Watch Sachie’s Kitchen: Meet the restaurateur changing Auckland’s Asian food scene
Tuesday, 9 July 2024
New Zealand’s Asian food scene started in the 1860s when Cantonese goldminers introduced wonton soup and sweet sour pork, but one Auckland restaurateur has set out to diversify the tastebuds.
In this week’s episode of Sachie’s Kitchen, chef Sachie Nomura is home in Auckland, where she runs Sachie’s Kitchen cooking school.
Nomura is on a culinary tour around New Zealand, inspired by local produce from the regions, showcasing the best food and drink of each NZ region.
Each Tuesday, a new episode of her foodie road trip series is released on Stuff Travel.
In the latest episode, Nomura visits Elliot Stables in the central city, the home of restaurant Jungle 8.
It is restaurateur Paul Wong’s 20th restaurant, returning home after 15 years in Shanghai.
“Chinese food in New Zealand is based on the first immigrants that came to New Zealand from southern China,” he tells Nomura.
“What you eat in the takeaways is from that original cooking from the first settlers doing their first restaurants in New Zealand. You see food from all parts of China now so its quite diverse.”
Wong, whose family has been in New Zealand for 100 years, wanted to bring a bit of “late night vibrancy” to street food.
The Japanese-born, Kiwi-raised personality also visits Tala in Auckland’s Parnell to get a taste of Samoa.
Chef Henry Onesemo teaches her to cook umu, a traditional way of steaming food using hot rocks and banana leaves. The pair make smokey umu octopus served in a coconut shell.
In the episode, Onesemo tells Nomura his dad inspires him to cook.
“Growing up in Samoa helping out my dad making the umu, I loved it. It’s a happy, happy food memory for me. You transported me back to my childhood.”
Next, Nomura takes a trip to the Pukekohe Farmers Market where she catches up with Alan Fong, whose family has grown vegetables for supermarkets there since the 1950s.
Fong says he is obsessed with lettuce, and has introduced many varieties to New Zealand. He and Nomura make Chinese blanched lettuce which takes just minutes to put together.
Travelling to the Waikato, Nomura meets Matamata free-range chicken farmer Ibrahem Break at Waitoa Farms. The two of them make spiced Jordanian chicken, a dish from Break’s homeland, where his 13 siblings live.
At the end of the episode, Nomura creates a dish inspired by the local producers she meets. This week she makes a spicy chicken burger, served in a bao bun, inspired by Fong’s lettuce and Break’s free-range chicken.
Watch the full episode of Sachie’s Kitchen at the top of this story, and watch the previous episodes below. You can also find her recipes online inspired by the series published each week, such as this gin-cured salmon with beetroot.
Watch Sachie’s Kitchen Episode 1: Marlborough
Watch Sachie’s Kitchen Episode 2: Rotorua
Watch Sachie’s Kitchen Episode 3: Hong Kong and China