Normally, my travel regimen involves regular visits to places like Beijing, Beirut or Bukhara but this year I’ve really had to pull my horns in. WAY in. We’re talkin’ close-to-home in...yes, in 2010 the most exotic places I’ve ventured have been Cockatoo Island, Kohimarama and Kogarah, just past Rockdale in the south of Sydney. I realize it’s hard to find sympathy for my plight but as one who’s happiest with 10kg of camera gear in tow, negotiating the scruffy back streets of some character-filled rat hole, staying home has required significant mental adjustments. Without the usual flurry of  travel story pitches, visa applications and freezer-filling (so no one fades away while mum’s gone AWOL), the horizon has seemed somewhat flat. Dull. Vanilla flavoured. So when my mate the P.R. guru suggested a field trip to South Australia, I jumped at the chance. Maybe it didn’t require the use of a passport, the acquiring of pigeon-level language skills or the use of a LUXE Guide, but flying over state lines, I reasoned, was CLOSE to crossing a foreign border. 

 

Actually I’ve been to Adelaide twice during 2010 and I’d utterly forgotten how beautiful it is. And how food-loving. The first jaunt was to attend Le Cordon Bleu Food Media Awards back in may and that was a great chance to get a little reacquainted with the Sth Oz capital. Plus some of it’s’ surrounds- I took in a whirl wind tour of Kangaroo Island and parts of the gorgeous Fleurieu Peninsula. I was in the company of some rather high profile food writers and personalities- a few kiwis among them- and my most abiding memory of the trip is singing out-of-tune Oscar and Hammerstein duets with Rosemary Schragar on a minibus and sucking dried turmeric with Paul Rankin. Which stained our tongues (I worried permanently) a disturbing shade of yellow. Yes, food people can be decidedly infantile. However, despite the wine sodden nights with media colleagues and the blur of guided trips, tutored tastings and hosted dinners, a number of Adelaide (and environs) highlights will forever remain with me. A few are listed below...

 
 

It’s a slight crawl to get to Kangaroo Island but there are flights from Adelaide. The island is magnificent...and large. You need time here to really enjoy the dramatic coastlines and scenic interior, which bristle with iconic Aussie flora and fauna. At Seal Bay Conservation Park, for instance you can get up close and personal with sea lions and fur seals. Rattling around the islands’ bumpy dirt roads its’ likely you’ll encounter koalas, kangaroos, echidnas and goannas. The scrubby, sparse bush has a primordial, unique beauty; the entire place has a quiet emptiness that increasingly is attracting tourists in search of an Australian experience a touch deeper than a walk around Kings’ Cross or having a weekend on the Gold Coast. The pristine environment also produces some rather good food and wine, including crayfish, marron, fantastic lamb, cheese from the Island Pure Sheep Diary and sensational honeys. There are various accommodation options ranging from camping to staying in a hotel. However the ultimate K.I. experience is to hunker down at Southern Ocean Lodge, touted as the country’s’ first “super lodge”. Whatever that means. No matter...the Lodge is incredible. Strung low along a craggy piece of coast and designed to sensitively meld with the landscape, the Lodge consists of 21 lush suites that each command awesome ocean views. Inside, the Lodge is a statement in pared back contemporary design, with sandblasted limestone flooring, recycled spotted gum walls and artworks commissioned from local Island artisans. The property is a touch isolated- you can’t exactly hop out for take-away and a six pack so luckily the in-house restaurant is suburb. The chef makes a feature of seasonal island produce, conjuring it into modern Australian dishes such as ricotta ravioli with pine nuts, raisin and beurre noisette, kingfish with kombu rolls and sencha tea foam and sweet rosemary parfait with raspberries.

It’s the largest fresh food market in the Southern Hemisphere and one of the cities’ biggest draws. What’s great about the Central Market is that the place is a real ‘working’ market- it’s a bit gritty and grimy and not at all tarted up. It has a real ‘everydayness’ about it which makes it appealing to visit and the central city location gives it an incredible accessibility. Locals, including the likes of Maggie Beer who describe Central Market as “our best kept secret”, come here to do weekly shopping from among the 80 food stalls. Adelaidians have been doing this since it first opened in 1900. Around 90% of the produce (cheeses, vegetables and fruits, salamis and other small goods, meats, baking, coffee) come from within a 200km radius of the city so it truly is a ‘local’ affair. Any visiting foodie will experience first awe at what’s available here and then a rising, green-eyed envy. One can buy freshly made pizza dough, proper, lightly-jellied chicken stock, pots of real vanilla crème anglaise and (in season) just-squeezed blood orange juice. You can fill a jar with Blue Gum honey, pick up dirt cheap clean skins of S.A. olive oil, buy prime cuts of ‘roo or buffalo or purchase free range eggs from Kangaroo Island. It’s a happy hub of spruiking, sampling, appraising, small talking and buying activity, the latter often preceded by the anxious enquiry “this is local, isn’t it??.” Some of the stall and shops here are local legends, such as Lucia’s Pizza and Spaghetti Bar which started in the 1950s and does feel (delightfully so) of another era. Mark Gleeson, himself a stall holder, runs friendly, informative Market tours and these are extremely worth while. 

 

Penfolds’ iconic winery is so close to the Adelaide CBD you can practically walk to get there- although a 15 mine cab ride will do the job equally as well. Founded some 165 years ago, this is one of Australia’s oldest wineries and, as the home of the venerated Grange, arguably one of it’s’ most revered. If you’re in town and too short of time to ‘do’ the Barossa, Claire or the MacLaren Vale, a few hours spent at Magill is compensation enough. With its’ atmospheric heritage-listed buildings, vintage winery (where wines are still made the old fashioned way using distinctly quaint facilities) and the labyrinthine cellars where you can ogle the mind-bending line up of Grange in their little museum cellar, it’s easy to while away a few pleasant hours. The whole experience can be augmented by a tutored tasting and there are 3 types of these. The ultimate is  Great Grange Tour which, for $150 gets you a winery tour plus  tutored tasting of 6 premium Pinfolds’ drops, including Grange. Oh and winery’s on-site restaurant, with its’ fabulous views over the city and elegant, superbly executed food (not to mention outstanding wine list) shouldn’t be missed either.

 

There are any number of wonderful restaurants in and around Adelaide; given the city’s’ proximity to so many world class wine regions (the Claire, Eden and Barossa to name a few) its little wonder there is such a pervasive food culture. Housed in a cute 1850s’ cottage in Willunga near the Maclaren Vale, Fino stands head and shoulders above most. That’s because Chef David Swain is simply a mighty fine cook. Yes, here they adhere to all the right ingredient-driven principals of using best quality, local, in-season raw materials. Yep they have a fantastically well-edited wine list and lovely service. The interior of the place is great- everything ticks all the right boxes. But ultimately it’s Swain’s cooking, and his simple but inspired combinations, that seal the deal- wild Coorong rabbit with Boccalao sausage and braised leeks, Woodside chevre with peas, lemon and shallots and heirloom beetroots with octopus, beans and parsley are typical dishes.

 

The kids’ will ADORE you FOREVER if you bring them here....although after the inevitable chocolate binge/hyperactivity that’s bound to ensue it’s unlikely you’ll be feeling quite the same degree of love. However Haigh’s is a South Australian institution and you can’t possibly visit Adelaide and not pay homage to the home of the chocolate bilby, the chocolate Murray cod and the glaced quandong chocolate sweet meat- it simply wouldn’t be right. You can take a factory tour although unhappily all the enticing melting, dipping, tempering, coating action is viewed through glass. Amazingly, much of the processes here are still done by hand and the company have employees who have been with Haighs (a family owned business and the only one in Oz to make chocolate entirely from scratch) for up to 4 decades. After the (free) tour you can stock up on boxed assortments, bars and foiled frogs in the shop- or have white gloved staff pick your poison to order from the well stocked display cases. 

 

In 1995 Trevor Dunford, casting about for a change in career direction thought “I like goats. Maybe I’ll get some” From that random thought, Udder Delights was born and today it’s one of Australia’s premier artisanal cheese brands. Their French-style, hand made goats and cows milk cheeses are consistently great and as their home base is just up in the Adelaide Hills, it’s an easy trip to check them out while in Adelaide. The Udder Delights Cheese Cellar in picture-perfect Hahndorf, just 30 minutes drive from the CBD, is where you can best get a sense of what they do. It’s essentially a pleasant cafe, but one where you can buy Udder Delights (and other) cheeses, have a tutored cheese tasting or even, (if you’re super organised and book ahead) take a cheese making class. They also host a self-drive Adelaide Hills Cheese and Wine Trail- they’ll pack you a hamper and a trail map. You drive to some of the areas top wine producers (Nepenthe, Bird In Hand, Shaw And Smith to name a few) and enjoy recommended cheese and wine matches along the way- bliss.

There are hundreds of cellar doors around Adelaide so it’s a tad unfair to single out just a couple. But if you just had a day to spare it’d be a wise call to grab a car and head to the Hills and check out The Lane. Not only does it occupy one of the prettiest spots in the Adelaide Hills and produce utterly stunning wines made from hand picked grapes, but their stylish bistro produces some of the finest, wine-friendly food in these parts. It’s well constructed, classic-with-a-twist fare- there are no foams or emulsions bubbling away here. Roasted quail is wrapped in prosciutto and served with fennel and herbs, house made sage gnocchi comes with sofritto, pine nuts and mascarpone and the tuna carpaccio is finished with radish, egg and tapenade. The cellar door is gracefully modern with idyllic views over the vineyards and beyond. 
 

As Chinatowns go Adelaide’s’ is pretty weeny but in between its’ smattering of pagoda-style roofs, paifang (lion) statues and red lanterns can be found the best cheap-and-cheerful eateries in town. Although they are predominantly Chinese, there are also Thai, Malay, Vietnamese, Japanese and Asian fusion restaurants too and in the main, the food is very, very good. At night the vibe reaches a nice level of bustle as the crowds descend. Favourite haunts include Cafe Kowloon (116a Gouger St) which serves yum cha by day and a la carte Cantonese by night, Mapo Korean Restaurant  (113 Gouger Street) where contemporary Korean fuses with more traditional offerings and Chinatown Cafe ((38-41 Monte Street), where the décor is grungy but the classic flavours of Malaysia (laksa, Hainan Chicken Rice etc) are rendered in as authentic a way as you’d get in KL or Malacca. For fabulous filled Vietnamese rolls and Vietnamese iced coffee head to Banh Mi (13-21 Moonta Street) or for a good ayam kapitan and other Indonesian and Malay offerings check out Taste of Spice (57 Gouger Street).

 
 

Regarded as one of the great long walks of the world, the Heyson Trail is a monster of a schlep- starting about 100km south of Adelaide it stretches 1200km up into the wonderfully rugged, isolated Parachilna Gorge high in the Flinders Range.  The good news is you don’t need to walk it all to appreciate its spectacular beauty- a short burst along the section between Cape Jervis and Port Lincoln, where the craggy coastal cliffs, pockets of wild flowers and sweeping vistas over the mighty Pacific, is all it takes to leave you sufficiently invigorated. The trail is named after Sir Hans Heyson (1877-1968) a South Australian artist of international repute who is famous for his landscape works.

 

Occupying a prime spot right on the beach at sheltered Horseshoe Bay near Port Elliott, Flying Fish is famous Australia wide; it’s one of those places foodies simply HAVE to visit if they’re in Adelaide. For a start, the drive down the gorgeous Fleurieu Peninsula to get there and back makes for a relaxing day out. There’s the option of fish and chips on the verandah (here served stylishly in paper cones’ tossing seagulls any left over’s is de rigueur), or sitting inside and enjoying chef Leigh Irish’s carefully crafted a la carte dishes. It’s all jolly good. The food has a distinctly local flavour, using sustainably produced ingredients and with an emphasis on (unsurprisingly) seafood. The signature fish and chips are made using Coorong Mulloway that’s battered using Coopers Sparkling Ale- you’d be hard pressed to get more South OZ than that!! Owner Courtney Christie is an oenologist so the wine list is extremely well considered and extensive. As they say in The Castle though, “it’s the vibe of the thing” that’s most seductive; at its heart Flying Fish represents seaside dining at its smart-casual best.