Dreaming Dinner under the Stars

As the Kookaburras chortled in the trees and the stars appeared in the sky, we joined the guests following the flaming tiki torches to the beautifully laid out sparkling lights of our dinner setting.





With a glass of bubbly in hand, we met Ben Tyler the Indigenous entrepreneur starring in the Taste Kakadu events. After the welcome to country, we filed past a small fire to get tenderised by the smoking ceremony.

A small group of indigenous singers chanted in the background whilst we heard about Ben's pet project, Kakadu Foods. The fabulous food for the night, glamour bush tucker I'd call it, was provided by the chefs of Cooinda Lodge's Mimi's Restaurant, who worked miracles in a small mobile food van.

Once we were seated at a dozen tables, each with a huge bucket of ice and a limitless supply of beer and wine, the fun began.

First up was a delicious assortment of cheeky yams (the toxic ones which need a lot of cleaning), whitebait, bush tomato pie, all served with special bush plant sauces and spices.

Next came an array of spiced barramundi, smoked croc, emu and kangaroo with side portions of Davidson plum confit and water lily stems, other tasty bush plants and delicate local herb sauces.

The desserts of panna cotta with Kakadu plum coulis and a bush creme brulee were ultra yummy.

The wine flowed, the hubbub of easy banter swelled and we swapped travelling stories with a Hobart couple, a radiographer and social worker up for two weeks in the NT; a Canberra couple touring the local rock art, a NSW couple on the road for 12 months in their caravan, and a Kiwi male couple working for Parks Australia.

We paused our chomping briefly for the lights to be turned out and a big burly local Bininj man took the microphone and a laser pointer to show us the stars as seen by Aborigines. Rather than define by lights in the sky as we do, they name the dark shapes between the lights, such as the emu below the milky way.

Back on earth, we sang a happy birthday for one of the guests and then listened to a small Indigenous group play short bursts of didgeridoo.

All too soon it was time to return to the campsite.

What a night to remember: the superb food, the animated talking at the tables mingling with humming didgeridoo, the clink of glasses, and the scent of woodsmoke whilst the stars shone down on the Bush as they have for aeons.

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Kakadu National Park, Cooinda, Taste of Kakadu, Bush Tucker, Aboriginal, Food, Dinner with the Stars