Today, behind the Hobbit door off Peel Street, things we’d rather eat than a certain doughnut, ending our enormous food waste, beer and cider, and more.
Keep on truckin’
Get your legwarmers on and comb out your mullet for an ’80s-style food truck extravaganza on Saturday (July 19) in the city – and readers of The Forager can get in for half price.
Keep on Truckin’, a satellite event of the Adelaide Food and Wine Festival, will take over the new artspace at The Publisher’s on Franklin Street from 4pm to 9pm.
Food trucks will include Delectaballs and The Roaming Spit, plus wine, beer, cider at the “Let’s get Physical” Bar, DJ tunes and trucker caps.
Normal entry is $15 (including commemorative glass), but if you enter the code word FORAGER when you book here, you’ll get tickets half price.
Behind the Hobbit door
We love that Adelaide’s small-venue licence explosion is not only creating new venues, but new city spaces.
The best example so far is the lane that’s been punched between Peel and Leigh streets, set with tables, outdoor heating, and servicing two new places – the Bread and Bone wood grill and Maybe Mae bar.
Through the Hobbiton-like door you’ll find a staircase. Upstairs is the very stylish and comfortable (not always a compatible combo) Bread and Bone wood grill, which opened last Friday. Sit at the long wooden bar, or at a table underneath low-slung light fittings, and enjoy some tasty and well-priced burgers, dogs or something more substantial from the grill. The short wine list looks good – we can vouch for the house Tempranillo from Neil Pike in Clare. The burgers are better than many around town.
Downstairs is Maybe Mae (after Mae West), the wood grill’s sister bar.
Bread and Bone is open daily from 11.30am till late. Maybe Mae is open from 5pm.
Five things we’d rather eat than a certain doughnut
We don’t want to rain on their parade, but the excitement over a certain doughnut chain coming to town does seem a little sad.
It’s not as if we don’t have plenty of sweet treats with origins closer to home. And the hyped new product does seem a little …. overwrought (it’s a pretty dense dough literally embalmed in a sugary coating).
So here are five local options to try if the sugar cravings hit you – and you probably won’t have to queue.
Zeppole: Roughly like an Italian version of the doughnut, it’s dough that’s been fried. Get the sugary versions at Nano off Rundle Street or Imma and Mario’s at Campbelltown (they also have the savoury version with anchovies). Or save up your craving for a once-a-year hit at Carnevale (as I do!).
Your local bakery: Go to your local bakery and have an old-fashioned treat – a fingerbun (thickly spread with butter), or a Kitchener bun. You’ll have your favourite, but mine is the sour cherry Danish at Brezel’s Bakehouse in Mt Barker. The beautiful pastries pictured at the top of this page are from Abbots & Kinney, which supplies many cafes around town.
Vanilla slice: The version sold at The Providore in the Central Market is loved by many – crispy pastry and a light creme.
Croissant: A proper croissant freshly-baked trumps a doughnut any day. Dolce & Co at Burnside Village and on Gilbert Street in the city make theirs with high-quality butter – and it shows. Flaky, light, beautiful.
Truffles: A single chocolate truffle is inexpensive and the flavour goes a long way. You’ll feel a lot better after downing one of Steven ter Horst’s fleur de sel truffles (caramel with salt flakes) or a Haigh’s lemon truffle than a giant wadge of sugared dough. Surely.
‘Reclaimed’ feast for 1000
The OzHarvest organisation does excellent work, “rescuing” good food which would normally go to landfill, and using it to provide nourishment to those in need.
On Monday (July 21) from 11.30 to 2.30 it will create a feast of rescued food for 1000 people in Adelaide as part of the national Think.Eat.Save. event.
The event is to highlight the problem of food waste – the food from about one in five household shopping bags ends up in the bin.
Food will be prepared by chefs Philip Pope (National Wine Centre), Tze Khaw (Adelaide Convention Centre), Dennis Leslie (Adelaide Oval) and Tania Tauakume (The Playford). Another 200 meals have been prepared by the cooking school at Common Ground, a city housing project providing accommodation for the homeless.
Local identities will help serve the food on the day, and there will be a panel discussion moderated by OzHarvest ambassador Keith Conlon.
You can learn more about the work of OzHarvest by attending the event on the Goodman Lawns at the University of Adelaide (off North Terrace). The food is free, but register your attendance here.
Since launching in South Australia three years ago, OzHarvest says it has rescued 600 tonnes of good food that was destined for the rubbish dump.
Beer and cider awards
Cider fans will know by the end of the week which Australian apple and pear-based tipples have been judged the nation’s best.
The Royal Adelaide Beer Show has been judging this week, with cider included in the awards for the first time.
Trophies will be presented on Friday for Champion Cider, Champion Perry and Champion South Australian exhibit.
The beer awards were reintroduced as part of the Royal Adelaide Show in 2011 after an 80-year hiatus, with award categories covering lagers, ales, stouts, reduced-alcohol beers and wheat beer.
