Priya grew up in India and Malaysia and describes her childhood as 'a bit chaotic'.
She also spent three years living in the United States when her mother was studying there.
She says she was a quiet child who loved watching TV.
I decided to come to Australia because it's a great country.
I've heard a lot of good things about the country.
It's very multicultural.
It's got great universities especially for what I wanted to do which was business.
Where I live now is actually in an apartment.
It's very close to uni as well it's also very close to my work.
So it's extremely convenient.
I've got two wonderful housemates from Norway.
Rif is also living here.
We're just in the phase of sort of moving everything in so it looks a little messy.
I met Rif in Malaysia.
We decided to come to Australia, which is probably one of the best choices we've made.
To relax I like talking to my flatmates, being on the laptop watching movies, TV shows, talking
on the phone.
I work full time at Datacom.
I'm a customer service representative but I would love to join an organisation like
United Nations.
That would be my goal but I don't think that's going to happen.
If I had a choice I would definitely live in Australia.
I like the fact that it's very laid back, it's very tolerant.
You can just sort of be yourself.
I've never cooked in my life.
I've never prepared a proper dish.
And this looks like an amazing dish to prepare so I'm extremely excited.
The dish that she just prepared looked absolutely fabulous and if my cooking turns out very
well
I really hope to impress Rif and all my other friends who are so sure that I'm not capable
of cooking.
That's pretty low.
I'm quite lazy to be honest.
My boyfriend actually does all the cooking.
Oh, does he?
I'm the only one there who cannot cook.
So it's very interesting talking to them.
Cheers.
Well done.
The food was amazing.
It was absolutely delicious.
We give ourselves a nine out of ten.
I say a ten out of ten.
Ten out of ten!
The flavours were very interesting.
The preserved lemon actually gave it a bit of a sour tangy taste and the couscous gave
it a sort of different texture.
The secret is to listen and learn.
I definitely feel anxious that I have to do it on my own again.
I really don't know if it's going to turn out this amazing because we had a wonderful
team and everyone was very into their cooking and that sort of thing
but hopefully I will remember everything and do everything the right way and hopefully
it will turn out just as good as it did tonight.
I think my boyfriend's gonna be very impressed with me making this sort of meal because I
never cook
and when I do cook, I always make something that tastes horrible so I think he'll be pleasantly
surprised.
The class that I had last night was fantastic.
It was so much fun.
I learned a lot about cooking, things that I never knew before.
Cooking fish, that's just, that's great.
I leaned a lot about Moroccan spices, Moroccan flavours,
it's very flavourful, it's a great dish and I'm really happy I've learned it and went
to the class last night.
There you are.
It's all ready.
Thank you.
Tonight I just hope it's edible.
I hope my friends enjoy it and I hope we have a nice dinner.
Is this the first time you're cooking?
Probably the second I'd say.
Well, if you call making cereal, if that's a meal then yes, second, probably.
Tita doesn't know much about cooking, just like me.
So we're both basically newbies in the kitchen trying to cook and make a good dish.
You can add that once the butter's a bit more melted.
It was great to have Tita's help.
Without Tita's help I don't think I could have done it this well.
Is that enough?
Yeah, it's all good.
The preserved lemon was actually missing because we couldn't find it.
We actually went to the shopping mall.
We just could not find preserved lemon anywhere.
My boyfriend's definitely not used to me cooking in the kitchen so hopefully he's going to
have a good reaction.
Hopefully he's going to like the food I cooked and yeah, I hope everyone enjoys the meal
and we have a good night.
This is our first proper meal.
Actually, it looks nice.
Looks like a platter from a restaurant.
I'm surprised.
A toast to me and Priya's ever first cooked meal.
Yes.
I think the serving of the meal was great.
There you go, couscous.
The fish is a little bit fishy.
Well, it is fish, you know.
I think everyone especially enjoyed the couscous.
But the fish wasn't the most popular dish of the night.
I think everyone was a bit upset with the fish because it was a bit bland.
To be fair, the preserved lemon was missing and I do think that that was the most essential
ingredient.
Rif always has something very critical to say about everything I do but he definitely
liked the couscous but not the fish.
So what do you not like about this fish?
The flavours haven't gotten into the fish.
Okay.
I think you have to marinade it for a bit longer.
Yeah, it's a bit plain.
The cooking is definitely gonna be done by Rif from now on because he just loves doing
it.
It's pretty good for your first go though.
Yeah.
I mean I learned a lot of things from this class, you know,
sort of safety hazards, how to see if the fish is cooked, and the sort of flavours that
blend in.
I would have never put lemon in my food but now I would definitely add flavours like preserved
lemon and so on.
It was a great experience.
I definitely loved the fact that I went to that cooking class because I learned a lot.
I've come out knowing that I can make a wonderful dish which is so exotic,
with so many wonderful flavours and I'm happy and I've also learned a lot
which I wouldn't have acquired from anywhere else, so yep, I'm glad.
Well, if she can track down some preserved lemon I'm the next time will be a lot better.
After the break we'll find out why Aussies love their beer, and why some of them choose
to make it themselves.
Stick around.