Good Morning Vietnam (part 3) by Shane Brierly

 Shane Brierly is a New Zealand born Executive Chef who spent most of his culinary career in Australia from the tender age of 18 which is many moons ago. Now old and grizzled, he loves the expat life and so far has worked in Dubai UAE, Kazakhstan, Thailand and Vietnam.

His website is chef-a-gogo.com which has photos, food & recipes from both his day to day cheffing  and also the more exotic side of his travels. Or follow him on twitter @chefshane.

Part 3 - Culinary Focus, to read Part 2 click here

So far I've covered tribulations and trials from an expat viewpoint. I've also painted myself into a corner by promising to give the next post a culinary focus. Rather than doling out recipes and witty repartee, I'm choosing to hone in on the differences that I've come across since leaving Australia. I know we have a reputation as six-foot-tall, uncouth, uncultured, loud-mouthed, beer-swilling, swearing colonials. This isn't entirely true as I'm only 5'7 and my parents quite like art. Another difference is that Australia is REALLY big and quite connected, with reasonably mild seasons, so we have most things available all year round.  This shocks UK and European chefs who actually have seasons for stuff like strawberries, asparagus, beans and radishes . Many Australian diners expect everything all year around.  It should also look really good with no blemishes too, and a long shelf life. The corresponding lack of flavour was overlooked. If guests came in and asked for strawberries and ice cream in the middle of winter, they'd be well pissed off if you offered them apple tarts instead due to the daily blizzards. Over the last 20 years a large section of the market woke up to the taste of fresh seasonal stuff and the worm began to turn. We began to develop menus based on the BEST of what was available instead of the SCOPE of what was available. At the same time, migrants began importing, growing and making the building blocks of their own cuisines. While we began to focus on what was available locally in season, we also began eating, experimenting and appreciating the best that the world has to offer, right on our own doorstep. The opposite of local and sustainable, but driven by immigrants yearning for the (real) tastes of home. Being migrants ourselves and not having our own established cuisine, we did a bit of cherry-picking and became quite diverse in our tastes and gastronomic experiences. Australia is truly the "˜lucky country' when it comes to ingredients and culinary inspiration. We have so many ethnic markets, specialist suppliers and niche gourmet food providores with creativity, passion, and ability to understand their chefs and public. They can respond rapidly to developments and trends. We also have great meat, seafood, dairy, wine and fresh produce on tap. Cost issues? Buck the populist trend and get a point of difference by using cheaper, lesser known cuts, catches or by-products. Moving overseas we have different sets of challenges. Dubai UAE was one of the most connected places that I've been in terms of availability of food. We were in the middle of Africa, Europe, US, Asia. Almost 100% of the food was imported, but what we gained in variety, we lacked in context. We had very few local things - cucumber, eggplant, tomato, some warm water seafood and poor quality lamb, chicken and beef. The variety of imports were mind-boggling, but it still paid to be selective because of seasonality and taste in the country we imported it from. We had to account for the effects of transportation as well, from extreme climate to the skill or experience of the supplier. It was very hard to get good lettuce, mesclun and herb mix in mid summer because of the poor handling chain from the source to the restaurant door for example. The other shock was trying to add the more flavoursome, cheap braising cuts of meat, and classically cheap, robust seasonal vegetables and fruits  to a menu. Back home it was a standard practice to provide taste and value. Being heavier with more offcuts and packaging they were almost as much per kilo in Dubai as the prime cuts or products due to airfreight, packaging and handling charges. Not just beef chuck or Osso Bucco either. Kim chee was expensive, even making your own because of the cost of airfreight on heavy Chinese / Napa cabbage. A 12kg Jackfruit cost almost nothing in Thailand, but when packed and imported by air it became a luxury ingredient. Kazakhstan had an amazing market, and the produce was exceptional. The whole feel of the city in Almaty was "˜back to childhood values'. Purity, seasonality, freshness. No tampering, irradiating, packaging or artificial additives or preservatives. Cream came out of old style milk cans with the farm girls in their traditional dairy caps and aprons. They stood ladling it into plastic bags, surrounded by freshly made ricotta, yoghurt and three types of  "˜cmetana' or sour cream in varying stages of development. Cultured right there, live and uncut. Honey was on the comb and in big glass jars. Whole beef and lamb were butchered at the market, hanging alongside fresh horse, goat, pork, chicken, duck, geese and turkey. The fruit and vegetable section was a kaleidoscope of colour and shape with some of the best tasting produce I've had the experience of using. For three months a year. In Winter I truly came to understand the meaning of seasonality. Carrots, potatoes and onions were sole survivors with the onset of cold. Sometimes they froze too. Spring lamb was no more. It became winter sheep. Bananas and pineapples hung forlornly in the fruit section inside and any imported or chilled produce had to be checked in case it had semi frozen due to a particularly cold day in the market. The prices went through the roof. Everybody worked with what was available. And it could taste good. That was an important lesson. Taking food out of context can be fun. It's great that we can have Tom Yum in Moscow during winter, or Goulash in Sydney in the middle of summer. It's fun making Tandoori chicken wraps, teriyaki beef salads