5 days in Adelaide

• Posted by foodie on 28.09.06 in Adelaide | City Guide at Feelin' Foodie
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5 days in Adelaide.

For this foodie Adelaide is about four things:

1. Adelaide Central Markets
2. Local Produce
3. Italian
4. Chinese / Vietnamese

Any trip to Adelaide requires a staggered approach to these highlights. The greek is also supposed to be excellent, as are a number of unmentioned restaurants, but they will have to be for other trips. A recent trip to Adelaide started with dinner at Chianti Classico. The food is fantastic and the atmosphere inside is a pleasure (the other diners provide plenty of infuriating material). We started with the antipasto which was nice but a bit of an anticlimax but that was followed by a series of highlights. The calamari, the seafood linguini and the home made egg pasta with proscuitto and peppers were delightful, finished off with a sensational zabaglione Chianti is a great place to take it slow and enjoy a truly pleasurable evening.

A meal at an austere Italian restaurant like Chianti or Cibo is not the same without an accompanying meal at a bustling Italian institution. Very busy, pretty cheap, wholesome food and plenty of attitude. These restaurants work best when they are in the heart of the city and can do a roaring trade lunch and dinner. My favourite restuarant in Australia matching this description is Amalfi. Amalfi is packed every night but Sunday when it is strangely closed. At the East end of town on Frome Street Chianti is tucked away but uni students, young professionals, business people and all other food lovers converge here for the fantastic cooking. The entrees are excellent with the mellanzane and mussels highlights. But the true pleasures of Amalfi are the frantic atmosphere and the pizzas and pastas. Always hectic, Amalfi is the kind of place where somebody is always waiting for a table and the waiters are always waiting for you to leave, but that does not mean that the service is not personal. But forget about the atmosphere, Amalfi is all about food.

The margerhita pizza is topped with fresh tomato (the best fresh tomatoes in Australia are available in Adelaide) and the Americano, with salami and chil. The vegetarian Ortolano topped with artichoke and olive is also spectacular. Amalfi pizzas differ from traditional Italian pizza places like i Carusi and Ladro because of their thick bases, but for me it is different pizzas for different needs. This trip my companian sampled the mussles and marinara while I contented myself with the Saltinbocca. The veal was delicious and the salad excellent although the potatoes were average only.

The home made tirimasu is made with mascapone cream but has too much cake.

An obvious choice after a meal at Amalfi is to head next door to one of many Cibo Espresso outlets around Adelaide for a great coffee and Adelaide's best gelato. Cibo serves great snacks, better coffee and exceptional gelato. The takeaway pack is decent value with a medium at $15 and on this particular trip the Ace, Lemon, Chocolate and Roast Almond were the flavours of choice. All were delicious. Skipping dessert at Amalfi and heading to Cibo is definitely the way to go. They are passionate about their gelato so ask for a taste of what is fresh and in season.

Enzo's, Cibo and asdfsdgdfkbdnkf are also great options for high quality Italian in Adelaide but those three places are definitely highlights.

For Chinese food Gouger Street and Grote Street are the only places that meet national standards. Ming Chow, Ky Chow, Hong BBQ, T-Chow, Kowloon Cafe and Charlies Shack are the pick of a larger bunch.

Ky Chow has a new menu which is far less exciting than its previous attempts which were resplendant with broken english and quirky expressions. The menu has been condensed as well with some favourites off. Amyway, it is quick, cheap and good. We start with a Tsing-Toa as well as a chinese soup and the vegetarian bean curd soup. The duck soup is also good but for a revitalising experience especially for hot people (too much yin) the chinese soup with greens is unbeatable.

The soup lubricates the stomach and the tastebuds in preparation for a great afternoon of eating.

A quick word of warning at Ky Chow. Avoid the Kung Po. This vegetarian dish could be anything but is a disaster. But this is the one negative. We started with the bbq beef which came out on the sizzling plate. The meat was good and the sauce delicious, not too much corn flour and the onions were perfectly cooked. The beef was quickly followed by asian greens (chinese broccoli) and Grandma's Bean Curd. Three dishes between two is normally excessive but this mix of flavours is entirely complementary. The Bean Curd seemed a little one dimensional initially, but the flavour of the dish grew over time. Grandma's choice was excellent. The hot pots are also excelIent as is some of the seafood. have been going to Ky Chow over a number of years and while it is below some of Springvale and Victoria Street's finest for cheap, great Asian food it rivals the rest of Australia.

After warming up at Ky Chow visit the Adelaide Central Markets and Charlie's Shack. The market is one of the true highlights of South Australia. Although it is much smaller than the Queen Victoria Market it's quality is outstanding. The Providore, Lucia's, the Big Table, Dough, Say Cheese and Aubergine are all brilliant stores. Add these to Barossa Fine Foods, a beautiful mushroom stall, quality fruit and vegetables and a wealth of dips as well as a food lovers atmosphere and it's easy to understand how one could spend weeks here. One could spend days at the markets choosing things to eat (ready made and from fine ingredients) and just soaking up the atmosphere. From 4pm on Tuesday and Thursday there are specials like two for one loaves of bread, $1 russian piroshki and $3 dishes from a sushi stall. The piroshki is served with attitude and not as nice as family made Polish pirogi. Try the dips opposite the Big Table with some Turkish bread or sourdough with cheese from Say Cheese. The best dips are the Moroccan Broad Bean, Goats Curd and the Pomigranite and Walnut.

Of course spending time at the markets means that you are close to Charlie's Shack. Charlie's Shack makes excellent pho as well as other soups, Vietnamese Cold Rolls and Spring Rolls. The special dumpling soup and the wanton noodle soups are exceptional. The broth is superb and the bok choi, egg noodles and special wantons are a great combination. Charlie's Shack is a no-frills Vietnamese eatery but don't let that put you off. There is room for about 20 diners to squeeze into the small restaurant.

Apart from the food and the tiny kitchen the other reason to visit Charlie's Shack is the view. From your seat you can watch the busy city goers line up for the bus and ride home. It is one of the most relaxing sites in the city, watching others move and wait while you are sitting contentedly enjoying a magnificent bowl of noodles. It's even better in the rain.

After a few solid days of inner city eating it is time to venture outside the CBD for some country produce. While the Barossa Valley and Clare Vallery have beautiful vineyards and the Adelaide Hills has some beautiful wineries, great jams and small towns serving nice food, the foodie should focus on the Fleurieu Peninsula. The Willunga Market is the exceptional focus of Fleurieu food on a Saturday morning. There are about 25 market stalls and each is worthy of the 45 kilometre drive.

Start with a coffee or Barry's incredible hot apple juice made with real vanilla beans and apple and pears from Barry's Organics, and the slowly walk around the market soaking up the atmosphere, visiting each stall. Then walk around again and try something from every stall. Take a seat in the middle, order breakfast from relish (try the sausages or the Smoked Salmon breakfast) and have a deep think.

The venison, cheeses, organic vegetables, Paris Creek Biodynamic milk and yoghurt, Angus beef, fine foods, vegetarian selection, Woodside cheeses, blueberry stall, bread stalls, oil stalls and finally the spices are top class. Personal favourites are the:

Venison pie
Zatar and Moroccon spices from the Spice Stall
Hot apple juice from Barry's Organics
Anything from Paris Creek
All pies and pasties from the Wargakilla fine foods
Chevre from Woodside Cheese
Blueberry Pie from the Blueberry stall
Fresh artichokes and broad beans while in season
The quiches from Souly's Bread

and finally

Everything from Sweettarts.

Willunga is unmissable. The ideal way to visit is to arrive at 9am. Sit and eat all morning. Find a park to rest until 2pm. After 2pm drive up to Coriole, buy some olive oil, some more Woodside Goats Cheese and sit down to an exquisite plate of antipasto, great wine and smooth coffee with one of the great views in the McLaren Vale region.

Then go home and detox.

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