Win Taste of Sydney double passes

Taste of Sydney is back for another year in Centennial Park, from 14-17 March 2013. It's hard to think that last year's event can be topped, but I'm really looking forward to seeing what restaurants, stalls and masterclasses have to offer this year.

Taste of Sydney at Centennial Park
(Image courtesy of Stellar Concepts)

Restaurant stalls this year include newcomers Porteno, The Woods, Ananas Bar and Brasserie, Kitchen by Mike, Claude's, Popolo, Three Blue Ducks and great regional restaurant additions in Biota Dining and Muse Dining.

Returning to the line-up are The Cut Bar and Grill, Sake, Efendy, Four in Hand / 4Fourteen, Jonah's and L'étoile.

Taste of Sydney crowds
(Image courtesy of Stellar Concepts)

Coming on board as a major sponsor of Taste of Sydney this year is Malaysia Kitchen, which promotes all things delicious and edible from Malaysia and its cuisine around the world.

The Malaysia Kitchen marquee will feature a different pop-up restaurant every day, as well as a producer’s market and a cooking demo stage where ambassador and former MasterChef contestant Poh Ling Yeow along with Sydney’s own Jackie M will present demonstrations throughout the days.

Jackie M will feature at the Malaysia Kitchen marquee
at Taste of Sydney
(Image courtesty of Crossman Communications)

I asked Jackie M a few questions ahead of her Taste of Sydney appearances.

What do you think is the ‘taste of Malaysia’?

Malaysian cuisine really is an early form of fusion food, with flavours, ingredients and cooking styles harnessed from the melting pot of cultures that make up the country's inhabitants. Predominant among these influences are Malay, Chinese, Indian and to a lesser extent, Portuguese, Thai and Indonesian.

Whilst there are lots of varieties of dining styles within the vast landscape of Malaysian eats, I do believe where Malaysian cuisine makes its mark is in its street food - think Char Kway Teow, Satay, Laksa, Nasi Lemak, Roti Canai, Nasi Kandar - these are the kinds of dishes that come to mind immediately when Malaysian food is mentioned anywhere.

What is one Malaysian dish that you’d always prefer to eat out rather than make at home?

Assuming I'm on one of my trips back to Malaysia, however, what I would always prefer to eat out rather than make myself, is satay. 

 The reason is 1) it's a lot of work to cut up, marinate and skewer the meat, and to start up a charcoal fire to cook them on, not to mention roasting & pounding peanuts and cooking the sauce, and making the compressed rice squares to go with it - trust me, as someone who started out over 10 years ago as a satay specialist - I would know. 

2) I've always found the satays sold at satay stalls in Malaysia to be consistently good and to taste, for all intents and purposes, pretty much identical, so you're not hit with any unpleasant surprises.

Win a double pass to Taste of Sydney 

For your chance to win one of 10 double passes to Taste of Sydney, simply email your answer to the question below to foodboozeshoes @ gmail.com.

“What tastes do you think are missing from the Sydney dining scene?” 

Entries must be received by 9.00pm (AEDST) on Sunday, 10 March 2013. Please include your name and mailing address with your response. Winners will be announced on Monday, 11 March 2013 and tickets will be mailed to winners.
(Note: mailing addresses are used only for the purpose of sending winners' tickets).