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Limes
episode • The Cook Up with Adam Liaw • cooking • 25m
PG
episode • The Cook Up with Adam Liaw • cooking • 25m
PG
When Sharon Winsor of a proud Ngemba Weilwan woman from Western NSW, answered a call from SBS Food online, she was strangely standing in the most meaningful place possible.
“I was on the side of the road in Moree, NSW, when you rang to talk to me about limes,” Winsor tells SBS. “I was literally just picking bush fruits and eating them.”
The simple act of enjoying bush fruits like native desert limes, roadside, holds deep meaning for Winsor. It’s something she used to do as a child with her father, who’s now passed.
“My dad was a truck driver who used to cart lots of grain. So I spent a lot of time in trucks with him. We used to pull over by the side of the road during our travels and eat limes fresh from the tree. You eat their skin and all. The skin is just as healthy as the pulp so it’s good to eat. We don’t waste anything.”
By picking bush fruits like desert limes as a child, and now as an adult, I have maintained my cultural identity.
The memory of eating desert limes freely with her father, in the thick of nature’s open-air supermarket, is one that Winsor now cherishes as an adult.
“Limes have been an important part of the Indigenous lifestyle for centuries. By picking bush fruits like desert limes as a child, and now as an adult, I have maintained my cultural identity. It is a way of life. It was who we were then and still is who we are today.”
Lime-flavoured memories
Across many Australian households, limes have long been used to add a citrus note to dishes. For musician limes have also been a source of memory.
She tells SBS that in her world, makrut limes are reminiscent of her share-house days. As Bowditch explains on a lime-themed episode of , makrut limes used to feature in a special dahl recipe that came from Ilka, a former flatmate.
Given her love of the dish, it seemed fitting for Bowdich to plant lime trees in her backyard when she moved into her own property 15 years ago. “We've got a makrut lime tree, which is just beautiful,” Bowditch tells Liaw on SBS. “We've also got a Tahitian lime tree and they are fecund, they are generous.”
These days Bowditch celebrates homegrown limes as a thing of beauty, especially when one features in Ilka’s dahl.
Lamb, limes and Aussie life
Melbourne-based restauranteur and executive chef of , cooks alongside Bowditch in the episode that pays homage to limes.
To Mai, limes capture the fresh essence of South East Asian flavours quite perfectly. However, the citrus burst of a lime also tells Mai’s family story.
Limes just add another dimension of freshness, an acidic sweetness and aromatic fragrance.
Born to Vietnamese parents, Mai’s cultural roots extend into Thailand and Cambodia. All three cultures integrate the power of lime in dressings, drinks and savoury dishes like pho or crispy skinned barramundi with green mango som tam salad.
Cook this recipe
Crispy-skinned barramundi with green mango som tam salad
“Growing up in a Vietnamese household in Australia, limes were always an essential part of the dressings we made, especially nước chấm – the life and soul of Vietnamese food,” Mai says. “Sometimes, I make nước chấm to eat with crabs, prawns and sea snails using fish sauce, sugar, lime juice and heaps of garlic.
“I also like using lime leaves when I grill fish on the barbecue over charcoal. The flavours of the lime leaves really permeate the fish… Limes just add another dimension of freshness, an acidic sweetness and aromatic fragrance.”
By far, Mai’s favourite use of lime is in the traditional Cambodian dipping sauce called tik prahok. It features fermented fish, lots of fresh lime juice and julienned makrut lime leaves.
“My parents would make this sauce to go with a big lamb cooked on the spit. When I was in my teens, my brother, dad and I would build the fire and light the spit, and then spear the lamb.
“The lamb rotated all afternoon until people came over. When it was done we’d slice off pieces of meat and dip them through the sauce. Oh my goodness, it was so good – especially the crispy bits and the fat.”
Mai explains that traditionally goat is paired with the lime dipping sauce in Cambodia. But growing up, the immigrant family saw lamb as a symbol of Australian life.
Food is always memory, especially if the meal you’re remembering was a dish you used to eat with your family.
“We haven’t had this dish for a while to be fair.” Mai pauses following a realisation.
“My dad used to be the instigator of the fire cooking, but he passed away a few years ago, so we haven't made it since. Maybe we should make it again this spring?”
Joking that the process of recalling lime-based family moments felt therapeutic, another poignant thought drops.
“Food is always memory, especially if the meal you’re remembering was a dish you used to eat with your family.
“All this talk about limes has evoked so many of my family food memories. Thanks for the therapy!”
