It’s no secret that Sydney-siders can be so up ourselves over food, we can brush our teeth and perform a colonoscopy at the same time.
Sydney is a foodie-heavy city that also happens to be a cultural melting pot. We’re obsessed with finding the most “authentic” culinary experience. We compete over who has been to the “proper” Ethiopian or Nepalese or Cajun restaurant that’s hidden down a secret alley and requires you to camp out in a tent for 24 hours beforehand to stake out a spot. We idle our Saturday mornings away standing on the hot pavement behind young couples holding greyhounds on leads while we queue for fresh bread instead of just nipping to Aldi.
So when spice bags, the dish beloved of Chinese takeaways in Ireland, started appearing on menus around the city you would think Australians would have been happy to see them. We love a new type of fusion cuisine that can be flogged to us in gastropubs at outrageous markups. But introducing Irish-Chinese food to antipodeans has had mixed reactions. TikTok was filled with Irish immigrants excitedly posting footage of their spice bags: deep-fried salt and chilli chips, chicken balls, red and green peppers, fried onions and jalapeños.
“Finally some proper Chinese in Sydney,” read one comment, seemingly from an Irish account. “I’ve found the best Chinese in Sydney,” said another. Because sometimes when you’re a big distance from home, it’s the small things that give you comfort.
But not everyone was as happy. Given that the number of people with Chinese ancestry in Sydney is roughly equal to the entire population of Cork at just over half a million, there were some locals with big feelings.
Sydney has a bustling Chinatown that’s hosted Anthony Bourdain, where you could get a sit-down feast at 3am at Golden Century and spot celebrated chefs having their after-shift dinner. You have an array of restaurants catering to your preferred regional palate from Xinjiang, Sichuan, Cantonese and Chinese Malay food. You can have a fine dining experience or you can shovel some of the best Chinese food you’ll ever eat into your mouth out of a plastic container on an upturned milk crate.
But our Chinese isn’t good enough for you because it doesn’t have chips in it?
“Do you really eat this? Why is it all yellow?” texted outraged friends.
One pal with Asian heritage reflected that he didn’t know if one Irish-Chinese takeaway’s name “Paddy Chans” was “more racist to the Irish or the Chinese”.
One Chinese food reviewer declared it an “abomination to Chinese food” but still happily tucked in alongside his Irish mates.
Other comments on social media were concerned it would cause a diplomatic incident between a neutral nation and one of the largest military powers in the world.
[ Laura Kennedy: In Australia, my heart is broken for want of a spice bagOpens in new window ]
“Are the Chinese aware of what the Irish have done to their food?” they worried.
“This is so sad on so many levels.”
And one simply asked, “Are the Irish okay?”
Which is a bit rich considering many Australians grew up thinking “fried ice-cream” was exclusively a Chinese delicacy and not something restaurants in the 1990s had to throw on their menus to appease ingrate Aussie tastes.
One thing we have to thank immigration for is Australia’s incredible food scene. Before everyone started turning up from all around the world with their delicious traditions, we were just doing what the British did – taking fresh meat and produce and boiling the crap out of it until it had not even the threat of taste or texture.
Thank God for the Chinese who came during the Gold Rush. And the Italians, the Greeks, the Spanish and the Europeans who came in postwar migration. And the Vietnamese, Cambodians, Lebanese, Syrians and Palestinians who came seeking shelter from conflict. Now a new generation of Irish immigrants seeking more opportunities than they have at home have joined them.
In recent times, the humble spice bag has appeared in one of the city’s most respected outlets, The Good Food Au.
Respected Cantonese chef Luke Ng was quoted as saying, “Chips in a Chinese restaurant? For me it’s unheard of.” But he added the spice bag to his highly regarded menu after researching its origins, which he claims lie in Belfast.
Ng theorised that “Irish people weren’t used to Cantonese flavours” so migrants who opened up restaurants adapted to suit their taste. “I think Irish-Chinese food evolved out of necessity and survival.”
Which shows you how people in Ireland who claim the Irish way of life will be destroyed or replaced by immigration are wrong. Irish culture is so strong and stubborn that we’ve taken the centuries-old cuisine of a superpower and gone “nah, needs chips in”. And now, we’ve exported our version of Chinese food to Australia where locals are lining up to try it out. After all, without multiculturalism we’d have no good drunk food – no pizza, no kebabs, no spice bags.
What kind of a miserable world would that be?