Another big food win has been announced for the region with Byron and hinterland awarded Outstanding Region in the Delicious Australia Produce Awards 2016.
Northern Rivers Food’s Anne Briggs congratulated’ all the local farmers, food producers, food service providers and food manufacturers in this region, who have collectively won this award, and who make this region so tasty!’
‘Special congratulations must go to local food manufacturers Salumi Australia for their gold medal win in the From the Sea category for Bottarga, which is such a great new product and a real delicacy to be grated over a seafood pasta or on pizza’, Anne said.
The Viagra of the Sea
Michael Dlask from Salumi said that bottarga is, ‘in all seriousness, the viagra of the sea’. Bottarga is a dried, pressed and salted mullet roe, sourced from two kilometres off the Salumi factory during the May-June mullet run.
‘Bottarga made with mullet is a Sardinian delicacy, and a gentleman from Sardinia used to come to the northern rivers each year at the end of the mullet run, take ten tonnes of it back to Sardinia and then export processed bottarga to Australia. The food miles used to drive us crazy’.
Together with his partner Massimo, Michael developed their local product over about a year, working with Markwood Fisheries in the Tweed.
‘Our local bottarga is nowhere near as salty and fishy as the European product’, said Michael, ‘here we use a sweeter, more delicate flavour that is more suited to the Australian palates’.
Josh Lewis from Fleet restaurant in Brunswick Heads was announced the “Unearthed Next Gen Chef” winner. They are certainly onto something at Fleet, with front-of-house Astrid McCormack deservedly winning a Good Food Guide award for excellent service, and the restaurant, the restaurant winning a second GFG hat and winning best regional NSW wine list (see adjacent article).
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