October 21's Culture Mix Festival will be a feast of diversity, including a cooking demonstration of a traditional dish at the Thai/Myanmar food stall presented by Green Connect.

Green Connect is a social enterprise dedicated to helping people facing employment challenges. They achieve this through eco-friendly jobs, including at their urban farm in Warrawong, two op shops and a zero-waste division.

“In general, we work with a lot of different cultures and groups, but particularly one of our groups of people we try to help are former refugees,” said Emily Henderson, manager of the Green Connect farm at Warrawong.

“So, by nature of that, we have a lot of former refugees working at Green Connect and coming here for work experience.”

This includes sisters Pleh and Su Meh. They were born in Burma, before being sent to a refugee camp on the Thai/Burma border, where they lived for decades. They eventually received humanitarian visas into Australia and have spent the past few years working at Green Connect as farm hands.

Given the chance to showcase their cooking skills at the Culture Mix Festival, the sisters opted for a traditional dish: Banana sticky rice.

Known as sticky rice, this rice contains starch that is high in amylopectin and low in amylose. This mixture helps give the rice a creamy or fluffy texture. The rice would be cooked then wrapped in a banana leaf for a later date. This method was used to preserve rice, preventing it from spoiling quickly and allowing them to cook a big batch of the sweet dish to last a week.

Unlike most dishes tied to specific mealtimes, this treat – consisting of mostly bananas and rice – was cherished anytime. The sisters made the best of what they had, offering a delightful treat for any day.

It serves as a comforting reminder of their roots, giving them a good taste of home whenever they miss it.

In terms of what festival goers should expect from the food stall, the sisters gave a humble response: that there will be some people who like it, some who don’t. However, Emily quickly backed that up, claiming they were being too modest.

“We did a kid fest, and these guys made the sticky rice, and everyone loved it,” Emily said.

“It’s sweet and it's like in a little parcel, it’s really nice.”

On Saturday, October 21, Culture Mix will include a Global Kitchen at 90 Crown Street and Lower Mall (12-6pm) and a Food Fair on Lower Crown Street (12-8pm). To find out more about food at the festival, visit council's webpage