- I'm salivating. - (breathes in)
- Woo! - Whoa!
(rhythmic beat plays)
- That is some spicy ish!
- The curry kicks your head in like it's Bruce Lee.
- I don't know if they got the spice levels correct.
- [Producer] Where do you see yourself having this dish?
- (laughing) I don't.
(Buzzfeed theme song)
- Welcome back to Buzzfeed!
(magical effect)
- We're here to spice up your life! (upbeat music)
Four chefs, we're each trying each other's curries,
and we're going to give it a score between one and ten.
- Highest score's the winner, baby! (dings)
- Hi! I'm Radha!
I'm a drag performer, or performance artist,
and I use cooking in my shows.
I'm originally from Singapore, of South Indian descent,
so food is a huge part of my family.
- Hi, my name is Ismat.
I'm a food creator based in Sydney.
I do everything when it comes from recipe development
to food writing.
Even though I was born in Darwin,
I have really strong Pakistani heritage and roots.
My parents migrated to Australia 40 years ago,
and throughout the entirety of my existence,
curries have been a part of our home.
- So my name is Nathan Lyons.
I'm better known as "KookingWithAKoori".
Like me for my food, love me for my humor,
and my indigenous background.
My people are Wiradjuri,
so we expand from Katoomba, Dubbo, right down to Albury,
so we're the biggest clan in New South Wales.
- Hey! I'm Ryan.
I'm the tasty producer here at Buzzfeed Australia.
I have developed so many recipes that have been published.
And I basically now work as a video chef.
- Curry is actually derived from the Tamil word, "Kari".
"K-A-R-I", meaning a sauce in which goes with rice.
Which is quite fascinating,
because when we talk about the sub-continent
and just how it travels,
it really is a dish for the ages
and goes across the entire globe.
- Each family has its own way of making curry,
and recipes are handed down through generations.
It changes.
- We have such a big melting pot of so many cultures
here in Australia,
that what you will see today are curries
that are all near and dear to us,
and flavors which have been inspired from around the globe.
- Judging criteria.
Flavor, number one, because curries are "ugly delicious",
so we're not here for the looks.
We're here about the flavor punch.
- I think it just depends on what sort of mood I'm in.
Whether I want a Johnny Cash ring burner, (fire crackles)
or a sweet one. (angelic music)
- I would never put sugar in my curry.
Ever.
- Heat level, (heat rises) super important to me.
- If I want something to go, "Woo! I'm awake!"
(fire whooshes)
- [Ryan] Let the spice wars begin!
- My curry dish is a super simple Anday Aloo Ka Salan,
which basically translates to egg, potato, curry.
Boil some eggs, keep them aside.
Brown some onions in a nice big pan with some vegetable oil,
put some water in there, let that reduce down.
Then you want to add ginger garlic paste, let that cook out.
Then you add some coriander seeds that have been powdered,
as well as cumin powder, chili powder.
You add a bit of turmeric,
and then some chopped fresh tomatoes,
canned tomatoes, and a little bit of salt,
and a bit more water.
Let that continue to cook out, soften.
Then you add some potato, and then you put the lid top.
Let those potatoes become sponges of flavor.
That's about it!
And then you just top it off with fresh green chilies,
some red onion, and fresh coriander.
You drop the eggs in at the last minute,
and I'm going to serve it with roti, lime pickle,
and a little cheek of lemon.
- Holy crap!
I can't say that I've ever seen a curry look like this.
The presentation is immaculate!
- Almost like a ramen sort of look to it,
with the egg sitting on top.
- Ooh! (dishes clang) Pickles, mm.
- My mum absolutely loves this.
Yeah, I've never really given lime pickle a chance.
I was always too scared to taste them as kid,
but today we're going to give it a go.
Please, don't taste bad.
(upbeat music)
- Tasty!
- (mouth full) Whoa! It's beautiful!
- Really strong coriander flavor.
- Simple flavors, not in a bad way.
- That egg is just delicious. Sorta a ring burner.
There's a subtle curry flavor to it.
- Pickle goes well with this dish.
Just gives it a little bit of kick.
- Without it, the curry has a very mild flavor.
- Oh. Damn.
Wow. That's sour as shit.
And being indigenous, you love lemons.
- I would serve it with rice I think. Yeah.
Maybe I'm not, maybe I don't like bread.
- This is going to be really hard to score.
I don't know
if they got the spice levels, correct. (alarming music)
I'm going to give this one, a score of
(dings) eight out of ten.
It tastes absolutely amazing,
but it just wasn't spicy enough for me.
- The flavors are there. For me personally,
I would've liked a bit of protein,
so I'm going to have to go,
(dings) a nine.
- Shows a bit of technical flair with the egg,
some homeliness to it,
so therefore I give it a
(dings) eight out of ten.
- Today, my curry has been influenced from a person
that I never met, and that is my grandmother.
She is Sri Lankan, born in Colombo,
migrated over to Australia.
Her recipes were passed through my mother,
so me making my curry today represents my family.
So the dish I'm serving today is a super spicy
Sri Lankan Prawn Curry.
To start off with, I place basmati rice, coriander seeds,
cumin seeds, black mustard seeds, fennel, black peppercorns,
cardamom pod seeds, and cloves in a pan.
And I'm going to roast that for about five minutes.
Then I blend that into a curry powder,
which is going to be the secret ingredient for my dish.
The next part is the most finicky,
I de-shell and de-vein extra large king prawns.
Time to get a cooking.
After adding in oil to the pan,
I fry the prawn heads until all the juices come out,
and it's going to add so much flavor.
Next up, add red onion, garlic, ginger,
and, of course, that Sri Lankan curry powder I made,
plus cayenne pepper for some heat, and paprika.
Stir that up a little. It doesn't stop there.
After, I add curry leaves, diced tomatoes, chili paste,
tomato paste, water, coconut milk, chicken stock,
and lemon.
All of that combined is going to make a beautiful liquid.
I'm reducing it, because I don't want to serve it too wet.
So it should thicken up.
Lastly, to add in, I've got a stick of cinnamon
which is going to add a fire kick,
and some sugar to sweeten it up.
To finish it, the prawns go in at the end.
Just look at that beautiful Australian prawn juice.
To garnish, I'm adding coriander leaves
for that final touch,
and serving it with Sri Lankan yellow rice and papadams,
because I've never eaten curry without them.
- Ah! I'm so excited to eat this. This looks amazing.
I'm having like a "tri-bowl" experience
where there are flavors,
textures, and aromas coming at me.
- I see what looks like they're really expensive prawn,
because it's huge.
- Ooh! Caramelized onions. Mm.
- I'm salivating.
(bass music)
- [Ismat] Oh my God.
- "Say hello to my little friend." (breathes in)
- Oh, my God. Woo!
That is some spicy ish!
But I'm like dancing. (party music)
There's a party in my mouth right now.
- [Radha] Mm!
- Curry kicks your head in like it's Bruce Lee.
_ Ooh. (sniffles)
It's got a good kick to it. It's balanced well.
It's got the sour and the heat.
- This person definitely knows
how to develop flavor and spice
in a way that's really rounded in the mouth.
- The prawns are nice,
and credit to the creator as well.
I've actually cleaned the shrimp right now.
- It's good. I'm dying. I'd like it maybe drier.
- Mm.
- I think that in criticisms, I prefer,
I like my sauce a little thicker.
It's more of a curry soup at the moment.
So I think I'm going to have to go with
(dings) seven for this one.
- These two are the star of the show.
I'm going to give this bad boy
(dings) an eight out of ten.
I'm tough with my scoring,
because, you know,
grew up on curry.
Maybe 8.5. (dings)
- I'd give it a nine. (dings)
Yeah,
because I'm nice.
- So indigenous culture has, what we call,
one cuisine over the last 40 to 60 years.
I think more of it has to do with just a lower income.
You have to be a bit more grabby.
My recipe is Chicken Curry,
made by Koori.
I'll brown up the chicken in the pan, first.
Let that cook for a little bit.
An onion, garlic, chicken broth, coconut milk,
diced tomatoes, tomato paste, sugar,
and all my Keen's curry powder.
I stir it a little bit.
I serve it with some rice and parsley.
A bit of ghar ki roti.
It's just one of those hearty meals. Really flavorsome.
- I like the double carb combo.
Can't get enough carbs, right?
- The curry gravy reminds me of like a Japanese like,
katsu curry. It's different.
- The smell is already on like,
it's serving me a lot of aromas.
- Mm. - Mm.
- Hmm. That's really comforting.
- Surprised by the taste, it tastes like chili craft sauce.
- I mean, it just feels like a warm blanket.
- Mm, this bread is thick.
- The bread is slightly underdone,
it's got a beautiful crust,
but the inside is just a little bit doughy
for me, personally.
But there's some good flavors going on here.
- Ooh, there's a lot of butter in that!
Points just went up because of the butter.
- Makes me think of like a casserole or a stew.
It could be something that's a little more homegrown
or it's been adapted from another culture.
- It's good. It's not, not very complex flavors,
I would say.
- It's got a sweetness to it,
that the other curries didn't have.
- [Producer] Where do you see yourself having this dish?
- I don't. (laughs)
I see it as a couch,
a couch meal at a friend's house,
who's never had curry before in their life.
- We had some really heavy competition today,
so I think I'm going to give this
a seven out of 10. (dings)
- It's definitely giving me a new experience,
and that's what I came here for.
For this reason,
I want to give this one a seven out of ten. (dings)
- I would give it a very high score of seven. (dings)
A solid seven, and look, I'll,
I can keep eating it,
so it's not bad, right?
So my curry's called, well, it's called, Aatu Curry.
"Aatu" means "goat" in Tamil, so it's a goat curry.
It's South Indian, but South Indian Singaporean.
The meat gets cooked first, in a pressure cooker.
It's cooked with ginger, garlic, and turmeric.
Get a bit of salt, set it aside.
Then you fry up some curry leaves, cloves, star anise,
cinnamon, cardamom, so that you flavor the oil.
Onions, adan leaves, lemongrass, salt to go and taste along.
Then you add ginger, garlic, some turmeric,
and then you start adding tomatoes,
and then the spices; the ground cumin, ground coriander,
black pepper, that's from India.
And then kind of let it thicken up.
Some chili powder,
potatoes go in,
and then the meat goes in,
and it's sort of just like a slow cook.
And let the oils cook through the spices.
Finish it off with some almond and cashew paste,
so that kind of thickens the curry,
and makes it less spicy as well.
And just top it up with some coriander leaves at the end,
and a little bit of sliced ginger.
And I'm also serving it with a roti jala,
which is a stringy, sticky flatbread
made with egg, turmeric and salt, and that's it.
(upbeat music)
- I like what I see!
- This a lace artistry right now.
Like, this is art on a plate.
- It's a very pretty roti.
- I can smell, honestly, so many different spices.
It's like a party in my brain right now.
(ascension music)
- Whoa. This is an experience.
- Oh this is goat curry. (excited) Ooh!
I just got some of the meat. Mm!
- The sauce goes nice with the goat,
because the goat's nicely cooked.
- There are a lot of spices going on here,
but it's like a party and they're all like hanging out.
They're all dancing. (chill music)
It's like that time of night at the party
where everyone's familiar with each other.
- I think that shows complexity in the dish.
The fact that the spice is being retained on my tongue
long moments after eating it.
I think that says good things about this.
I'm super satisfied with this curry.
And actually I have to say that I'm going to score it
a 9.5 out of ten. (dings)
It's near perfect.
- This is so hard! I love curry so much!
And I just want to keep eating this. Okay. Mm.
I'm going to give it a nine out of ten. (dings)
- It, it's lacking something.
I just, I just can't put my finger on it.
It's just missing something.
But other than that, the spice is on point.
That's a really hard one.
I think I have to go-
(music abruptly stops)
(angelic music)
- [Producer] Results, results, results.
(imitating robot noises)
Tabulating, tabulating.
(imitating robot noises)
Okay. The winner of "Chefs Try Each other's Curries" is...
Ismat!
(upbeat music) - Oh my God! (laughs)
This means so much to me!
This dish that I made is so nostalgic,
and so close to my heart,
so for it to be the winner today
means everything really.
I'm really touched.
- [Producer] Get fucking pumped,
because we're doing the fucking tastings, okay?
- Yeah, yeah, yeah! (snaps)
(reel beeps) - Whoever's mad at Buzzfeed,
we're going to punch the out of each other
'cause they're arguing over paneer.
(beeps) - I'm trying not to shake too much,
'cause these earrings are noisy.
(beeps) - Highest score will be the winner,
coming out on top.
Coming out on top, going to be me!
- [Producer] Who's going to come... Out on top?
(laughs)
(beeps) - [Producer] Did you say, "try bowl"?
- [Ryan] "Tri-bowl" like three bowl.
- Three bowls.
- [Producer] Oh, okay. Is that like a thing?
- No. (laughs) - [Producer] (laughs) No?
You just always say words
and I'm like, "Okay. I learned a new word." (laughs)
- I love that so much.
(beeps) - Curries of the world, (claps) spice up your life!
Every body and every girl, (claps) spice up your life!
Flavors of the world, spice up your life!
Ah!
(imitates drums)
- [Producer] That you were willing to do that,
without any prompt,
is questionable? (laughs)
- We hope you're loving "Chefs Try"!
If you want to see us get in the kitchen
and cook something else,
let us know what it is,
and we'll be sure to make happen.