Benjawan Phuangprasert wakes up at 1:30am on weekends to be ready to serve her earliest customers at the Parap Markets in Darwin. She's one of the many stallholders who grind out long hours to feed the huge appetite for the city's signature food, laksa.
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00:00It's 2am and Benjawan and her mum are getting ready for market day.
00:07In just a few hours, customers will be clamouring to get a bowl of the city's signature dish.
00:12But first, it's a slow crawl along the highway in their mobile kitchen, pulling into the
00:18Perap market just before 3am.
00:20First thing we do is get the water, just because this one takes a really long time to boil.
00:25And then mum starts on the laksa and the soup and we get the electricity, so the lights
00:31and everything in.
00:32So in here we've got the laksa paste, so it's got like all the ingredients that's needed.
00:36We'll just add water and coconut milk to this one and then we'll bring it to a boil.
00:42Noodles are soaked, veggies prepped and garnishes set out.
00:46This laksa gig, it's a labour of love.
00:49But for the mother-daughter duo, it's also a livelihood.
00:52They've been up since Sparrows.
00:54The soup has been on the simmer for a while now, and soon, sometime just after 5am, they
00:59expect to sell their first bowls of the morning.
01:02It's pretty full on, it's pretty tiring, there's a lot of work that's involved behind the scenes.
01:09Other stall holders, busy too.
01:11The first laksa lovers arrive to kick off their weekend ritual.
01:15Saturday mornings on this one is a typical finish work, retreat for the day, get some
01:20laksas, cruise around, get some early morning feed before I head home.
01:24Benjawan expects to sell about 300 bowls this morning.
01:28And the secret to her soup?
01:29Love, putting in the love.
01:31I think it's focusing on what you do.
01:34We try to make it the same every single time.
01:38A recipe tried and tested in the tropical capital.