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The Forager: End of the long lunch?

Apr 29, 2015
Lazy Susan Lunch Club. Photo: Josie Withers Photography

Lazy Susan Lunch Club. Photo: Josie Withers Photography

In this week’s column: Last calls for the Lazy Susan Lunch Club, try before you buy at Foodland Frewville, persimmons season, and pairing chocolate with cheese.

Lazy Susan’s last lunch?

Lazy Susan Lunch Club will hold possibly its final pop-up shared lunch next month as its chef and mastermind is heading overseas.

Lazy Susan rooftop

Michael Proud talks about the menu before a Lazy Susan lunch. Photo: Josie Withers Photography

Chef Michael Proud (“Mikey”) developed the not-for-profit lunch club with a group of friends – photographer Josie Withers, winemaker Greg Grigoriou and designer Lynlee Hanan – as a way to share “good food and wine and good times”. Since June 2014, the group has planned and held monthly food and wine events at secret locations around Adelaide.

“We started with about 12 or 15 people,” says Grigoriou, who plans the drinks menu, “but that number has grown to about 30.”

Lazy Susan Greg Grigoriou

Lazy Susan Lunch Club’s Greg Grigoriou. Photo: Josie Withers Photography

A ticket to a Lazy Susan Lunch Club event buys you a seat at a long table of food and wine enthusiasts. It covers the cost of a two-course lunch and drinks in a location that has been selected and decorated to be enjoyed as much as the menu. Rooftops, city laneways and warehouses have all been transformed into memorable gastronomic experiences under the creativity of the Lazy Susan team.

“Mikey’s kitchen is completely portable so we can do it wherever,” says Grigoriou. “The tables and burners all pack up into his van.”

The food is colourful, seasonal and inspired. “When we started Lazy Susan, the food was all vegetarian, but people like meat,” says Grigoriou. “Last time Mikey barbecued a bunch of different cuts of beef – we try to focus on the lesser cuts and highlight seasonal and local veges.”

Lazy Susan laneway lunch

A recent Lazy Susan Lunch Club city laneway location. Photo: Josie Withers Photography

The drinks are also lesser-known and locally produced beverages which Grigoriou matches with the food.

“We usually do a starter cocktail – last time we did a variation on a mint julep,” he says.

“There are ususally three or four wines with dinner. I pour the first one and then plonk the bottles on the table. If we don’t blow the budget, we’ll also do a dessert wine.”

The next and possibly the last Lazy Susan Lunch Club event will be held on Sunday, May 24. Tickets cost around $60 per person and sell out very quickly. Grigoriou says people should watch the Facebook page – “it’s first in, first served with the tickets”.

Lazy Susan pumpkins

Baked stuffed heirloom pumpkins. Photo: Josie Withers Photography

The Lazy Susan group is also affiliated with SAD café in Ebenezer Place (where Michael Proud was chef before he went on to start Renew Adelaide project Colab café), Dawn Patrol coffee roasters and Delinquente Wines.

“After Colab finishes up in September or October, Mikey will head overseas so we will wind down Lazy Susan and put it on hold – it’s really Mike’s thing,” says Grigoriou.

Shopping over lunch

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Frewville Foodland extended. Photo: Nat Rogers/InDaily

In the next week, Frewville Foodland will complete the final stage of its renovations with the opening of a licensed café which is integrated into the shopping experience.

Over the past 12 months the supermarket has expanded the footprint of the building with an extension at the front, as well as increasing the organic and fresh produce sold.

“As well as the cafe, the supermarket now has one of the largest cheese selections in the state, has opened an in-house bakery and has added more operated checkouts (as opposed to self-checkouts),” says Richard Miller, Foodland Frewville and Pasadena group business manager.

“The café will offer a full cooked gourmet breakfast, brunch and lunch menu until 4pm daily, then from 4pm until 9pm there are antipasto and cheese platters and wines and beers by the glass. We don’t know of another supermarket in the country that has an offering like this.”

Frewville Foodland asian chicken salad

Asian noodle salad. Photo: Andrew Beveridge/asbCreative.com

The concept of the café, he says, is to operate as a “window to the store – everything on the menu you can make and buy from the shop”. If you order the pasta dish, you will also be given the recipe and an ingredients list which will direct you to the location of the products within the store. Cold-pressed juices will be made from organic fruit and vegetables straight out of the store – “whatever you taste on the menu, you can buy in the supermarket”.

Frewville Foodland prawn pasta

Prawn pasta. Photo: Andrew Beveridge/asbCreative.com

Large plasma screens inside the café will rotate images of dishes on the menu, which will change with the seasons. “The owners of the store, Nick and Spero Chapley, are passionate about customer experience,” Miller says. “It is a supermarket with a hospitality mentality.”

Miller also manages the supermarket’s social enterprise, Youthinc, which helps young people to break the cycle of disadvantage through its mentorship program.

This week at the Adelaide Farmers’ Market

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Persimmons. Photo: supplied

Originally cultivated in Asia, persimmons are an exotic fruit with a firm texture and a delicate flavour. They can be eaten fresh or used in sweet and savoury dishes.

Similar in appearance to a tomato, the fruit start out yellow and then turn to an orange or red colour as they ripen, which, depending on the variety, is usually around March/April in South Australia.

The season for fresh persimmons is only four to five weeks, so you need to be quick to purchase some this Sunday at Adelaide Showground Farmers’ Market stalls Cooinda Proprietors, Otherwood Orchards and Bill & Soula Andonopoulos.

What’s on?

Cheese, Chocolate and Bubbles – tonight!
Chocolate is often paired with wine or spirits, but it is also a great match with cheese, according to experts Valerie Henbest and Steven ter Horst. Both are rich and savoury and together they can create some complex and intriguing flavour combinations, they say. At this masterclass, Henbest and ter Horst will take you through tastings of a triple-cream cheese filled with chocolate paste and goat cheese dipped in single-origin chocolate fondue with Spanish spices, for example, with a glass of sparkling as a palate cleanser. Tickets are available by calling Georgia Loudon on 8231 5867.

Kangaroo Island Feastival – May 1 to 8
Kangaroo Island Feastival is an opportunity to experience the island’s pristine food and wine, meet the producers, taste the produce and get to know some of the locals at a collection of pop-up and ticketed events, but you’ll need to arrange transport and accommodation. All ticket purchases, accommodation, travel and event packages can be purchased here. You can also find out more about the Feastival in this InDaily Travel story.

Ginza Miyako Mother’s Day High Tea – May 10
Adelaide’s first and only Japanese-French fusion high tea will be served at Ginza Miyako Japanese Restaurant this Mother’s Day in the Stamford Plaza Hotel. Complementary sparkling wine on arrival will be followed by unique Japanese sweets and savouries such as assorted sashimi and sushi, tempura prawns, black sesame crème brulee, macha tiramisu, mini fruit tarts, and unlimited espresso coffee and tea. Cost is $45 for adults and $25 for children. Bookings essential on 8221 6147.

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New release Stirling Moss wines from Penny’s Hill. Photo: supplied

Sea and Vines Festival – June 5 to 8
Join the “Marquis of Wellington” (new Kitchen Door @ Penny’s Hill chef Neil McGlew) for a three-course seated lunch of “best British proportions” featuring his infamous beef and turkey wellingtons on Sunday, June 7, as part of the Sea and Vines Festival.

Take the opportunity to look over the new Kitchen Door menu and taste the new-release wines from the Penny’s Hill Stirling Moss project (2014 Adelaide Hills Chardonnay and 2014 McLaren Vale Grenache made by winemaker Alexia Roberts), which celebrates the 60th anniversary of the British Formula One racing car drivers’ victory at the famous Mille Miglia road race in Italy.

The Marquis of Wellington is just one of dozens of parties, degustations, tastings, master-classes and other celebrations to be held at McLaren Vale’s cellar doors and wineries during the Sea and Vines Festival. Further program details can be found here.

 

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