The Taste Of Port
Sydney Morning Herald
Saturday December 26, 1998
She wouldn't dare suggest Port Douglas is one-dimensional, but CERENTHA HARRIS could not keep food out of her mind in the far north.
LIFE IN Port Douglas is not about flash hotels or the wonders of the Great Barrier Reef; it's all about food. Eavesdrop on locals' conversations and you will find them trading culinary secrets. People travel from nearby towns for the mud crab and tourists pack local restaurants swearing they've never had a tiger prawn quite this perfect, octopus quite so tender.
This is a town spoiled rotten by seriously fresh seafood and chefs who know just how to prepare it. Port Douglas's 3,000-odd residents pride themselves on the town's 60 restaurants.
This foodie haven is a far cry from the town's rough gold rush roots. As gold ran out in the mid-1880s, so did the town's popularity and it metamorphosed into a quiet sugar port.
It remained a backwater until 1969, when entrepreneur John Morris landed in search of a place to retire. He was so enchanted he bought a property on his first day. His arrival marked the beginning of Port Douglas's reinvention as a tourist destination.
Morris, the man behind the environmentally friendly Radis-son resorts, has been a key figure in the development of the town and an advocate of restrictions to limit high-rise projects. His passionate commitment to the town is shared by his daughter, Wendy Morris, a marine biologist and marketing manager for Achilles, a luxurious ocean-going motor yacht owned by her father.
On our first day we met one of Port Douglas's better-known residents, the old seadog and film-maker Ben Cropp. He's at home finishing three adventure films that took him from Arnhem Land to the Kimberley.
But his is no ordinary home - it's a wharf at the end of Dixie Street that shares a small park with St Mary's by the Sea, a picturesque white wooden church surrounded by palms. Half of the white-washed wharf is Cropp's Shipwreck Treasure Trove Museum, where he displays the finds of 48 years of diving.
The front of the wharf is Cropp's home, a bougainvillea-covered oasis closed to the public. Rooms open onto the shimmering sea and the Daintree's dense green mountains hover in the distance. Cropp, looking every bit the pirate with his silver beard, deep tan and gold earrings, gives a lament on bureaucracies and the increasingly strict rules about diving on the reef.
Like all locals, however, he soon gets around to the topic of food and the town's three-score restaurants. His favourites are Nautilus and Salsa. We're already booked into Nautilus; Salsa immediately joins the list.
As we leave, Cropp pulls his crab trap onto the wharf and, with a grin, reveals two huge mud crabs and a fat spotted cod. The crabs move in slow motion, their chunky claws glistening in the afternoon light. Cropp expertly grabs the fish and throws it back, to disappear into the turquoise water. The crabs will be eaten that night.
Nautilus, our choice for the night, is the jewel in Port Douglas's gastronomic crown. Mention it and the locals' faces light up. Twice we're asked if we know Bill Clinton ate there. The answer is yes - and he chose very well. The restaurant is set in the dense rainforest that rings the town and has a touch of the Cecil B. DeMille about it. There's drama in the high-backed chairs (really high, my head doesn't come anywhere near the top) and giant candelabra, dripping with wax, that are the main light source for the large outdoor dining area. There are no walls and the roof is a canopy of tropical trees high above our heads.
The service is excellent. The waitress knows the menu inside out and answers our questions with knowledge and enthusiasm.
Best of all, the menu includes mud crab. The three-page handwritten menu by chef Gregory Bull (formerly owner/chef of The Napier, Melbourne) contains enough jus, onion jam and pancetta to make any foodie feel right at home. Entrees run to $18.90 for freshly opened oysters and mains hit $35.90 for spicy Morton Bay bugs brushed with chilli hoisin sauce and served with buckwheat noodles, Thai salad and crisp shallots.
My crab (caught that afternoon) crouches in an aromatic black bean broth spiked with sake, tender lemon grass and a mild chilli. The beast is huge and the kitchen has kindly cracked the tougher bits of shell. The broth perfectly complements the crab's delicate, earthy flesh. Devouring it, I manage to get bits in my hair and on the back of the waitress's legs. But eating mud crab is one of life's great experiences - it beats lobster any day and is well worth a bit of seafood in the hair.
Nautilus's lower-key, less expensive cousin is On the Inlet. Run by Orson Koch (ex-Hotel CBD in Sydney), this fish market and restaurant is perched over the blue waters of Dicksons Inlet. Koch has expanded its deck so even more people can enjoy the dramatic sunsets. This is the spot to devour chef Sam Francisco's succulent calamari ($8.50) or the gently steamed tiger prawns ($9.50). According to Koch, the secret to the restaurant's excellent calamari is soaking it in kiwi fruit juice - it softens the flesh but doesn't mask the flavour. Order a beer to accompany the whole coral trout smothered in a light sweet chilli and lime sauce ($34.50, enough for four).
Sam Francisco? Yes, the ex-Mezzaluna chef changed his name by deed poll.
On the Inlet is also the best place to watch a rather odd Wednesday evening ritual. At 5pm, as the light begins to soften, the locals start to disappear. You'll find them on boats sailing out through the inlet towards the reef. They sail as far as they can for an hour then, at 6, turn around and sail back. First back wins a bottle of wine. Watching the giant white sails slide by is a beautiful way to pass the early evening.
Of course, there are 58 other spots to eat. Salsa, a bar and restaurant, is popular with people seeking a smarter place to drink than the Courthouse Hotel, a pub that wouldn't look out of place in a dusty country town. Order a beer at the Courthouse and it arrives in a grey styrofoam cooler with someone else's fingerprints embedded in it. This is the spot for local colour.
And if you're sick of seafood, try a chunky steak pie from Mocka's. This little store, run by Peter and Anne Lloyd, regularly sells out of pies by 2 pm, so don't leave your lunch too late. Some locals reckon it's the best pie shop in all of Queensland.
Breakfast with the birds at the Rainforest Habitat is a uniquely far-north-Queensland experience. A lavish buffet is served, with champagne, under the Habitat's vast enclosure. Friendly lorikeets scamper about nibbling at pawpaw seeds and bits of freshly baked croissants. After breakfast, wander through the 2.5 ha of grounds and see the crocodiles, feed adorable red wallabies and spot rainforest birds as they flit about the canopy.
It is well worth tackling the short sea trip to dive on the Great Barrier Reef. A word of warning: the seas can be rough. If you are at all prone to seasickness, take the tablets offered at the beginning of the trip. Choose the stronger of the two; the herbal ginger tablets didn't work (I speak from experience). The only thing worse than vomiting on a crowded boat surrounded by strangers grazing through a buffet lunch is to throw up in the water while a marine biologist lectures about giant clams.
Just as beautiful as the reef dive is a guided tour through Mossman Gorge by a local Aboriginal woman, Hazel, of Native Guide Safari Tours. The gorge, north of Port Douglas, is a mystical place full of dripping vines, massive gnarled trees covered in ferns and orchids and a river with huge egg-shaped stones lining the banks. We learnt about local folklore, medicinal and edible plants and how the local Aboriginal community continues to use the rainforest. I certainly won't look at a rainforest the same way again.
After an early morning run along Four Mile Beach to work off some of the decadent meals we consumed, we head out of Port Douglas towards Cairns and our flight back to Sydney. Like all "Port" converts, we bemoan leaving paradise and returning to a city where the mud crabs are more than an afternoon old.
Cerentha Harris travelled to Port Douglas courtesy of Qantas and Radisson Treetops Resort.
CASE NOTES
Destination: Port Douglas, Qld.
When to go: From June to October, temperatures average 17C to 29C;
at other times, up to 32C.
Getting there: Qantas has 30 flights a week from Sydney to Cairns. A Qantas Holiday package costs $436 return (seven-day advance purchase). Return fare without accommodation rises to $569 (14-day advance
purchase) and $499 (21-day advance purchase). Details: 13 13 13.
Getting around: A Qantas shuttle bus takes you north to Port Douglas from Cairns. A car will allow you to visit places like Mossman Gorge. Try Aussie Allcar Rentals, 21 Warner Street, Port Douglas, Qld 4871; phone (07) 4099 4644 or fax (07) 4099 4645; or see the Great Barrier Reef Visitor Bureau's Web site on http://www.great-barrier-reef.com/ vip07.html
Getting to the reef: Quicksilver's 37-metre catamarans sail from Port Douglas and Cairns to the outer Barrier Reef daily. The tour is fully inclusive - transfers, lunch and equipment for $135 a head. An alternative to the outer reef is Low Isles, 12 km off Port Douglas - ideal for families and seniors. Quicksilver's 30m Wavedancer sails daily from Port Douglas and Cairns, $89 a head. Family rates are available.
The motor yacht Achilles can be
chartered for about $6,000 a day; (07) 4099 0248.
Where to stay: Radisson Treetops, Port Douglas Road, Qld 4871; phone (07) 4099 4644, fax (07) 4099 4645. Or see Web site.
Where to dine: Nautilus, 17 Murphy Street; (07) 4099 5330.
On the Inlet, 3 Inlet Street; (07) 4099 5255.
Salsa, 38 Macrossan Street; (07) 4099 4922.
Mocka's Pies, 18 Macrossan Street; (07) 4099 5295.
Quicksilver, Marina Mirage (end of Inlet Street); (07) 4099 5455.
Rainforest Habitat, Port Douglas Road; (07) 4099 3100.
Native Guide Safari Tours, 58 Pringle Street, Mossman; (07) 4098 2206.
Essentials: Good appetite, sunblock.
More information: Queensland Government Travel Centre, 13 18 01.
© 1998 Sydney Morning Herald
