock feed, our lush tropical pasture impart a rich buttery flavour to the local milk. You can be proud that our region’s milk and cream products have won countless awards and in 2009 Dairy Farmers Malanda was named by Dairy Australia as Grand Champion for their full cream milk.

Mungalli Bio-Dynamic Dairy can’t get enough milk to satisfy the ever growing demand for its organic non homogenised product. Their fabulous milk allows the cream to float to the top, just like it used to years ago before homogenisation. This milk is so popular that even the little extra you pay does not deter the consumers.

So check the brand and buy local milk.

Now the Carnivale is Over…

Published 5th June 2010

Port really knows how to party! …and at the end of this year’s Port Douglas Carnivale there is one thing for sure; this event has proven to become highly successful as a food festival of the region.
With some adjustment to moving Food Wine and a Taste of Port forward to the first weekend and adding two new food events to the end of the 10 day festivities, it did not deter the throng of Port locals, Cairns and interstate visitors to the sell out events.

What a lot of fun there was at the Food Fight at the Sugar Wharf on Thursday evening? Organised by a group of restaurateurs called “Eat Port”, they decided that it was time the industry worked together to promote their establishment. 300 people showed up to barrack for their favourite restaurant, which incidentally was won by Tommy Young of 2 Fish Restaurant; it’s an event definitely not to be missed next year.

Eight rivalling chefs of the Food Fight called‘surrender’ the next evening, to present a stunning eight course degustation menu to 160 guests at Rex Smeal Park. The highlight was the previously filmed cooking demonstration of each course in the respective chef’s kitchens and beamed up on screen before the presentation of the dish. Another excellent event.

Despite the economic downturn of the region, it was encouraging to see a total sell-out of all Carnivale events and the great support for the Port Douglas restaurant industry. …and not to forget that only a week prior to Carnivale, Sea Temple Port Douglas hosted celebrity chef Manu Fiedel for a cooking demonstration luncheon for over 100 guests and dinner for 140 guests. It appears Port is draw card for food.