Torres Strait Islander Cooking: The Other Tradition

Torres Strait Islander food culture is distinct from mainland Aboriginal food culture — a fact that the blanket term "Indigenous Australian" often obscures. The Torres Strait Islands (between the tip of Cape York and Papua New Guinea) are a Melanesian culture with closer culinary ties to Papua New Guinea and the Pacific Islands than to the Australian mainland. The food system is ocean-centred — fish, turtle, dugong, crayfish, and shellfish — with tropical crops including coconut, banana, yam, taro, and cassava. Nornie Bero (Mabu Mabu restaurant in Melbourne) is the most prominent contemporary voice for Torres Strait Islander cuisine.

The Torres Strait food system is built on:

Coconut-poached reef fish with taro, topped with sambal from local chillies — this is Torres Strait on a plate. It tastes more like the Pacific than the outback.