Tarzali Lakes was proud to welcome on the 1st of April 2010 three times Iron Chef champion Wong Wing Chee and his entourage.
Wong Wing Chee is renowned as one of China's top 10 chefs and is in Australia to get a taste of the quintessential Queensland lifestyle which is being captured by a film crew for his television show Admiral's Feast.
Admiral's Feast is a popular television program in Hong Kong and his visit will enable Queensland to bring a slice of our state’s abundant gastronomic products to his avid audience back home.
During his visit to Tarzali Lakes, Wong Wing Chee toured the aquaculture facility and tried his hand at fishing, landing Barramundi, Jade Perch, Eels and Redclaw. He then proceeded to cook up a storm which he gracefully invited all to share his culinary delights.
Three Times Iron Chef Champion Wong Wing Chee enjoying his freshly cooked catch
We have been attending the Farmgate Markets at the Pier in Cairns every Saturday morning and have found it quite enjoyable. It has been encouraging to see people take an interest in our smoked products and live Redclaw. The feedback from customers has been helpful in allowing to fine tune our product lines to the benefit of our new and repeat customers.
Dave (Smokehouse Master) and Pete (General Manager and Aquaculturist) have been alternating the weekly stall operations with some young enthusiastic helpers, Rani, Dillon, Ben and Sean.
A special thanks must go to one of our regular customers, Kathy Fry, who has been kind to share her superb smoked chicken salad recipe with us, This is a “ripper” and if you are having visitors that you want to impress by presenting a gourmet delight with very little fuss, just follow her easy and simple recipe.
"And what better place to start than the local markets. I am staying at the superb Shangri-La Hotel on the Cairns pier and the Farmgate Market, which comes to the pier every Saturday, is in the same complex. As it happens, Mehigan is coming here too, so it must be worth a look. When I arrive, the place is full of locals and tourists hunting for something yummy to go with the Coral Sea views.
The Tarzali Lakes Smokehouse stall is doing a roaring trade, knocking out all manner of smoked meats including boar and water buffalo. Dave Hoffman is a third-generation butcher who has smoked more stuff than Bob Marley and his fresh bushman sausages are renowned in these parts.
If you prefer your smoked eel with lemon myrtle, this is the place for you. Other tempting morsels include chicken pastrami in mountain peppers and that perennial favourite, smoked pressed tongue. Gary's gonna love it here."
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Spring is near! (August 2009)
Wednesday, 12 August 2009
With springtime just around the corner, things are looking great at the Lakes. A good number of the Barramundi in the settlement ponds are well over 30cm now and they should get serious about feeding again as it warms up. Anthony has been keeping a good watch on them and believes anglers should be hooking up with some 60 & 70cm rippers early next year if not before!
Eels are growing well with some good shooter specimens big enough for the Smokehouse already.
Smokehouse sales are steadily increasing with quite a few return customers. The Farmgate Markets are fast establishing Tarzali Smokehouse as a Tableland icon with Pete and Dave doing their bit, ably assisted by Paul's two sons Ben and Sean.
At the moment the Smokehouse is producing 15 consistant lines and we are having a great time trialing new products such as crocodile, smoked ribs and Thai fishcakes.
Platypus are very active at the moment and it has been great to see one of our long term residents ,Cassie the platypus, who can be seen frolicking from the Smokehouse Cafe. Platypus tours are now regularly leave at 11:00am, 2:00pm and 3:30pm.
It has also been a lovely dry season for campers at the farm. Visitors seem to be finding us from all corners of the world. A combination of word of mouth recommendation and internet seem to be working wonders!
Dave Hoffman Smokehouse Master
North Queensland Register
Monday, 30 March 2009
From the North Queensland Register It sounds like the start of a joke: “So a butcher and a fish farmer get talking...” But this business partnership is no laughing matter at all. In fact, the pair has combined their respective knowledge of each industry to come up with a very different business on the Atherton Tableland. PAUL OLIVERI discovers the latest addition to Tarzali Lakes. Read more
Springtime at Tarzali
Wednesday, 19 November 2008
It's Springtime at Tarzali
Spring has arrived and Summer is just around the corner - so why not fill a pond full of eels? That is just what we did. About 150,000 of the little darlings each as long as your little finger and a bit narrower. Transportation of this large quantity of eels was quite a task and it took three return trips to deliver them safely to their new home.
If you happened to be listening to the ABC radio on the Saturday afternoon of the delivery, then you would have heard yours truly on a live interview en route.
It was a few days before the eels settled down but they are now accustomed to their new environment and are happily eating. We also took delivery of 3,000 Barra, which were introduced to the settlement pond and will provide anglers some good sport fishing in the coming months.
Pete and I set up a stall at the Taste of the Tablelands Festival in early October. Our smoked products sold out almost immediately with no time to spare. There was strong demand for our smoked eel and fish, chorizo, bush sausage and pastrami. It is great to see that our Aussie tastes are becoming more daring.
On the bush tucker front, our Milla Milla vine is fruiting at the moment. This is a relatively new flavour for me that I intend to experiment with a couple of basic sauces to develop our new product range. Pete tells me that the possums love it and that makes them easy to find when doing his nocturnal tours.
We have had quite a few school study groups go through lately and it has been great noticing the interest and enthusiasm shown by these young people in Aquaculture and Environmental Science. Overseas visitors have been calling in for bird watching and platypus tours. They have confirmed that our area is world renowned for its wide variety of native birds and mammals, so I have decided to get myself a pair of binoculars to become more acquainted with our abundant wildlife.
Pete and Yuwadee are now a happy married couple and the wedding went off a treat (what I remember of it). We have a great venue here to host such occasions so if you are thinking about tying the knot, renewing your wedding vows or just having a wing ding for no particular reason...Tarzali Lakes is the place to go.
Tarzali Lakes was proud to welcome on the 1st of April 2010 three times Iron Chef champion Wong Wing Chee and his entourage. 
