The Exeter lean-to food stall fronted by Mark Kamleh, Tiger Mountain, returns for Fringe 2019 with chefs drafted from Udaberri, Lucia’s and Down the Road.

Tiger Mountain, the annual pop-up food stall propped against the Exeter on Vaughan Place, will return to its post this Friday, 15 February from 5pm, with bandleader Mark Kamleh assembling a new cohort of chefs for the occasion.

Alix Gannon of Udaberri, Tom Parbs of Lucia’s, and Adrian Bernadi of Down the Road will each lend their expertise and influence to Tiger Mountain for its third consecutive Fringe season.

Tiger Mountain’s menu from last year was heavily influenced by the team at Low & Slow, but with the Port Adelaide-based business tagged out this time around the pulled pork and brisket won’t be on the menu. However, Mark’s own items will return – the charcoal chicken banh mi-style sandwich and roasted veg sandwich – along with new items: Tiger Mountain chicken wings and cigar-roll shallot pancakes.

“Alix has run me through how to do the wings, so she’s been a big help with that,” Mark says.

“I needed someone to make sandwiches so I went to Tom Parbs, and then I was just at Down the Road and Bernardi offered to help… So it’s like the Sandwich Mafia.

“I’m really happy that they wanted to be a part of it.”

As with previous iterations of the pop up, the menu is designed with the pub next door in mind.

“It’s just meant to be heaps of food you can eat with beer. Salty. There will be MSG in the food, I promise,” Mark says.

“[And because] everyone’s drinking beer, you should be able to eat it with your hands, minimal mess. Ideally no cutlery at all, unless it’s asked for. ”

Mark is deeply ingrained in Adelaide’s hospitality scene, and so each year Tiger Mountain takes great influence from his experience touring through restaurants across the city, and in return, the stall receives an incredible amount of support from the industry.

“Orana getting involved last year, they didn’t get very much out of that, but they were just happy to be involved. It’s really awesome that people care and they want to see it busy and they want to see me do well in this food box,” Mark says.

“Chef Jeff (Hannah Jeffery) from Peel Street’s given me some ideas for the shallot pancake dipping, the pink mayonnaise is from Motherlode Nuggeteria – Chet [O’Brien-Tilbrook] gave me that.

“People our age don’t see each other as competition and we want to support each other… It’s a nice thing.”

Cheers.

Though nothing was confirmed at the time CityMag met with Mark, he does plan on bringing in an East End vendor to guest at Tiger Mountain, much like Jock Zonfrillo from Orana did last year.

“We’ll see what happens. There’s five weeks and the menu’s just printed on a big poster, so if I need to change the menu I can,” he says.

As for future endeavours beyond his annual pop up, Mark hints that once festival season subsides he may start looking into brick-and-mortar opportunities in the city. He has said previously that he founded Tiger Mountain as a way to broaden the scope of his former pop up, Hummus Where the Heart Is, but going into bricks and mortar would see him return to Middle Eastern fare.

“The dream is to get Dad’s recipes, get a contemporary chef, team up with them, and do some dynamite Arabic food,” he says.

For now, you can get some dynamite Tiger Mountain food every Friday, Saturday and Sunday night during the Fringe, starting this Friday, 15 February at 5pm.