For his first foray into India, Luke Nguyen knew he wanted to head to the southern part of the country. Ahead of Luke's Nguyen India, premiering on SBS Food, he tells us what he finds so fascinating about the region, from complex spices to a mutton biryani made in a wrestling arena.
SBS Food: Why did you decide to set sail on India this time, and specifically South India?
Luke Nguyen: I've always been fascinated by India and its cuisine, and it's a place where I hadn't been before. I film in Southeast Asia a lot, and I wanted to step out of my comfort zone and do something completely new. In Australia, we're familiar with North Indian cuisine like naan, tandoori, tikka masala and butter chicken.
We know all those dishes and eat them regularly, but I find that South India is quite unknown to us. So I really wanted to explore that further.
Luke Nguyen on his travels through South India. Credit: Supplied
I wanted to go to South India to learn more about the cuisine, spices, culture, and everything else in between.
SBS Food: Can you describe South Indian cuisine in a few words?
Luke Nguyen: It’s a lot lighter, with very delicate and elegant flavours. They use a lot of spices, but a little bit at a time that are balanced extremely well.
What attracted me to Southern India as well was the use of fresh seafood. Lots of crab, prawn and fish.
Tandoor fish with Asian masala.
SBS Food: What surprised you the most while filming this show?
Luke Nguyen: The amount of ingredients in the dishes. Let's say I'm cooking a Southeast Asian dish, I might have nine or 10 ingredients, but in Southern India, it's 30, 40 ingredients! Trying to get my head around all the spices was incredible. It took me a while to get that balance right because it's a lifetime of learning this stuff.
Luke Nguyen loves the amount of seafood you can find in South Indian cuisine. Credit: Supplied
SBS Food: Did you learn about any new ingredients?
Luke Nguyen: There was this fungus, which grows on trees; it’s called stone flower, and it grows on stone as well. The texture was amazing. When you first smell it there isn't a lot of aroma but as heat goes through it, oh my goodness, the flavours, the nuttiness that came through; it was overwhelmingly amazing! You can put it in goat stews or vegetarian dishes.
Trying to get my head around all the spices was incredible.
SBS Food: Tell us about one of the most memorable experiences you had filming.
Luke Nguyen: I was in Bangalore and it was one of the first days of shooting. It all started by trying to find the best mutton biryani. People told me to go to this place in the Muslim Quarter. There was this low door, and then you enter the room and it's a wrestling arena with a red mud pit. I thought, "Am I in the right place? I don't want to wrestle!"
They cook the mutton biryani to pay for the equipment and the trainers. And so while they're training, other wrestlers and cooks make this big pot of biryani over charcoal fire. When they finish training, there's a queue at the door. They've been doing the biryani since the 1980s. And as I was watching the wrestling, I helped them cook the biryani. We all sat together and shared the biryani. Locals came, and it was really busy. No one was talking; we were just passing the food to each other, communicating through food.
It’s a great example that yes, our show is about the food, but it's about everything else as well: the history, the traditions, the culture.
SBS Food: What about your favourite snack of the season?
Luke Nguyen: I really enjoyed the bhajis. Think tempura but with a thicker paste, like almost a fish-and-chips paste but with lots of beautiful spices through it. And they bhaji everything: fish, crab, prawn, whole green chilli, eggplant, potato. They fry everything up in this lovely spiced batter.
We were just passing the food to each other, communicating through food.
SBS Food: Now that you have had a taste of Southern India, would you like to visit the rest of the country?
Luke Nguyen: I've started this journey and there could be series 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8! I'm so hungry to learn more and discover more. Indian cuisine is a cuisine that keeps teaching.
