Global food markets on international display

Celebrity British chef Ainsley Harriott is doing his part to showcase our city’s diverse produce and markets with the screening of Ainsley’s Market Menu featuring our Logan Central Global Food Markets.

The popular TV series, which is screened in 130 countries will be broadcast throughout Australia on SBS on 24 October.

When the episode was shot earlier this year, Ainsley visited stalls collecting locally-grown ingredients and tasted many of the largely ethnic cuisines on offer while deciding which dishes to prepare.

He bought Halal lamb, kundru, cassava, turmeric, ginger and plenty of Asian greens provided by local vendors and then used the ingredients to cook three gourmet dishes on site at his stall as hundreds of market-goers and vendors looked on.

The first dishes he made were a global green shot and coconut smoothie and Asian lamb patties on char-grilled cassava. As a main course he created Ram’s kundru pumpkin vegetable curry, which  he made for stallholder Ram Harakh Maharaj, of Shailer Park, who was celebrating his 85th birthday.

During filming Ainsley said the markets were among the most diverse he had visited—with the range of local produce rivalling some of the huge street markets in London.

“The food here (in Logan) was fantastic, fresh and vibrant and I just wanted to cook it,” he said.

“Everyone was so friendly. It was just a brilliant day.”

Ainsley’s visit to the City of Logan’s Global Food Markets follows the hugely successful guest appearance at the markets in 2017 by MasterChef runnerup Poh Ling Yeow.

The Sunday morning Global Food Markets, based in Croydon Rd, Logan Central, are a weekly event run by Ethnic Communities Council of Logan Inc. with support from Logan City Council.

The majority of the produce on sale is sourced from backyard gardens and community vegetable plots across the city and includes ingredients suited to Asian, African, Middle Eastern, Indian and Pacific Island cuisines.

For more information on the weekly Global Food Markets go to globalfoodmarkets.com.au