Adelaide Festival Centre’s OzAsia Festival 2015 kicks off in September and Festival Director Joseph Mitchell is getting in the mood with some odd eats from the oriental countries.
Presenting an impressive array of world-class performance works by artists at the cutting edge of contemporary Asia, the festival will focus on arts from Indonesia as well as performances from Japan, India, China, Taiwan and Korea. Australia’s leading arts festival presenting Asia in the 21st Century, the programme will present a total of 42 events across theatre, dance, music, visual arts, film and culture including 4 world premieres and 12 Australian premiere performances. There are more than 250 professional artists engaged to participate in the festival and over 70 scheduled performances, 10 visual arts exhibitions and a film program with 16 screenings.
Joseph Mitchell © Randy LarcombeThe first three days of the festival puts the spotlight on our closest neighbour, Indonesia with 20 events and more than 90 artists from Indonesia performing in Adelaide. This will be the largest showcase of arts and culture from Indonesia ever presented in Australia and includes artists and performances from Jakarta, Bandung, Cirebon, Yogyakarta, Solo and North Maluku.
Though these feasts won't be on the OzAsia Festival menu, they do make for an interesting introduction for what is to come in September. The full OzAsia Festival programme will be announced 7 July.
Mousedeer
I went on seven day hike in Cambodia with a young hunter/ guide from a remote tribe in the far north near Laos. I wanted to get off the beaten path and it was extremely remote jungle. On about day five, when the food supply was not much more than some boiled rice, we caught a mouse-deer and it was our meal for the next two days. Several weeks later I was at a popular zoo in Singapore and my friend pointed at this small animal and asked, ‘what’s that cute little thing?’ I told her with confidence, it was a mouse-deer.
Dragonflies
I think it was in Kunming Province, China, where I was sitting with a group of friends at a nice little restaurant by a lake on a sunny day chatting away and enjoying the day. Casually, we were served a large bowl of what looked like fried dragonflies which we proceeded to munch away on as if it were popcorn.
Snake
On around day two of that Cambodian hike (above), a snake was caught up in the fishing net we set up in a small river, so of course, it was dinner.
Lotus Root
Lotus root is just delicious, it’s simply the root of the lotus plant and extremely common-place in street food around China, but I’ve never eaten it in Australia. I just love its crunchy texture and it sits well with noodles, broth and loads of spices.
Jengkol
Basically, if something is non-meat based, I’ll eat it without any qualms. So I was surprised when my Indonesian colleagues in West Java were so shocked that I not only ate, but actually enjoyed Jengkol. Apparently it’s a type of pea, and here’s what the internet says: it smells bad, gives you bad breath and is mildly poisonous.OzAsia Festival is on at the Adelaide Festival Centre and surrounds, 24 September - 4 October.
