From Across the Kitchen Table: Eel Festival, Rosehill, NSW

I love festivals, who doesn't? I like celebrating diversity and the spirit of harmony. Festivals are a great way to meet and interact with people, share traditions and learn from each other. Festivals are a fun part of life as well as it is important.

Eel Festival is an annual festival held in Elizabeth Farm in Parramatta, in Western Sydney. For thousands of years, in the area of modern-day Parramatta lived the Darug, specifically the Burramattagal people, who lived close to the Parramatta River where they caught fish, eels and other foods to eat. When it's Eel season, they would come together to feast and partake in storytelling.

I have long been wanting to attend this festival and only got that chance recently. This event was a great opportunity to learn more about the Aboriginal culture, its history and its food. As a travelling foodie, I've always been fascinated with unique and unusual foods and I'm lucky enough to have been exposed to many new taste experiences. During the event, we learned about bush tucker or bush food, these are native food that has been consumed by Indigenous Australians for thousand of years.

Native flowers used for culinary and medicinal purposes such as lilli pilli, banksia, flowering gum, bottlebrushes and spider flower. According to the Australian Native Food and Botanicals, there are more than 6,500 native food species in Australia and this was my chance to try some of them.

The Eel

Fred showed us how to prepare and cook an eel in the traditional Aboriginal way.

An eel getting cut, wrapped in paperbark, tied with leaves and grilled.

You must dampen the paperbark with water before wrapping in the eel.

Indigenous inspired sweet and savoury canapes made with natives herbs and spices.

Lilli Pilli Cordial

Vegetarian Frittata with Warrigal Greens

Native Rosella Flower Jam Drop Biscuits

Wild Lime Coconut Crumble

Kakadu Plum and Kangaroo Tarts

Wattle seed ANZAC biscuits, Lilli Pilli and Lime Finger Jams

These bright pink berries are called lilli pilli and are almost the size of a pea.

The fruit is edible but it has a tart taste. However, they're wonderful made into sauce, jams or chutneys.

Lemon myrtle is a small native tree. Crushing its leaves will give off a strong lemon scent. It's great for cooking and can be used as a substitute for lemon, lime or lemongrass.

Aniseed myrtle tree is a rare rainforest tree. The leaves has a distinct subtle liquorice taste to it and is often used in desserts and jams to add flavour.