I love how Australia is so culturally diverse. According to the ABS 2021 Census, people born overseas or have a parent born overseas make up 51.5% of the population. The most popular languages spoken at home after English were Mandarin, Arabic, Vietnamese, Cantonese and Punjabi.
I love learning about new cultures through their food. It’s a great privilege to be able to learn from and interact with people from different cultures through the great range of specialty food shops and eateries we’re so lucky to have in Sydney, and Australia in general.
I also love hearing about great new places to try for a lovely snack, lunch or dinner. This is where it’s super handy to see what the passionate and prolific Sydney Foodies have discovered and hear their take on the foods and places they’ve tried. I note that all the YouTubers featured in this article are Asian. Asians really love their food! These are the people I just happen to follow as their food discoveries resonate with places I generally like to try. I love trying different cuisines so if you know of other Vloggers covering Sydney food places, please feel free to let me know! 🙂
Janice Fung
Janice is a food and travel blogger who started her YouTube channel in Feb 2019 and now has 65.2k subscribers. I love her energy and enthusiasm and how she says: ‘Hello hello hello I’m Janice’ to intro her videos and how she used to say ‘byeeee’ when she signed off on her videos. You can expect to see videos covering everything from Luxury hotel all-you-can-eat seafood buffets, Japanese Omakase dinners, Malatang hot pots, to trying almost everything on the Ikea and Costco menus, to Cultural food tours such as her Korean, Shanghai, Filipino, Taiwan and Hong Kong food tours.
The videos are beautifully filmed. I feel like I’m there with her and find myself suddenly craving the delicious looking dumplings and want to reach into the screen to try the dumplings. I love how she shows you a close-up of every dish and describes it in detail so you know exactly what to order when you finally get to the restaurant yourself.
She’s also created a playlist called ‘Super Simple Recipes! (so easy even I can do it)’ of fun recipes to try if you feel like staying in to cook something instead.
The list includes these popular videos:
- 5 Easy Spam Recipes — Tasty Spam Cooking Hack! (How to Enjoy 5 Meals with 1 Can of Spam)
- How To Make Hot Pot at Home: Hot Pot Recipe & Ingredients (Easy Dinner Ideas!)
- I Tried The Viral Japanese KFC Rice Cooker Recipe Hack! Delicious Kentucky Fried Chicken Rice Recipe
(I immediately rushed out to KFC so I could try this hack, and yes, the final result is pretty darn delicious!)
Janice Fung | YouTube | IG @itsjanicefung | TikTok | Website
Sydney Food Boy
Kevin La aka Sydney Food Boy hails from Cabramatta in South West Sydney and is happily “obsessed” with food. He’s “on a mission to explore food from around the world, right here in Sydney!” Kevin uploaded his first video in September 2020 and has already garnered 20.9k fans on YouTube.
I love his easy-going and personable nature. These traits plus his genuine interest in different cultures and his appreciation of their food mean that he’s often invited into the kitchen and allowed to film up close and personal, so the audience can really feel immersed in the whole behind-the-scenes kitchen experience. You feel like you’re right there with Kevin learning about the food, seeing it being prepared and interacting with these amazing people from diverse cultures around the world. You can also really see his true appreciation and enjoyment of the food as well, as he takes his time to show it, eat it and describe it (he often says hmmm with a deeply appreciative smile). After watching one of his videos, you want to just drive to that destination and try the food stat!
I personally find his channel particularly compelling as he covers a lot of tasty looking food places in the South West of Sydney that I wouldn’t usually venture out to. But it’s only about an hour’s drive away (depending on traffic), so I’m now tempted to get out there for a bit of a food adventure tour.
His videos cover some great local places to go to for the heartier, great value, authentic food cooked by the diverse local cultures who live and work in these suburbs.
A few of the videos I found particularly compelling and interesting include:
- Best Cheap Eats in Cabramatta Sydney | 7 Meals Under $5 | $20 Challenge, Food Tour Guide Vlog Review
(I haven’t been out to Cabramatta in years. This video makes me want to plan a day trip to Cabramatta soon.) - Exploring Ramadan Street Food in Lakemba Sydney 2021 | Camel Burger Knafeh Nights Tour Australia Eid
(I’m really curious about the camel burger after watching this video.) - New York Pastrami Sandwich… In Sydney??? | Lenny Briskets Food Truck | Reuben Deli Best Food vlog
Sydney Food Boy | YouTube | Instagram | Facebook | TikTok
Nick and Helmi
Nick and Helmi are an Indo-Aussie couple who love to take you on along with them on their food and travel adventures. I like how they relate to each other on screen, bouncing off each other’s energy and taking it in turns to share their thoughts on the same dishes. Nick tends to eat more of the meat dishes, as Helmi’s not so into meat that tastes a bit too ‘gamey’. They’ll eat more of the dishes they like, so essentially they get to try more dishes between them.
They’re a down-to-earth couple and they love to share some of their favourite great value and great tasting Asian food finds with their audience. They enjoy highlighting specific dishes and items that you should try at particular places such as their ‘Top 15 Sydney Cheap Eats under $10 — Must Try Food in Sydney CBD’ video.
They also filmed a video of dishes to try in Chinatown which turned into a popular 4 part video series:
- What to Eat in Chinatown Sydney | Street Food Tour (Part 1)
- What to Eat in Chinatown Sydney Part 2 | Japanese Ramen, Korean Street Food Tour
- What to Eat in Chinatown Sydney Part 3 | Cheap Chinese & Taiwanese Street Food Tour
- What to Eat in Chinatown Sydney Part 4 | Crazy KFC Crispy Rendang
They also like to try some of the more ‘exotic’ cuisines and have videos on Ethiopian, Moroccan, Afghan and West African food. They also do fun challenges like their ‘UNSW vs Macquarie University Food Battle & Campus Tour — Sydney Australia’ and their ‘UTS vs University of Sydney Food Battle & Campus Tour — Sydney Australia’ videos.
They’ve also filmed travel and food videos in South Korea, Taiwan, Japan, Indonesia, and Hong Kong. They’re beautiful videos to watch and enjoy and make you want to visit these places yourself. There is also a video of this loved-up couple getting married in Bali in September 2019.
Nick and Helmi started their channel in January 2018 and it has now grown to 47k subscribers.
Nick and Helmi | YouTube | Instagram | Facebook | TikTok
RecipeTin Eats
RecipeTin Eats is an incredibly popular recipe channel and website by Nagi, a self-taught cook living in the Northern Beaches of Sydney. Nagi’s philosophy on food and cooking is “fast, creative, clever and fresh”. She ensures her recipes are fast to prepare, budget conscious and yet are made from scratch (no store bought packet mixes or canned soup here), so they’re mostly healthy and taste great!
Her YouTube channel and website are a fantastic resource for when you wish to cook and eat interesting and tasty dishes at home. I don’t know how she does it, but it’s as if she’s read my mind and given me all the yummy, hearty, dreamy meals I’ve ever craved. She covers all sorts of practical and tasty food categories, from Soups, Pastas, One Pot cooking, and of course sweets. Some of her iconic dishes include Duck Confit (French slow-cooked duck), Chinese Crispy Pork Belly, Dan Dan Noodles (Spicy Sichuan noodles), Spanakopita (Greek Spinach Pie), Butter Chicken, Tiramisu and Pavlova.
I love her easy-to-follow recipes. You feel like you can follow along quite easily and then at the end of it voila, you can sit down and enjoy a lovely meal by yourself or with your loved ones.
Her most popular recipes include:
- Chicken Fricassee – quick French Chicken Stew
- 12 MINUTE Honey Garlic Chicken Breast
- World’s Easiest Homemade Bread — Crusty Artisan style!!
- Lentil Curry — the most amazing EASY Lentil Recipe in the world!!!
- Strawberry Cheesecake
Nagi started her YouTube channel over 6 years ago and she now has 391k subscribers. It’s also inspiring to read that she used to work in corporate finance, and she decided to pursue her passion for food and cooking and turned RecipeTin Eats into a 6 figure business in just a year. “The money comes from advertising, the odd sponsored post, selling e-books and other sidelines, including writing recipes for other publications and food photography”. It’s lovely to learn that she’s living her dream life and she has a totally awesome companion recipe tester — her gorgeous, the one and only Golden Retriever Dozer!
RecipeTin Eats | YouTube | Instagram | Facebook | Pinterest| Website
Hopefully if you follow these Sydney Food Vloggers on YouTube, you’ll discover some exciting and delicious new dishes to tantalise your tastebuds with. You’ll also be able to ‘travel’ and learn about new cultures and potentially meet some very interesting global citizens through the language of food without even leaving Sydney! ?
