Fuzz Ali, Fijian food guru

"I know a person is from Fiji just by the way that they walk" - Fuzz Ali

On Fijian food guru Fuzz Ali's menu: cooking with Mum and Grandma, lobster curry for Nigella, and Fiji Pantry chilli oil. 

Sides include: why the chicken lovo is the best analogy of cross-cultures in Fiji, being a role model for queer Fijians and why Fijian food is the best. 

Fuzz's social cause is downsyndrome.org.au. Fuzz is an ambassador for Down Syndrome NSW, an organisation working to build a more inclusive and accepting community for people with Down syndrome. He runs cooking workshops including one coming up later this year called "Cooking for Independence," which is all about using the kitchen as a place to build confidence. More info at downsyndrome.org.au.

To find out more about the project and Savva - head to threefoodmemories.com
Insta - @savvasavas @threefoodmemories

Email us at threefoodmemories@plated.com.au, we'd love to hear from you! 

TFM is produced and edited by Lauren McWhirter with original music by Russell Torrance. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

We acknowledge the traditional custodians of the ground we stand and I thank them for allowing Papa to tell stories on all these glorious lands we share.

SPEAKER_04 0:22

My guest on this episode of Three Food Memories is one of Australia's brightest food personalities. Proudly Fijian, endlessly charismatic, and if I dare say so myself, as cute as a button on a Sulu. From introducing us to the rich flavours of Fiji on national television to building Fiji pantry with his partner, he's shown us that food yet again is how a culture remembers, how a community belongs, and that a homeland can travel thousands of kilometres in a single bite. He's an ambassador for all things Fijian, a champion of Pacific stories, and proof that the biggest ideas can begin with nothing more than a simple imagine if that was dot dot dot. Fuzz Ali Bulla and welcome to Three Food Memories.

SPEAKER_05 1:16

Are you not feeling worthy of it?

SPEAKER_04 1:20

It was really, really lovely. It's kind of a living obituary.

SPEAKER_05 1:24

So if you put up a black and white photo of me, I'm dead. I'm ready now, actually. Tombstone. And I can do it all in little writing. Take me out. I'll I'll throw myself down the stairs after this.

SPEAKER_04 1:37

We'll put the introduction to good use. I'm glad you liked it. Now let's talk about Fiji. Fiji is known to most of us as a holiday destination, but to you, it's home. So tell us about Fiji.

SPEAKER_05 1:50

Fiji, you know, I I often describe it, um, and maybe this is, you know, maybe this is oversimplifying it, but I say that it's magic. So anytime anybody asks me um what it was like to grow up there, what it's like to be Fijian, I say that the the only way that you can describe the experience of both is magic. There's a way of being Fijian that's beyond it lives it lives in the beauty of the place. The beauty of the place starts to inhabit the people of the place. And so what comes out of the people is what you would ordinarily experience if you went to visit. So if you went to stay in a resort, or if you went on a holiday, as many Australians do every single year, you experience the warmth not just of the climate and of the your natural surroundings, but also of the people. There's a genuine way that Fijians move through the world that I've not encountered. Explain that movement. Is it a is it a physical movement? Actually, yes. You know that now, even if I saw a Fijian person, like I would Fiji is a very diverse place. It's made up of multiple ethnicities because of our very particular history. But if I see a person from Fiji, I know that they're from Fiji just by the way that they walk. And it's it's quite it's it's quite a it's So there's a rhythm.

SPEAKER_04 3:06

So Fiji has a rhythm.

SPEAKER_05 3:07

Yes, you know, some people call it Fiji time, um, which I find a bit annoying sometimes. But like I find annoying because sometimes you just like you just want to get stuff done. But um it's great for the tourists. But I I think that there's there is a cadence to the way that that people move their feet or the way that they observe the world. I think that there's more of a desire to absorb the world. Because I think I think that all of us, and I experienced this as well as a future in person, um, we walk into much of the world with a great sense of wonder. I certainly do. So I never take any, and I can and I can say this for the majority of Fijians, I never walk into a room and think that, and I don't mean this any sort of like in in in in a way that's uh that that's false humility, but I don't walk into a room thinking, oh, I deserve to be here and I need to be here. I walk into the room, not thinking that I don't deserve to be in the room, but thinking, wow, this is so incredible. So even walking into the podcast studio today, I thought, oh, this is so incredible, meeting you for the first time. Like, this is absolutely wonderful. So it's it's just it's a continuous way of life. And so you grow up like that.

SPEAKER_04 4:13

So this magic continues.

SPEAKER_05 4:15

It continues. It continues right through your life. Even with me. Even with you. Particularly with you.

SPEAKER_04 4:22

So Fiji is is is a wonderful mix of cultures. How has that shaped the way people live and and and and and and eat and experience this magic that you speak of?

SPEAKER_05 4:35

It's it's impossible to talk about Fiji without talking about our troubled political history, obviously. So and and that unfortunately has been uh droplets of stains across the broad continuum of time. Aaron Powell But like any society, culture, country, no? I suppose so. I think that in particular countries that uh in countries wherein you have a multitude of identities that are trying to figure out the next step, what is it that we do once we all exist in one place together and we did not necessarily exist in that place together for a thousand years, you know? So Indo-Fijians, um people who are of um of Indian descent who arrived as indentured laborers or as merchants later, have only been in Fiji for about 150 years. Chinese Fijians have been in Fiji for about 162 years this year, I believe. And then, of course, indigenous people have been in Fiji for, from what we know, at least a thousand years. So you've suddenly got this group of people with these different cultures, these different identities that are trying to find a common way forward. And if you throw all of that into the mix of a colonial system where then you're all learning something that you don't really quite know, you we don't know how it works. I mean, what is the Westminster system to any of these people? And then you suddenly have independence and you have um you have to chart a way forward, you have to create a new national identity. And of course, Indigenous people come from 14 provinces, those 14 provinces before colonization being 14 independent kingdoms or nation states. So it's it's it's there's a lot of identity mixing that happens. And I think that um I think that over time what's happened is that we've developed this really rich sense of being. I think that the lines between what defined these individual and disparate groups have blurred. And what we have now instead is um, whilst we still, of course, have unique practices amongst all communities, including amongst indigenous people from different parts. Like my partner Eli is from Lao, which is um the Far Eastern Islands. My mother's family is from Nandrunga, which is much further to the west. Um, our cultural practices, in well, indigenous cultural practices in those two areas, completely different languages, completely different. You have uh a Melanesian bent, a Polynesian bent, you've got all of this stuff happening all at the same time. It's a very unique place. It adds to the magic of it. In the chaos of all of those different identities, you come to something quite delicious. So you when when we talk about food, I think food has been a real it's it's been a connector.

SPEAKER_04 7:14

So let's put this into let's put this into a visual, into an experience. I can think of no better place in this city than, you know, the Fijian spice market in Newtown. It's that beautiful place where, you know, the heart of the Pacific meets the Indian subcontinent, which is the stuff that you're speaking about now, the cultures and the coming together and just that thing called, you know, colonization, getting in the way of all of that sort of stuff. Let's look at that Fijian spice market as a sort of as a metaphor of you know what happens when all these you know these cultures come together. You know, you're walking into that market, there's one minute, there's masala and next minute, there's palm sugar, then there's coconut, and then there's tamarind, and you know, and if you mix all that sort of stuff up, you just you it's intoxicating. It is intoxicating. So is that what Fijian culture is like? Is that what we're looking at? It really is. Outside the outside the resorts and the tourist towns?

SPEAKER_05 8:12

It really is. I I think that um I'll explain this to you in the Fiji market, which I absolutely love, by the way. I go there all the time. Best vanilla pods. It's yes, thank you so much. I appreciate that. All of them are from Fiji. Um I'll explain it to you in the form of a lovo chicken. It's like my favorite thing to eat. So a lava is an earth oven. Uh, it's an indigenous earth oven, it's the way that food is prepared. Now, historically, of course, there were no chickens. There might have been wild boar. Parts of Fiji uh were practiced cannibalism, so it might have been a human being. Now we have chickens. Now we raise chickens, so chickens are an introduced species. We lava chicken. The product itself is introduced, the chicken is introduced. The lava is exactly the same. Then you have the inclusion, of course, of Chinese settlers, not Chinese Fijians. So let's add some soy sauce on that. So why whereas before something may have just been put into the ground, now we're marinating this chicken with soy sauce. And then you have, of course, the inclusion of Indo-Fijian people. Now you've got this thing that I call the Trinity of Indo-Fijian aromatics. So you've got chili, garlic, and ginger. So now we've got soy sauce, chili, garlic, and ginger that the chicken is now marinated in before it's wrapped in banana leaves or foil, more commonly in homes, and then put under the ground to cook. It's everything all coming together and being presented very it is intoxicating. The smell is intoxicating, it's delicious, but that thing that we now call the contemporary love of chicken would not exist without everybody's involvement.

SPEAKER_04 9:40

So what have you made it your mission to bring real Fijian food to Australia?

SPEAKER_05 9:47

It's really important to talk about the Pacific story. At the heart of everything that I do, it it it's it's about the story. It's about people like us. It's about not seeing people like us represented within the Australian, broad Australian media space, or just generally. Pacific people have been in this country forever. I mean, Fiji uh sorry, Australia is in the Pacific. Um, you had the Prime Minister the other day, who happens to be in Fiji at the moment, make a speech and um Anthony Albanese, and he says um that Australia and Fiji are two proud Pacific nations, which, yes, that's true. But how many Australians actually know that? How many times that do we go to the beach, whether it's at Bondaiakuji or Manly, and do we look out and think, oh, that's the Pacific Ocean? And beyond the ocean, yeah, exactly. And beyond the ocean that you see are thousands of islands scattered across tens of thousands of kilometers of ocean, which are populated by these incredible cultures of seafaring people. And those people now, of course, exist here in Australia as well, have existed in Australia for a long time. But our story seems to be something that we haven't readily shared with people. And I'm not sure why, because our cultures are quite similar. Our histories are sort of similar as well. We're also, I I mean, Australia's a gigantic island, but we we're also all island people. Again, you're talking about food, the flavor profiles that we enjoy, we share that as well. So there's I think that it's important for Australians to understand that Pacific people are real, that we exist here, that we are not just people who serve people in resorts, that we've had a real life and real life experiences, that we are not just this is like a weird thing that we're gonna get into now, but like, you know, there's all these studies that are always like, you know, where's the happiest place on earth? And they always go to Fiji and they always say that, like, you know, Fijians are very happy, which is true. We're very happy people. But we're not just happy.

SPEAKER_04 11:47

That also is a reminder, you saying that about um, you know, we're not just people that work in resorts. I mean, that's that's something we should remember where wherever we travel, you know, whether it be Indonesia, Malaysia, the Maldives, or wherever, it's the same sort of thing. The people that work there actually have a culture, come from a place.

SPEAKER_05 12:06

Aaron Powell Because there's texture to all human beings, right? So I remember um listening to this wonderful TED talk a couple of years ago by one of my favorite authors who's Nigerian, Shimanda Adice, and she talked about the danger of a single story, and I think it really stuck with me. This idea that if you meet somebody or if you have an experience with somebody, you only see them as one singular thing. And in sort of sanding off the the bumps and the texture and and the grain to something that's like easily understandable, we dehumanize people because we see them only as a single thing. I think that I would love for for at the end of this that I'm doing and that many other Pacific people are doing as well, that eventually people will look at Pacific people as being human beings in the world with a particular experience.

SPEAKER_04 12:57

So let's look at this. If before we hop into your food memories, if Fiji had a personality, what would it be? Ah, what a great question. Thank you. If Fiji had a personality, what would it be? I mean, you can't have it all.

SPEAKER_05 13:13

Um Fiji would be an incredibly loud a loud dominating um culturally insisting, occasionally swearing, but then apologizing woman. Woman. She is she is big, she's wearing a lot of colour, she's very happy, she is laughing, but she knows how to pull people in line. So she's a woman. She's she's somebody she's somebody strong, somebody resolute, somebody really determined in their identity, and also someone who's not going to take shit. A person with a great moral compass, yet a great deal of fun. A great deal of fun, but definitely a moral compass. I mean, she's not I mean, I know that's not allowed in Australia, but she would definitely smack somebody.

SPEAKER_04 14:08

I would I would let her if I was anything. If I needed to check in. Okay, your first food memory. This is a wonderful one. This is a foundation food memory. This tells us where it all began for you. This is cooking with your mother and your grandmother. Tell us about this.

SPEAKER_05 14:24

My mum's always been incredibly busy. She's a she's an incredibly successful businesswoman in her own right. She comes from a family of successful business people, and she just she was always incredibly busy. So my entire life, even now, uh, I don't think that she has any plans to slow down. She's she's just always been busy. But I am an only child, and she wanted to be involved in my raising.

SPEAKER_04 14:49

I know that having me and I When you say that she wanted to be involved in your child raising, it just w what parents but there were grandparents.

SPEAKER_05 14:59

My grandparents are but I think that also and and and often within our culture it's not uncommon that if somebody is is very, very busy, uh particularly a a mother, that the child will be passed on to a sibl- My mum has 13 siblings. Oh, right. A child will be passed on to a sibling, or that they would grow up with a grand-a lot of my cousins grow up that way as well. Um and there's nothing wrong with it. It's very much like a village. Yes. It is a village to raise a child. Um, and also in mum's particular case, it would not be uncommon for somebody to be hired to raise the child as well. So um, a nanny who would then, you know, and I and I had a nanny, Mara, who uh unfortunately has now passed away, but she was my nanny for my entire life. And so and she was very, very important to me. She was like a second mum to me. But mom wanted, she wanted to be there and she wanted to be present, and it seemed to be very, very important to her. And for whatever reason, she decided that food was the most important thing in the entire world. So she decided from when I was a when I was an infant that she would make all of my meals for me. So she would, in the midst of all of her busyness, and this is beyond my memories or before my memories, she would uh stew and blend fruit, and she would prepare all my meals and she'd make sure that all the bottles were done and blah, blah, blah. Like, you know, there's all these stories about how insistent she was. She also didn't allow me to eat salt or sugar for a very, very long period in my life. So I think the first time that I had salt, I was um, I might have been like four or five. And the first time I had sugar, I might have been ten. So it was, it was a very, very long period of time. She just, she she was very insistent on that. From when I can remember, though, it's like she wanted me to know that food was the way that we were going to connect, or food was the way that we could stay connected to the people that we come from. Because of course I come from a descendant of slaves, so people who were transported to the islands to work in sugar cane fields. And so she wanted to, she wanted to ensure that I was aware of that. So in the making of food, in the making of Fijian food, in the making of Fijian identity through food, it's how she sort of like taught me about who I was. Um and it was also the way that she could just have a conversation with me. She'd come home from work, she'd get started on something, and I'd be there with her. She'd she'd ask me to help. I've that it's probably why I'm so comfortable with knives. I mean, a lot of people who watch my content notice that I I uh I don't really use chopping boards, I use my fingers to cut everything. And I always use a paring knife. And she just she just put me into this environment.

SPEAKER_04 17:38

Well, it makes sense. She's a busy woman if she's not at her desk working, you know, being industrious, she's in the kitchen. I do that with my children. Like all my connection is with them in the kitchen because if I'm not in the kitchen, I'm at my desk. Yeah, or I'm in the laundry, or I'm just doing the garden. So I I I kind of connect with your mother there. I really understand that is and that is a very useful place. In actual fact, I tell parents, well, your children are so they know how the kit I don't know how to get my children involved in the kitchen. And I say to them, you know, the first thing you should do to get them to understand the architecture of a kitchen, which is if you think about the kitchen, it is the it if you crack an egg, the yolk is the kitchen and all the white stuff is everything else. I say the first thing that you should do to get your children into a kitchen is get them to unpack the dishwasher every day. Like just make it a thing. And then they know how everything works. So I with your mum, I know where she's at.

SPEAKER_05 18:54

She would pass it to me to take it to to be cleaned, to go and and wash it in the sink. So yeah, it's interesting. That was actually the first. And then also to to dry dishes and put them away. So that it was sort of the first actually how fascinating. Before the cooking, yeah, it was actually just putting stuff away.

SPEAKER_04 19:13

Yeah. You think of a mechanics, you know, a mechanics workshop, it's exactly the same thing. So if you you never separate those processes. One of my cousins actually started it with her children, and I was there when they were doing it, and they fumbled and they were picking up the knives haphazardly, and I was like, they're not gonna cut themselves because they've kind of they've they just know, and that's a very basic thing. So, parents listening out there, if you need to get your children into the kitchen, just do that dishwasher. I think so as well. Back to back to growing up. So, who was in your family? There was just you were the only child.

SPEAKER_05 19:48

I was an only child, however, for the longest time. So I w I went to an international school in in um in Fiji, but culturally in Fijian culture, this is across all all of Fijian culture, doesn't matter what ethnic background. Your parents' siblings are like your parents. So my mother's sisters are like my mother's, and the words that are often used are like big mom, small mom. So everybody's kind of the same. And your first cousins are like your siblings. So we don't have a concept of second cousin. So I it was something that I learned when I somebody, somebody who was Australian actually in school told me when I was like in year four. So my cousins' children are my nieces and nephews. Yep. And my nieces and nephews' children are my grand nieces and nephews. So I don't have second cousins, third cousins, blah, blah, blah. The the way that I identify second cousin is my mum's cousins children. Right. Uh my second cousins. So it it you know, it it was, it's, it's, it's very whatever. But I remember um growing up and going to my grandmother's house, which was another place that I would um often be introduced to food with so many people. My grandparents entertained very large groups of people. They had um a large role um in the community that they grew up with that they uh lived in in Singatoka. Um and would often have a multitude of people home for dinner. So like my grandmother always used to prepare, like, you know, I mean, 13 children, but at any one time there might have been like seven of them living at home or whatever, but um for for just other people to drop in. So whether it was people that worked for them, whether it was people from the village, whether it was people passing by, there were always just a multitude of people eating in the house. So every time I would go to my grandparents' house, there's a lot of food being prepared. A lot.

SPEAKER_04 21:40

You split your time between Australia, or Sydney in particular, and Fiji. You backwards and there's a bit of backwards and forwards. Yes. So where w where were the formative years?

SPEAKER_05 21:52

I would suggest that my formative years actually, do you know it was it was quite equal. So I it was equally spent between Suva. The city that I went to school in, Singatoka, which is where my mother's family is from, and Sydney. Because I was born in Sydney. And then uh I I moved I went back to Fiji when I was a couple of months old.

SPEAKER_04 22:13

Did they were there was there any culture clashing?

SPEAKER_05 22:16

No. No, I I I never it's it that's actually it's an interesting question because people ask me that now as well. So they they ask about um the difference in culture. I never recognize the difference in culture. I always thought that there was I I I always saw the great similarities between the places. I think that Australian humour is very similar to feature in humor. Um I think that's it's in the water. It is in the water. I think we're all Pacific people. Um I always just I you know, I have always this is you know, back with your earlier question, I've always just thought of Sydney as being a part of the broad Blue Pacific. So it's just a four-hour bus ride away, right? Yeah, it's on. You know, I mean, like, I mean, and on the way you've got New Zealand. So like you you you sort of it was it was all sort of the same thing. So I never um I never felt a sense of difference, no.

SPEAKER_04 23:02

Your grandmother lived with you. Was she your mother's mother or your father's mother? My mother's mother. Okay. Where was Dad in all of this story?

SPEAKER_05 23:10

He's there. He's just very quiet. So I it's he's he's absolutely wonderful. Um and people often ask, I think, you know, sadly, my mum and I have very strong personalities. And my dad doesn't have as strong a personality as the two of us do. So sometimes he's outnumbered. So he he he he wonderfully steps back and allows you both to be who you are.

SPEAKER_04 23:30

Yes, who does? What was his relationship? Where did he fit into your whole food story or the family's food story?

SPEAKER_05 23:37

It's a very good question. Do you know what? Oh, actually, okay, I'll tell you how. My dad grew up um as a farmer. Uh well, he grew up uh as a child of farmers. So he grew up on he grew up uh with a sugarcane plantation and and all that sort of that life. He really brought that later in life, I think. I don't think it was early on, I think it was much later when he started to re-engage with the farm or his family farm that he brought me in to understand where food comes from. So my dad later in his life started to grow chickens because he felt like it. Um, and ducks because uh he just loved ducks. And um my grandmother, my paternal grandmother, uh had a vegetable farm that he had established for her. And so it was it was quite a he's he's had quite the story. His family was incredibly poor, incredibly poor. They grew up in a single room uh with seven siblings and parents working on this farm. Now they've all gone off to do absolutely incredible things with their lives, um including my dad. But my dad in particular has stayed very connected to the farm, and he's very insistent that um that I now also have some connection to the farm, which is quite wonderful.

SPEAKER_04 24:53

I'd be really curious to see where that what happens to his insistence on you down the track.

SPEAKER_05 24:58

I so am I, actually. I think that um I'm I'm starting to feel it now, living here. This this idea of sort of like being as close to the source as possible. Yeah. It's becoming more and more important to me. And there's a pull, isn't there? There is. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. And I think it's important.

SPEAKER_04 25:18

So let's let's go back to the kitchen with mother and grandmother. What were some of the flavors that you remember coming out of that that space?

SPEAKER_05 25:26

It was such an incredibly diverse kitchen. Oh, well, the two kitchens. So initially Two kitchens. Well, before my grandm before my grandfather passed away, we would go to Singatoka to my grandparents' house, where my grandmother had her own kitchen very, very early on. My grandfather passed away when I was six. So I have but for whatever reason I remember the kitchen. It's like the only thing I remember of my grandparents' house. I think because there was so much food. I remember in my grandmother's kitchen then there was a lot of um, it was a lot more Indo Fijian leaning. There were a lot of rotties, a lot of vegetable curries I remember. Uh there was my grandfather uh didn't eat shellfish, so there was never shellfish there. But it was very like there were these beautiful, rich, stewy curries and these really lovely vegetables, and there was like always rotty for whatever reason. My mother's kitchen was a little bit different. So my mother's kitchen was um influenced by Indo Fijian flavors, so there was a lot of spices, a lot of heat. There was heat across all the kitchen, so lots of chili, lots of garlic, lots of ginger. But my mother's kitchen brought those flavors into things like, you know, pot rose chickens, into meatballs and spaghetti, into um.

SPEAKER_04 26:39

Does she do anything? Does she do anything particular with her meatballs and spaghetti?

SPEAKER_05 26:43

Yes. Well, it's really interesting. So when she makes meatballs herself, the meatballs have chili, garlic, and ginger through them, and they're really, really young. So that's the only way that I make them now, because I can't have them any other way. And this way, you know, but don't tell that to an Italian. You know, the both kitchens were really interesting in that way. But my grandfather passed away, and my grandmother moved in with us, and uh, she lived with us the rest of the time. It sort of was this coming together of these two different things. I remember when nine my grandmother started living with us, there were lots of treats. So I'd come home from school and there'd always be a sweet or something. Because my mum is not, she wasn't big on the sweets, but suddenly my grandmother was she's probably the person who gave me sugar for the first time. Um she'd, you know, very simple things. I'd come home and there'd be like uh hot, rotty, ripped up. I made a video about it, ripped up and then mixed with ghee and sugar and turned into like little cute balls and stuff.

SPEAKER_04 27:40

She'd like coconut biscuits?

SPEAKER_05 27:42

She well, she made these coconut sweets, which were coconut cocoa sugar, and they just like turn into these delicious, like fudgy little things. They were so good. So, you know, between the two of them, the food was on tap. You know, I'd come home from school, there was food, then mum would come home, and it was the way we connected, so so we would be cooking together. So there's just always, you know, it's just plethora of food. But there's a lot of heat. I think that mum's food was more diverse. She was probably more experimental, and that has really had influence on the way that I cook. So a lot of the stuff that I do now, it brings endorfine flavors, fusion flavors, specific flavors into new ways of doing things.

SPEAKER_04 28:24

So let's look at the progressions of kitchens here. Now you speak of your grandmother's kitchen and then your mother's kitchen. Now we have your kitchen. What happens when the three kitchens come together? It's an explosion of flavor.

SPEAKER_05 28:36

The memory of those kitchens allows me to create things that are new. And it's a really interesting way, particularly in my practice now, in wanting to connect.

SPEAKER_04 28:47

I love how you speak about the your kitchen as a practice, as it is a yoga, like yoga is also a practice. It feels that way.

SPEAKER_05 28:54

It it feels like um the more that I've leaned into it as a form of storytelling, I treat what I do, even though it's really fun and quick, particularly on social media and the things that I write as a food writer. It I treat it as a practice and a discipline, and it's really important to me to get it right. So often I'll experiment with things and then I'll share them when they're right, because it's a way to communicate with a community that's not mine. And to introduce these flavors into their into their lives. So the other day I made um there's a suite that's very common in Fiji. You can find them like at any um, it's from the Indo-Fijian community. You find them at any bus stop or you know, any of the sweet carts, with sweet carts all over the cities. Um, it's called Barfi. And it's like a milk, it's a milk suite, which is quite hard and it's got hundreds and thousands all over it.

SPEAKER_02 29:48

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_05 29:49

It's so good. And like there was this obsession with the dot cakes. Um, by the time this this uh this goes to air, maybe the dot cake thing would be gone because social media has like a two-second attention span. But um, I was like, oh, I've got the best dot cake, you know, it's a barfee. But then I was like, but if I make a barfee, I'm speaking to my community. How do I speak to another community? How do how do I get people to understand that they can build this into their life? So I experimented with making a barfee cake, which I did. And it was so good. And it has just had this incredible, I think it's it's up to like 150,000 views now, and it was up only last week, but it just it's made its way across the Australian community, beyond just beyond just my people, beyond just my kitchens. So it's like I've taken what my grandmother did, this sort of like this insistence on on staying true to our identity through flavor, coupled it with the way that mum was like, yeah, cool, like we can stay true to flavor, but maybe we can play around with it a little bit. And I've just kind of like put the two things together.

SPEAKER_04 30:55

This is a really interesting thought because this is how you get messaging across, isn't it? You take the message, you take the essence of the message, you're not gonna deviate from it. You look at your audience, you want to get them on board, and so then how do you do it? Um, is this what these two women taught you outside the kitchen?

SPEAKER_05 31:15

It is. They they taught me um between the two of them. They're so different from each other as well. Um I think that I'm I'm somewhere between, of course, my father's I I have my father's patience, I think, a little bit sometimes. But I think that um my mum being such a firebrand and my my grandmother being so gentle.

SPEAKER_04 31:36

If she's one of thirteen people, uh 13 children, she would have had to be a firebrand. Just to survive that.

SPEAKER_05 31:43

Just to get through the 13 of them. And yeah, I sorry, I just quickly like two, it's like growing up with all of these people. I didn't know that my cousins weren't my siblings. I had to be told in school. And then when I discovered it, I went home and I was like, I don't have to see them. I remember going to mom and just being like, you never told me. I don't have to actually spend time with them. We're not siblings. I just thought we're siblings who lived in different houses. I mean, it was a whole thing. But um, but yes, to your question, I do think that somewhere between my grandmother and my mother, and just the impact that they've had on my life. I know I know from my mom that it's important to insist. But I know from my grandmother, for my nanny, who was who I was very close to, that you can insist, but you can be gentle about it. And sometimes it's better to it's better to be gentle. It's better to bring people in based on what it is that they know. Because we can't assume that people that people know. Like a lover with a slow hand.

SPEAKER_04 32:43

Like a lover with a slow hand. So your first memory is is all about where the memories came, where all about the recipes came from. Yeah. But this next memory is about when the world recognized it. Cooking for Nigella Lawson.

SPEAKER_05 32:56

Oh. I'm obsessed with her. I can't even tell you. I am obsessed with her. My favorite thing in the entire world is that we follow each other on Instagram. And I'm just like, oh my god. And then she comments on things sometimes, and I'm like, oh, I still die. She's fantastic. I have been obsessed with her since like I can't even tell you when, like, forever. Like I remember when I um when I first moved back to Sydney permanently for university when I was like uh, how old was I? I remember 17, I think. And um, I remember watching Nigella Kitchen. I just turned it on because you know you used to watch the TV back then. You didn't have the Netflix and things. Um, it was on Foxtale. And I watched on the Food Network, and um, I think it was the Food Network, and she made this French toast with this like plum jam situation, and I made it over and over and over again. I am absolutely obsessed with her. She's fantastic. So when we did end up on the on the show, and she was the judge, and I got to spend like every three days. The show being My Kitchen Rules. Yeah. So I was on My Kitchen Rules a couple of years ago, and oh my god. She was just like it was like honestly, I didn't care about anything else. The fact that I got to spend time with her, speak to her, connect with her, the fact that she enjoyed the food. I was very fortunate that the food that um that we made for her were my family recipes and that she enjoyed them.

SPEAKER_04 34:19

Like I was uh What did you make for her?

SPEAKER_05 34:22

I made for her for our restaurant around uh Cokonda, which is a Fijian, they call it a Fijian ceviche, but it's it's a cured fish in um coconut milk. So I made my own coconut milk. I scraped the coconuts and squeezed it myself. And the main, which is really special, was a lobster curry. So the lobster curry is my mother's favorite thing to eat. And you don't get to pick what you cook for them. You submit a bunch of recipes, and then the production crew comes back and tells you what it is that you make. And uh, I mean, they ask you for like 5,000 recipes. I can't remember how many it was. It was like 15 recipes each or something for each course, and then they tell you the day before what it is that you you're going to cook the day after. And it was just, I mean, I was in hell.

SPEAKER_04 35:07

It's an enormous amount of pressure.

SPEAKER_05 35:09

Oh, yeah, it was wild. Like But again, thankfully I'm Fijian, so I was like, You're that Fijian woman who slaps them down.

SPEAKER_04 35:18

Yeah. So how did you find out you were going to be cooking for Nigella?

SPEAKER_05 35:24

It was initially a surprise because my kitchen rules my kitchen rules was just coming back onto television. Hang on, hang on. Did you lose your mind when you found out? Oh my god, I like I died. Did you do a dance? Was there a dance or I I honestly I think I went into shock. So when I found out we auditioned, um, and it's it's a very long, arduous process, and you know, they they come to see you, they talk to you on the phone, you cook for the producers, blah, blah, blah. Like there's all this stuff. And then, and then at the end of it, it was like, who are the judges? And all I heard was Nigella. Manu was there as well. But all I heard was Nigella. And like I felt really bad because when you when you do the confessionals afterwards and you're talking to camera, and when the producer when the producer would ask questions, all I would talk about was Nigella. The entire time. Like full-time fan girling. Like it was like a whole thing. But she is just so lovely and supportive and kind. And one of the things that I will say, because I say it all the time, I think it's really important. Because these shows are shows, they're the reality TV shows, that they're designed to have some level of drama, whatever, and you know, they've got earpieces in and they're listening. The number of times she said to the producers, I won't say that. It was like I had a lot of respect for that. And I I was like, This is really you're you're a good one.

SPEAKER_04 36:44

Which actually was that was one question I was going to ask you. What was Nigella like when the cameras weren't rolling?

SPEAKER_05 36:50

She was supportive, she was kind, she um she she was really, she was very encouraging. She really wanted to taste what it meant for something to come out of our kitchen if we weren't in that circumstance. Like the kitchen of our minds. Like she was she wanted to understand what our flavours were. She was curious. She wasn't just a judge on a show. She was she was curious, she was genuinely curious. And I and I know that, you know, that might sound like whatever, but it was my genuine experience.

SPEAKER_04 37:24

From your experience with her and your ongoing comms with Nigella, what do you think her driver is? What what is your experience of her, the thing that makes her just keep going?

SPEAKER_05 37:35

I think that she treats what she does as as a as a practice as well. I think that food is an important way that she connects with her family and her loved ones. And I think that she wants to share that joy of connection with people. So I think that I think that's it. I think it's I think it's beyond food for her. I'm I I think that I I know I understand that it's a job and I understand that she does it very well. But I do think that her success is based in the reality that she cooks for her family and her friends, and she wants to share that with all of us.

SPEAKER_04 38:09

And for all the dishes that you submitted, how did you feel? Like you're cooking for Nigella, but for all the dishes that you submitted that she they chose for you to cook your mother's lobster curry. Do you know?

SPEAKER_05 38:20

So initially, super excited. And then after that, I was like, I'm gonna fuck this up. I'm sorry, am I allowed to swear? I was just like, oh my god, I'm you know, because lobsters lobster is actually quite difficult to cook. Um to cook well, because it becomes it's it's a it's beautiful if it's cooked well, but often it can just turn rubbery and hard. And I was like, oh my god, this is gonna be so tough. But the gods smile down on me. Yeah, and sounds like it was a divine experience.

SPEAKER_04 38:52

It was Nigella Mum's best recipe, and you know, the technique.

SPEAKER_05 38:58

I remember when she came into the kitchen and um and she looked as I was cooking and she was like, Will it be ready? And then I and I said, Yes, of course it will.

SPEAKER_02 39:07

What are you talking about?

SPEAKER_05 39:11

I didn't know maybe not. Um but it was just you know She had a doubt, it would seem. There was like, you know, there was a moment, I think, because it was so hard, and um you know, because we were serving it to to lot uh traditionally if you would serve it or the way the mum would you just cut the tail into pieces and then you just like serve it with with the shell. But I was trying to extract the flavour from the shell and then cook the meat separately. It was like a whole thing that again, this is the thing between, you know, my my grandmother and my mother, right? So like I was like, I need to be as authentic to this recipe as possible, but I have to serve it differently because I'm not gonna have people out there like trying to like, you know, push a piece of lobster out of a shell. But yeah, you know, it it all it all came together.

SPEAKER_04 39:54

What did it mean for you when you heard her praise this family dish? I was quite emotional about it. I I'm not I'm not a super emotional person. Um But you're putting a very big part of your family history on the line. Yes. Not just in front of you know, national television, but in front of someone that you admire.

SPEAKER_05 40:18

Which I think was more important to me. I completely forgot about the fact that we were on camera. Um genuinely. I all I could think was I really I have so much respect for this person in their practice. And if this is something that I want to do, if I want to be as good a storyteller as this person, like what if I fuck this up? Um it was it was a genuine thing, like it was it was a lot of it was a lot of pressure, but it felt incredible once it was there, and when she said that she enjoyed it, and then more recently I made it again for social media and she commented on my Instagram and she said, you know how much I love this, I died.

SPEAKER_04 41:04

So so listening to you, I'm not sure that this memory, in fact, I know 100% cooking for Nigelar is is the memory, but I I don't feel like it's the story. I think this memory for me is more about validation about someone you admire saying your family food belongs on the stage, like literally on the stage.

SPEAKER_02 41:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 41:29

How did your Nigella moment translate for your mother?

SPEAKER_05 41:35

Mum was thrilled. Like w when she saw it on um when she saw the episode, she was like, oh my gosh, like this is so cool. You know, this is just this is just our it's just our family recipe. Lobsters are quite like you know, they used to be. Now tourism, the lobsters have disappeared. But when I was growing up, lobsters were quite common in Fiji. They weren't uh they they weren't like a a much sought-after commodity. They were you could just you could find them everywhere. But with the boom of the tourism industry, the resorts take much of the lobsters now, so they become more expensive. But growing up, they weren't expensive. It was it was literally in mum's mind, it's just a family recipe. And here we are, Nigella loves it.

SPEAKER_04 42:16

So as cooks and chefs, um, we spend much of our time feeding other people. When someone admires and loves your food, does it change the way you see yourself?

SPEAKER_05 42:28

I don't think it changes the way that I see myself. Often in the Australian context, migrants like us often are answerable to our entire communities. My initial reaction, honestly, to most things is always, I I hope that this is good for us.

SPEAKER_04 42:46

A good representation of who we are.

SPEAKER_05 42:48

Yeah. Of where I've come from. Of where I've come from, of my people. I hope that I hope that this if if this can live in a kitchen, because you've said before about how important the kitchen is. And that I I loved your analogy before about about the um and that was about the home, but of course, you know, when you claim you crack an egg, the the yolk is a kitchen and and everything else is why.

SPEAKER_04 43:07

I took that from our architect, by the way. That's not my own.

SPEAKER_05 43:09

Okay, well we're gonna we're gonna acknowledge that architect, because that's really clever. I might suggest that that's the case just across across all of human experience. You can bring everything back to food because sustenance, it's how we it's we we have to eat to live. So if you if you can get people to appreciate what you eat, and if they can make what you eat in their kitchen, and if they can partake in it, even if you never meet each other, you've communicated a piece of yourself to somebody else. And then hopefully it means that our culture continues and that somebody else uh, you know, takes it on as a practice.

SPEAKER_04 43:50

The lobster curry tells a story about how food preserves memory. This last memory shows us how food creates a future. Your blood's worth bottling. Fuzz. The day Fiji Pantry was born. How was it bonded?

SPEAKER_05 44:08

My partner, Eli. It's interesting. It's all sort of like coming around and connecting. But you asked about my grandmother, my mum, the two things coming together. I think in many ways now, and I'll think about it now because I never thought about this before, but this interview has has done that for me.

SPEAKER_04 44:27

You're welcome.

SPEAKER_02 44:34

I'm so sorry. I'll take it. Thank you.

SPEAKER_05 44:42

Eli was asking me, so my my paternal grandmother, uh, my my dad's mum, so she, when we were living in Fiji again, as so I've been back and forth a couple of times, but I went back to live there for about five years, I think from the age of 28 or something. And so when Eli and I lived in Fiji, he and I have been together for 19 years, so it's been a very, very long life. Um, we we would get like bottles of this chili chutney, which is quite common. And you know, we just eat it because it's so delicious. You add it to anything eggs, toast, curry, stew, a roast, whatever. It's so delicious. And then we were here, and Eli was like, There's no way to bring it over. And I was like, no, biosecurity. Um and then he was like, Can you make it? And then I was like, I can try. So I messaged um my aunt, uh, who lives with my grandmother in Sembato in Fiji. And I asked her, I said, you know, how do you make it? So she gave me some. There's never a recipe, you know. It's it's like uh a little bit of this, a little bit of that, whatever. So I started experimenting with making it. And then eventually I did it. And then I was like, try this. I was like, I think that I think this is right. And I'd added elements to it that aren't in the original, but for some reason they work. Like I added citron peppercorns, which are not a part of that recipe at all. But for some reason it just worked. And he was like, oh my god, this is amazing. We should bottle it. And then I was like, we could bottle it. But in that it's important for us to be able to communicate what this thing is to people who might not understand what chili chutney is because chili chutney sounds like it's gonna burn your mouth. So, and and most people would be like, absolutely not. So then we made a chili oil. Because it was a way that we could communicate with people. It was a way that we could tell people, you can introduce these Fijin flavors into your pantry, and all you have to do is just scoop the chutney out the bottom, or you can use the oil as you would any other chili oil.

SPEAKER_04 46:38

So thank you, Eli, for helping out with, you know, Fijian pantry. Let's get straight to the guts of this memory. How did you and Eli meet?

SPEAKER_05 46:46

Eli and I went to high school together. And so we've known each other since we were 12 or 13. So is it a heart stopper story? I actually didn't like him very much when he first came to school. I was like, I thought it was annoying. And he wore the wrong color shorts or something. It was like something really random like that. Clothes have always been very important to me.

SPEAKER_04 47:01

He's that Fijian lady again.

SPEAKER_05 47:07

Um we were forced to be friends. Uh in in the year 2000, there was a civilian coup, and um, we went to international school. So all of our friends left. So all the expatriates, the Australians, New Zealanders, um, the Americans, the Japanese, whoever, whoever there was that wasn't a Fijian and who thought their life might be in danger, they left the school. So it the school was reduced down to just the Fijians. And so we had no choice because our friends were gone. So we became friends. And then our friendship turned into a very close friendship. We were the absolute best of friends. And then in 2006, when we had finished school and I was on a gap year, I think I was on a gap year then, there was another coup, this time there's a military coup. And my mother thought it best that I leave. And I mean I may not have left Fiji if if that didn't happen. I don't know. But when I left and I came to live in Sydney again fully, um, and I'm glad I did in hindsight, but um we realized in that happening that our friendship is beyond a friendship, and we've been together ever since. So next year we celebrate our 20th anniversary.

SPEAKER_04 48:24

But you knew each other for six years before.

SPEAKER_05 48:28

Yes.

SPEAKER_04 48:28

So were there any kind of little I mean, who came out to who first?

SPEAKER_05 48:33

Or did you meet? It's a good question. Eli came out to me first. Um and I what did I did I ever I don't think I've ever actually come out. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_04 48:46

Nine eight. No, no, I'm here, I'm far.

SPEAKER_05 48:51

Yeah, I've I've I've never come out. I came out to my mum um and to my dad, but never to anybody else. I think 'cause I felt like I had to explain it to them. Right. But or like I had to tell them or or whatever, but I don't think there was much surprise. Um But no, I don't think I've ever come out.

SPEAKER_04 49:10

This this would explain why you're so verse in your practice of of food, because you're so comfortable with who you are. So you're able to carry this communication well. I appreciate that. Thank you. But um one ordinary conversation over a meal changed everything. The chili oil. Is this how your relationship works? Like someone comes up with an idea and then the other one executes?

SPEAKER_05 49:35

Essentially, yes. Um, we've So Eli and I, as well as having been together for 20 years, have also always worked together. So we are one of those very rare couples that like I can't imagine working with anyone else. So he's uh he's been my business partner, he's been my partner in life, he's been co-parent to my dogs, like it's like it just it we do everything together, and I think it works because he and I are so different. So often he will have a thought, and then I'll do the thing, or sometimes I'll have a thought, and it's usually something much more practical because I'm lazy, and then he'll do the thing. So um, yeah, it's it's just always work, but that is that is how our relationship works, and also it's random. So there's nothing that's ever. I've always fallen into things because I don't say no to things. So if there's a new adventure, I'll take the new adventure.

SPEAKER_04 50:40

What's his relationship like with your mother?

SPEAKER_05 50:42

Very good. They're both Geminis. Right. Um, they get along. I think that they have conversations about me sometimes. Um they are both because I'm very close to Mum as well, so they have a um they they have like they they talk to each other about my my peculiarities.

SPEAKER_04 51:00

Oh, that's a that's a lot, that's a very big conversation. What do you see in him?

SPEAKER_05 51:08

He is much better than I am. So he's kinder, he's more gentle, he's uh I think we might have equal amounts of generosity, but he his expression of it is a lot more um profound. He's he cares about people, he really takes care of like I mean I'd be dead if it weren't for like the I you know I'd leave all the doors open, walk out in front of a car, like you know, it's just all that sort of stuff. But he just he's always aware, he looks at everything. I was talking to um a friend of mine about this. Um my friend Kirsty and I and Eli, so the three of us spend a lot of time together. One day Kirst and I would look, I can't remember what we were looking for something, we couldn't find it, and Eli just gone to go and get it. Like we'd driven past it, and he just got out of the car and went and we were like, what's going on? What's happening? And then he just got back to the kind he had it.

SPEAKER_04 52:04

He's wonderful. To have a partner that can actually just pick up that oh, it's just whatever that is that's not being picked up. Yeah. So you're both profoundly Fijian, profoundly queer. You've become role models for others. Is this something that you think about?

SPEAKER_05 52:22

Yeah. Yeah, I think about it a lot. When I when I lived in Fiji as uh a couple of years ago now, gosh, a long time ago now, um, as an adult, I hosted television. And Eli and I, for all intents and purposes, were the only out-gay couple at the time. And it was like a profound responsibility because you had a whole bunch of young people who, under the pressure of things like church and family and all of the other things, societal expectations, they didn't know what to look at. And I just wanted to be normal. I wanted them to know that it was just all normal, that it didn't need to be a production, it didn't need to be a fuss, it didn't you just could be with somebody, love somebody, and just be happy and joyful. I think that also, again, for the community, um, I know that I talked about the community a lot. There was a bit where, and this is just an aside, but I got to a bit where I was quite unhealthy, so I had put on a lot of weight. And I know that in my community we have issues with diabetes, with heart disease, uh, various non-communicable diseases that are all based in obesity. So I've lost like 60 kilos. Wow. Eli has also lost about 25, I think, and he just did a hierarch challenge. Um so it just became one of these things where I was like, I'm always conscious of it. And I think that he is as well. No, I know that he is as well. That that people do that people do look, that the community is looking, that we have, for whatever reason, decided to live a public life in the community and outside of it, because of course we're communicating what that looks like to everybody else in Australia as well. But first and foremost, we need to be examples to to young people, to young queer people, you know, just to be the just attempt to be the best version of yourself that you possibly can be.

SPEAKER_04 54:13

Your relationship is built on longevity. We're talking six years of could we call it courtship or getting to know you, then another 19 to 20 years. Yeah. I mean, that's we're hitting quarter century stuff here. Yeah. Um, what do you think this bond has taught you both about love, partnership, and backing each other?

SPEAKER_05 54:34

I think that the most important thing that I've learned, and I'm not sure if Eli would say the same, but maybe he would. But certainly for me, is that you it's a decision. You have to choose. You can choose otherwise. Because there are always times that you think not always, actually. There's a there's a moment, I think, then it passes. But there's always a time when it well well, sorry, there's sometimes a time when it feels difficult. And then you think, God, this is hard. And maybe it's because things aren't going exactly the way that you want it to go, or you don't have exactly the circumstance that you want, maybe you don't live in exactly the spot that you want to live in or whatever. And it's easier to throw it all away. But the reality is that you choose. You choose your partner, you choose to love somebody, you choose to be in it for the long haul. You don't you don't just you know, accident your way through it. It's very intentional. Love is intentional. And if you're intentional about it, then you'll be in love forever.

SPEAKER_04 55:35

You've chosen as your social cause the Down syndrome New South Wales. Why have you chosen this organization?

SPEAKER_05 55:42

I've chosen Down Syndrome New South Wales because I'm an ambassador. I've been an ambassador for Down syndrome, New South Wales now for a number of years. I was approached when I first got off Mikeage Rules, actually, because they were looking for ambassadors for the first time and they were starting the ambassador program. And initially I wasn't sure why they wanted me to be involved. But then in learning about the work that they did, and also subsequently in being a part of the organization, I am in absolute awe at this organization. They they do so very much, and they have brought me in to being able to contribute to a wonderful, dynamic, creative community. The work that Down syndrome New South Wales does, just in supporting people with Down syndrome, supporting families of people with Down syndrome, providing employment opportunities, creative opportunities and outlets, family gatherings and get-togethers, it's big work for a small team.

SPEAKER_04 56:43

What is Down syndrome?

SPEAKER_05 56:45

It it's an extra chromosome. So it's uh it's uh it's what they call chromosome 21. So it's um it's a third. So ordinarily you have two. So if you have three, you have Down syndrome. It results in a broad spectrum of manifestations. So there are many people with Down syndrome that attend regular school, uh, become basketball players, become dancers, become actors. I've I've met all sorts of people, marathon runners. And then on the other end, the other end of the spectrum, you have people with Down syndrome that need more support. So it's it's a very broad, wide-ranging way of life, and it's it's uh it's a reality that one in every 1,100 Australians will face. And it's just it's it's another way of being a human being in the world.

SPEAKER_04 57:40

Now we've come to this moment, we call it our Martha Stewart section. So in the spirit of Martha Stewart and her kitchen meets life wisdom, our previous guest passes forward their kitchen life hack to you. So our previous guest was the Deputy Lord Mayor of Sydney, Councillor Jess Miller. She left you with a piece of kitchen life wisdom that goes along. I'm gonna try and paraphrase this. Um, make a mess as you go and don't worry about cleaning it up later. Tomorrow is fine too. How do you navigate mess?

SPEAKER_05 58:14

Oh, I don't deal with it. That's Eli's problem. So I'm 100% with you, Jess. I leave it all as it is.

SPEAKER_04 58:22

She said something along the lines if you clean and you go, which is what I do, you could miss out on stuff.

SPEAKER_05 58:28

You could, or it's just boring.

SPEAKER_04 58:30

So I just I would think she'd agree with you. So, what kitchen life wisdom would you like to pass on to our next guest?

SPEAKER_05 58:41

I'm going to suggest that you consult your ancestors when you are seasoning your food. So I find that many a time in the kitchen, people are light-handed with their seasoning. Understand that you are seasoning for the people that have come before you. So don't worry about what anybody else thinks, just be heavy-handed.

SPEAKER_04 59:03

That's going to land really well with our next guest because our next guest is Francesco Mattano. No. And he's from Sardinia. So he's gonna love that one. Before we go, fuzz. If food is the doorway to understanding a place and its people, how should we experience the real Fiji through your eyes? Where would you take us? What would we eat? And who would you introduce us to?

SPEAKER_05 59:27

I would invite you to my home. I think find a Fiji in person and go to their home. So if you know me, come to mine. That is the truth. Somebody's own kitchen, somebody's own dining table. That's a real Fiji.

SPEAKER_04 59:42

Fuzz, big thanks for being part of Three Food Memories with us today, and God bless Fiji.

SPEAKER_05 59:47

Thank you.

SPEAKER_04 59:52

That's it for this episode of Three Food Memories. Be sure to spread the plated love and check out our hundred-plus back episodes. You can catch them on YouTube as well. Just search for Three Food Memories. For all things TFM, head to the socials at Three Food Memories and at Savasavas. For more info, send us a message, head to threefoodmemories.com. Three Food Memories is produced and edited by Lauren McQuerta with original music by Russell Torrance. Nastika La Philly and bye for now.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:22

Thank you for listening to Pop Hus Podcast. Don't forget to like and subscribe and join your friends. Bye. Bye.