Chef Lorcán Kan took over the kitchen at Etta, restaurateur Hannah Green’s Brunswick East hotspot, earlier this year.

Now, his highly anticipated debut menu has hit the pass. The unique menu draws on Kan’s experience from his Things Palace pop-up supper clubs, where the chef explores food cooked in Chinese diaspora restaurants around the world.

His Etta menu is influenced by Malaysia, which is most clearly on display in the hot smoked duck leg with red coconut curry and rambutan. Kan tells Broadsheet it was inspired by a place outside of Kuala Lumpur where duck is smoked over coconut husks.

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“I think a lot of stuff, it does start there,” he says, noting the menu’s Malaysian influence. “But we’re using a lot of different things. There’s a large Indian and northern Chinese-influenced lamb dish, we’re using Cantonese-style pork, so [drawing from] the Guangdong region … also the salt and pepper potatoes is more like Liverpool, Manchester Chinese food”.

We called Kan to talk about three menu highlights, including the chilli oil parfait that Green says landed him the job. Here, he describes each dish and the thinking behind it.

Tea quail egg skewer, pickled lotus root and Sichuan chilli oil

“It’s like a pickle plate on a stick. I really like doing pickle plates but nobody really orders them. So, this is like having it on a skewer and with an egg.

“You’ve got this really rich egg, and it goes with these vibrant pickles, raw and pickled daikon from Ramarro Farms. They’re amazing; this beautiful wintery daikon that’s super peppery. And then you have all these different numbing chillies. It just opens up the palate with the first bite.

“I used to do Yorkshire tea eggs using Yorkshire tea. There’s nothing I enjoy like that cracking of the eggs and marbling effect on the eggs, it’s super cool.”

Chestnut zongzi, charred and pickled shimeji and black bean chilli oil

“It’s something my grandma used to make, and my dad used to sell [them when he was] a kid at school in Malaysia. And then the canteen actually told my dad he couldn’t sell them at school.

“Unfortunately, I never got to try any of them that my grandma made, but it’s really nice to make them for my family history.

“This is the one that I was unsure whether people would enjoy it, or whether they would find it a bit weird. But it’s such a delicious, vegetarian, warm mushroom dish. I think it’s a bit surprising for people because it's very simple. But, you know, there's a lot of things going on in it.

“Normally it has water chestnuts. We’re using Victorian chestnuts because they’re in season at the moment – just roasting those and putting them inside the zongzi. It’s sticky rice, salted mustard greens, and shiitake mushrooms and then wrapped in bamboo leaf. And we cook those for about two hours.

“We were trying to [hang them] but then all the strings got tied up together like a giant rat ball.”

Chilli oil parfait, orange sugar melon, lychee and lime leaf sorbet

“We’re getting some really amazing melons from Daintree in Queensland. We have orange sugar melon, which is this beautifully fragrant melon that we’re serving on top. It’s all about ice-cream and fresh fruit to finish it off.

“We’re using Sichuan peppercorns and Korean chilli flakes that have been processed without seeds and there’s a small amount of fresh chilli in there just to get that vibrant heat – not too much, it’s not too spicy. It’s super fruity.

“It’s got an amazing gingerbread flavour in it. Someone through there was ginger in it, but it’s just that lingering chilli heat.”