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Christine Anu
episode • Memory Bites with Matt Moran • cooking • 25m
PG
episode • Memory Bites with Matt Moran • cooking • 25m
PG
WARNING: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are warned that the following article contains the image of a deceased person.
“Fried fish! Definitely, definitely, definitely,” replies Christine Anu when I ask her what smell evokes her childhood the most.
Growing up between Queensland and the Torres Strait Islands, the singer-songwriter and actress’s fondest food memories centre around her mother, who hailed from Saibai Island.
“She was inventive and creative with just a few ingredients,” she recalls. Living on a remote island meant that when choppy waters delayed the cargo boat, they had to make do with seafood and whatever was left in the cupboard. Think fish stock over rice, puffed up fried scones for dipping, and a side of fried or stewed fish.
Christine Anu's mum cooking cottage pie with her.
A spiritual connection
For Anu, food, just like music, is a deeply spiritual experience.
“Sometimes, when you're eating something, it can take you far back in your memory. Music can do that too," the celebrated singer says. "Memories stir you. When you're singing, you're visualising moments in your mind and that mixes with the tone that you're creating through your throat, your larynx and inside your body. That sound carries the emotion that you're giving to the audience. And that's also an oral experience.”
And there’s nothing quite like hearing how her music has impacted someone’s life, something she never takes for granted.
“I love being approached by people who say that my music has been there for them at a particular time in their life and it pulled them through. Isn't that special? Isn't that a really, really special thing to hear? To know that you've been there for someone, but you haven't. It was your music. That is just stunning.”
Domboys, bully beef stew and family traditions
On the , Anu gets to wade back into her memories through key dishes that remind her of her childhood.
For example, when she came home from school, Anu was welcomed by the smell of freshly made domboys.
“The school was just across the road so the bell would go off, and mum could hear it. She'd be out the back doing the hand washing on a board. She'd put the hot water in the pot on and quickly make some domboys, these long sausage-shaped dumplings. You dip them in a mixture of butter and golden syrup. So simple, and so beautiful,” she reminisces.
Domboys are Torres Strait Islander dumplings that can be sweet or savoury. Credit: KITTI GOULD
Another one of the Anu family favourites is bully beef stew, made with tinned corned beef, a necessity when fresh meat wasn’t always available on the Islands. “Every Indigenous family in Australia has a version of it,” she says.
On the show, Moran creates a refined take on the dish using Wagyu beef. Anu loved it but insists nothing compares to the original: “I love you, Matt Moran, but, you know, I can't rub out those memories that are stored deep inside the cells inside my body.”
The bully beef stew made on Memory Bites Credit: KITTI GOULD
Where to eat Torres Strait Island food
When craving the , Anu has to cook them herself as there’s no Torres Strait Island restaurant where she lives in Queensland. But when she’s in Melbourne, she makes a beeline for .
“I’m absolutely delighted and feel so proud that our culinary heritage is being represented in a capital city of Australia,” she says, adding that she hopes Bero will inspire more Torres Strait Islanders to open restaurants around the country.
