If there’s one thing that can still make Territorians put their phones down, it’s food. Not the quick smashing of a sausage roll with tomato sauce in the servo carpark, but real food – the kind that makes you sit, talk, laugh and maybe even lick the plate when no one’s looking. 

Meals are when we come together, and share. And now, the NT News and Territory Q are putting the spotlight back where it belongs – on the Territory table – with the triumphant return of Territory Taste, a weekly feature dedicated to the flavours that make the NT Australia’s most exciting foodie destinations. 

It’s not the first time Territory Taste has whetted our appetites. Roll back the clock 10 years and the very first edition hit the shelves with celebrity chef Matt Moran on the cover, all smiles and knife skills, declaring Darwin’s food scene the “next big thing.” He wasn’t wrong. 

Over the years, Territory Taste ran multiple editions and hosted events, from long lunches to laneway feasts, and festivals, putting chefs, restaurants, and home-grown talent on the national radar. Then came the dreaded C-word – no, not chilli, but COVID. The pandemic shuttered restaurants, shook up hospitality, and put Territory Taste into hibernation. Until now. 

So why bring it back? Because food in the NT is more than just food, it’s our cultural handshake, our unofficial tourism slogan, and occasionally our best defence against homesickness. Food is what happens when Darwin’s melting pot of cultures bubbles over into bowls of laksa at Parap Markets, plates of tapas shared or freshly grilled octopus eaten barefoot on Mindil Beach. It’s sour mango and chilli salt from a local pantry, it’s green ants and plums harvested and used in kitchens, it’s pho that tastes like Hanoi on a humid afternoon. 

Darwin’s food story is really a migration story. The Greek supermarkets of the post-war years served fila, battered fish and hearty plates of moussaka to families who’d never even heard of olive oil. The Chinese and Vietnamese arrivals gave us market gardens, noodles, rice paper rolls, dim sum and that glorious Sunday ritual of yum cha. Filipino families added lumpia and lechon to the mix, while Timorese, Indian and Indonesian communities spiced up the table even further and bought with them their influence, not to mention the numerous tamarind trees that the Makassans planted along the coastline to add to our dishes. Add Indigenous bush foods – from magpie goose to green ants – and you’ve got a pantry that most cities would plunder for. 

It’s no wonder food festivals and markets here draw crowds that rival footy finals. The Darwin Laksa Festival is now a rite of passage, with punters passionately debating the superiority of pork belly over prawn laksa like it’s a matter of religion. The Mindil Beach Markets are world famous with punters arriving hungry, knowing they’ll leave full of dishes from a round the world culinary trip, with a cracking sunset to end the day. 

With Territory Taste back on the scene, expect no sugar-coating. This weekly feature in the NT News will be as spicy as you like it – reviews, chef profiles, and “what’s hot and what’s not” across both food and the broader arts and events scene. It’s part guidebook, part gossip column, and part love letter to the Territory’s unique palate. One week you might read about a hidden gem dumpling shop in Alice Springs; the next, a deep dive into how a young Yolnju chef is reinventing bush flavours for fine dining. And yes, there will be booze! Darwin’s food and wine scene has matured like a good botanical gin and we will be tasting all that is on offer, to serve you up the very best of what the Territory has to offer. 

More importantly, Territory Taste will remind us that eating is not a solitary act but a communal one. When you gather around a table, the phones go away, the stories come out, and the laughter is louder than the cutlery, scraping the last morsel off the plate. Food binds us in ways that politics, sport, or wet season hair ever could, we will form bonds over our mutual love of Mary’s Laksa or City Kebab momo’s on a Saturday morning at 2am. 

So, sharpen your chopsticks, polish your wine glasses, and limber up your tastebuds. Territory Taste is back – hungrier, bolder, and ready to tell it like it is. Because in Darwin, food isn’t just fuel. It’s who we are, where we’ve come from, and where we’re going. And if you disagree, well… let’s settle it over a chilli mudcrab, extra chilli of course! 

Check us out every Saturday in the NT News, in Territory Q and online at www.territorytaste.com 

Send your events, products and news to info@terrtorytaste.com.au. TQ