“Sorry, we’re out of crocodile,” said Vanessa. There is no crocodile today, apologizes the waitress at the Charcoal Lane restaurant as she hands out the menus. The restaurant in Melbourne’s trendy Fitzroy district has been a household name for its “native Australian cuisine” for more than ten years. Dishes are served here whose ingredients are based on the traditional diet of the indigenous people, also known as bush food or bush tucker.
“But how about kangaroo or emu meat from the charcoal grill?” asks Vanessa. Charcoal Lane is a special restaurant and not just because of the main courses. The side dishes in particular, such as unknown vegetables, fruits such as quandong or Kakadu plums and spices such as wattleseed, strawberry gum or lemon myrtle, promise a completely new taste experience for European palates.
Traditional foods and their preparation have been experiencing a renaissance in Australia since the turn of the millennium. Not just through new restaurants that specialize in Aboriginal food. Many products and spices have long been found on supermarket shelves. But where do these come from?
Bush walk in the big city
You don’t have to drive into the bush to find the answer. The Royal Botanic Gardens in Melbourne, a green oasis with 12,000 different species in the middle of the metropolis, has recently started offering guided bush food tours in addition to the Aboriginal Heritage Walk.
Guide Kalkony actually comes from Queensland and knows not only the edible fruits of trees and bushes, but also the healing properties of plants. The young Aboriginal woman stops under a shady tree, plucks off a few leaves, rubs them in her hands and lets the tour participants taste them. After a pause, she waits for their reaction and laughs: “Now you’re all getting diarrhea!”
Kalkony explains the local flora with humor during her tour. This also applies to this medicinal plant from the rainforest, called Lemon Scented Myrtle. When dried, lemon myrtle is used as a spice and tea. “Or you can take ten leaves and throw them in the bath water; that helps against headaches.”
A few steps further, she peels paper-thin layers of fibrous bark from the thick trunk of a tree and passes these palm-sized pieces around. The bark of the Weeping Paperbark, which also belongs to the genus Myrtle, was used as a building material for waterproof huts, wrapping paper for food or as toilet paper. The oil extracted from the leaves also protects against insects.
At the end of the 90-minute tour through the botanical garden, which was laid out in the mid-19th century, everyone takes a seat in an open, round pavilion and is allowed to try. Not edible plants like before, but prepared snacks like in a tapas bar.
How about a taste, for example of Desert Lime Babaganoush, a wild eggplant puree on small croutons? Or with sandalwood mousse on cucumber slices with finger lime caviar and the salty lime leaf? “These are completely new flavors for me,” says one of the participants, “like a taste explosion in my mouth.”
More than just bush food at Charcoal Lane
The morsels of Aboriginal food passed around on the plates were prepared by trainees from Charcoal Lane. In addition to its catering service, the restaurant on Getrude Street also offers training positions. The old building was for a long time the headquarters of the Victorian Aboriginal Health Service, a “home away from home” for many Aboriginal people who ended up in the big city.
To this day, Charcoal Lane has retained its social character. Similar to “Rachs Restaurantschule” or “Jamie’s Kitchen”, young people learn to cook here – but here in combination with the knowledge of their ancestors. Young Aborigines from all over Australia come to this address to train in the catering industry and then return to their hometowns with a new perspective.