In this week’s column: A place to wine and dine before and after the movies, a favourite bakery comes to the city, a TV dinner at Hentley Farm, how to use up excess seasonal produce at the Duke of Brunswick Hotel, locally made coffee pods, and more new eateries and pop-up action.

New food and wine offering for theatre goers

Taking up vacant space either side of the Regal Theatre on Kensington Road, two new food and wine offerings have filled a void for pre and post-theatre dining and refreshments in the eastern suburbs.

Working in tandem, Uxbridge Kitchen does the day shift and Hula Hoop the night-time hours, but both are owned and operated as one family business by Jonathon and Stephanie Hamra* and their three sons Charlie, Max and George.

Uxbridge Kitchen has taken up the space that was once occupied by Bracegirdles as a dessert cafe, with the building being totally refurbished with a fresh new look.

Stephanie, who has worked as both a lawyer and an event caterer, is behind the stoves, cooking breakfast and lunch and everything in between from 8.30am to 4.30pm every day except Monday.

The menu is simple: house-made muesli, breakfast rolls with locally smoked bacon and free-range eggs, and sandwiches with local smoked leg ham, brie and caramelised onion or rare roast beef, horseradish, rocket and cheddar. There is also a blackboard of daily specials including soup, frittata and fritters.

Uxbridge Kitchen at the Regal Theatre. Photo: supplied

“I’m really passionate about fresh local food,” Stephanie says. “All the soups, fritters, chutneys – everything – are home-made by me and all the cheeses and meat are Australian. I roast the beef every morning.”

On the eastern side of the Regal Theatre entrance, Hula Hoop is a restaurant and bar serving Mediterranean-style meals and snacks and classic cocktails from Wednesday to Saturday evenings and Sunday afternoons.

Andre Ursino (Andre’s Cucina) is behind the food, with savoury zeppole, charcuterie and dip plates, porchetta sliders, arancini with paprika aioli, black truffle and marsala polpette and a couple of pasta dishes, all of which are offered as a single serve or as a shared plate.

The Hamra boys are in charge of the drinks, which include a curated list of local and international wines and craft beers. If you’re feeling a little under the weather, there is a cocktail called Penicillin (whisky, honey, lemon and ginger).

Hula Hoop opens to a little park, an outdoor space which is licensed for 50 people in addition to seating for 30 indoors. The trees are hung with lanterns and Stephanie says all the family is welcome.

“We serve dinner until 10pm, so you can have a meal after a movie, which before Hula Hoop opened was near impossible around here.”

*Jonathon and Stephanie Hamra are relatives of Paul Hamra, the managing director of Solstice Media, publisher of InDaily.

Dinner with the Today Show at Hentley Farm

2015 Winery of the Year winner and number 66 in the Australian Financial Review’s Australia’s Top 100 Restaurants this year, Hentley Farm was selected as the place to wine and dine Today Show hosts Karl Stefanovic, Lisa Wilkinson and Richard Wilkins on Monday night before their live broadcast from Pindarie Wines yesterday.

As part of a South Australian Tourism Commission initiative to “show the nation the best of our tourism regions”, a small group of Adelaide journalists including The Forager joined the TV stars for a seven-course degustation dinner with matched wines, with each dish personally presented by head chef Lachlan Colwill.

Barossa produce was used to great effect, with some of the ingredients grown at Hentley Farm and foraged in nearby fields; quail eggs, lamb, oysters, snapper, tuna, pork and chocolate were all subject to Colwill’s fine palate and artistry.

Standout dishes were the oysters served with passionfruit and rosemary from a smoking (dry ice) camp oven, a timbale of raw snapper filled with wild rice and smoked mettwurst that was dressed with locally foraged oxalis and verjuice, a real eggshell (pictured top) filled with sweet yoghurt and passionfruit and topped with poppy seed (very Heston Blumenthal), and an aromatic pine needle and lilly pilly nest with chocolate ice cream dressed with chocolate bark and extra virgin olive oil.

More new restaurants and other openings

Industrial style with chilli plants. Photo: supplied

Restaurateur Walter Ventura’s new venture is finally open for business after its oh-sooo-long transformation from Mesa Osteria to Hispanic Mechanic.

Greggory Hill (ex Lucky Lupitas) is “head mechanic” and the menu fuses Mexican and Korean flavours to offer short ribs with hot sauces, Cuban hamburgers, interesting stir-fries, tacos and take-home “Love Rubs” which promise to transform “home cooks into Latin Gods”.

Hispanic Mechanic is open for lunch from 12pm and dinner from 5.30pm from Wednesday to Sunday (no Saturday lunches, unfortunately).

Another transformation has happened on Unley Road, with architect Mark Folland replacing The Unley Hotel’s Boho Bar with a new rooftop bar and kitchen.

Callum Stewart-Watt is head chef at The Unley Rooftop Bar and Kitchen and the menu features both tapas-style dishes (cheese-filled jalapeno poppers with panko crust and chipotle sauce, char-grilled tiger prawns with goji macadamia puree and pan-fried haloumi with preserved lemon, tarragon and chilli virgin oil with Kalamata olive soil) and larger meals (burgers, pizzas and steaks with tasty rubs).

Gareth and Emma Grierson have set a new benchmark for artisan bakeries, and will soon be opening a third Red Door Bakery outlet on Grenfell Street in the CBD. The original is in Queen Street, Croydon, and the second on King William Road, Goodwood.

Their philosophy is this: “We keep it simple and real. Everything is made by hand using the best-quality ingredients, whether it’s locally grown Wakefield Grange beef, seasonal local fruit or local flour.” Our tip is the Moroccan sausage rolls and the quince tarts.

Red Door donates excess food to OzHarvest to feed the needy and reduce landfill.

Soft polenta, charred corn, prosciutto & cherry tomatoes finished with a balsamic glaze. Photo: supplied

Another new eatery to look out for is Light Bulb Café on King William Road – you can’t miss it with its bright turquoise door. The menu offers a modern representation of typical café food, but the inspiration and delight is in the detail and presentation, which errs on the finer side of breakfast and lunch (see dish pictured above). Open Tuesday to Sunday from 7am to 4pm. Inquire about the monthly degustation dinners starting this weekend.

Howard’s Cook Off

Cook Off participants Lance Campbell, Maggie Gu, Sue Howson and Cheong Liew. Photo: Milton Wordley

The challenge is on again for the coveted “Stirrers” award at The Duke of Brunswick Hotel this Sunday.

Howard’s Cook Off is a quarterly food event in the south-west city community that grew around the legacy of the late food writer Howard Twelftree (John McGrath).

The first Howard’s Cook Off event was held in 2013 in the front bar of Twelftree’s local pub, The Duke of Brunswick. Inspired by a box of surplus quinces, it challenged locals to be inventive with seasonal produce. Twelftree was the judge of that first event before passing away soon after.

In honour of his memory and contribution to the food and wine culture of Adelaide, the community continued with the event, with Howard’s friend Cheong Liew taking up the mantle as judge. Since then there have been a further six events, each with a different feature ingredient: Quince-Essential; Cabbage Caper; Has-Beans; Cherry Ripe; Me PotatoHead; Can’t Beet a Good Root!; Tangelo Tragedy and Killer Tomatoes.

This Sunday the seasonal ingredient of choice is lemons and Ann Oliver will be the judge. Plating up starts at 12pm in the back bar, followed by judging at 12.30pm and then lunch.

Contact The Duke of Brunswick Hotel for more information.

This week at the Adelaide Farmers’ Market

Pistachios. Photo: supplied

South Australian-grown pistachios are in season, with the local crop recently harvested (using both the traditional method of knocking the nuts onto groundsheets and mechanical harvesters), de-hulled and dried ready for sale at the Adelaide Farmers’ Market.

Traditionally, salt has been used as a preservative for pistachios, but the need for salt has been removed by contemporary drying and storage systems, which are also healthier.

Unsalted pistachios are high in zinc and phytosterols (plant sterols) which help fight high cholesterol, leading to improved heart health. Almost all the fatty acids in pistachios are unsaturated and contain oleic acid and an appetite-suppressing compound called oleoylethanolamide.

Adelaide Farmers’ Market stallholder The Food Forest will be selling new-season, fresh, unsalted, organic pistachios this Sunday from 9am at the Adelaide Showground Farmers’ Market, and on a fortnightly basis thereafter.

Royal Adelaide Show cookery classes

Budding chefs and home cooks have the opportunity to win Adelaide Farmers’ Market membership by entering their baked goods and preserves in this year’s Royal Adelaide Show.

The Adelaide Farmers’ Market has sponsored 10 categories in the cookery section of the Show, offering memberships valued at $72 each as prizes.

“The cookery categories being sponsored are ones where entrants can purchase the key ingredients from stallholders at the market,” says ASFM general manager Elaine Ratcliffe.

“These include the classes for orange cakes, apple cakes, carrot cakes, fruit and nut rolls, apple pies, chutney and relishes, jams and marmalades. The maker of the winning entry in the relevant classes will take home a voucher for 2016 membership.”

Entry forms need to be submitted via the Royal Show website by Friday, June 12, with the exhibits delivered during the Royal Show held this year from September 4 to 13.

A bitter tale

New locally brewed alcoholic lemonade Lemon Ed has been named an official match-day sponsor of the Liverpool FC Australian Tour.

Following in the footsteps of the Two Dogs alcoholic lemonade brand created by the late Duncan MacGillivray in 1993, the Lemon Ed brand is pitched as an alternative to beer and cider, but there are two differences: one is that the Lemon Ed brew tastes more like butterscotch than lemons, and the other is that MacGillivray’s brew was a way to value add to a friend’s surplus lemons, while the the new version creates food miles by using fruit from Queensland.

Lemon Ed is made by winemakers at Langhorne Creek’s Step Road Winery – they may find they kick more goals by sourcing a supply of South Australian lemons for the next batch.

A new coffee pod

Locally made Nano coffee pods. Photo: supplied

The Capoccia family is now selling its own locally roasted and packaged coffee pods that are compatible with Nespresso coffee machines.

Nano’s A16 coffee blend is a “strong and robust” Napoli-style blend exclusive to Nano café which is locally roasted and packed in South Australia.

Boxes of Nano Napoli-Style Espresso contain 12 pods ($7.30) and are available online or from Nano café.

What’s on?

Secret Garden Party – May 29
McLaren Vale wine label Down The Rabbit Hole will hold its first pop-up cellar door and bar at Tenth & Gibson in Bowden from 5.30pm to 12am. There will be food, drinks and dancing in a “whimsical warehouse garden”.

Unfold Food & Wine Festival – May 29 and 30
Austin Street in the CBD will be the location of Rundle Mall’s first food and wine festival where the precinct’s eateries, including Lindes Lane and Austin & Austin, will join with local boutique wine producers to entertain guests. Unfold Food & Wine Festival begins on Friday (5pm to 10pm) and continues again on Saturday (12pm to 6pm). Entry is free. The full list of restaurants and wineries involved and more details can be found here.

Laneway The Third Official Closing Party – May 30, 9pm
Celebrating the end of a third successful season, The Original Sailor Jerry presents the Laneway The Third Official Closing Party with food, drinks and entertainment (including free haircuts) before the ever-evolving Hindley Street container bar shuts its doors for renovations and re-opens again in October.

Franks Great Australian Beer Spectacular – May 31
The day after the Great Australian Beer Spectacular (GABS) in Sydney, The Franklin Hotel will be pouring some amazing Australian craft beers across 14 taps. Franks Great Australian Beer Spectacular will include offerings from Mismatch Brewing Company, Nail Brewing Australia, Pikes Beer Company, Nomad Brewing Co, Vale Brewing, Two Birds Brewing and Big Shed Brewing Concern, including a novel take on the quintessentially South Australian pie floater, Vale Brewing’s Pie Cart Porter. A beer-inspired specials menu will also add to the celebration of craft beer.

Nangkita Olives harvest picnic – May 31
Award-winning olive oil producers Nangkita Olives is hosting a picnic at its Fleurieu Peninsula grove where you can see the trees being harvested both by hand and mechanically and taste different olive oils produced by different varieties. Refreshments will be available, with bottled oil and bulk containers for sale. Picking and pruning demonstrations start at 10.30am with orchard tours by hay cart and a tasting class to follow. Neighbouring Nangkita Ridge Wines will provide a cellar-door experience on site. Nangkita Olives is at 2250 Bull Creek Road, Tooperang.

Italian Cheese and Wine – June 2
Take a tasting tour of Italy with the Smelly Cheese Club through some of the world’s best-known cheeses and pair them with wines from the same region: Parmigiano Reggiano from Emilia-Romagna, Gorgonzola and Taleggio from Lombardy, and mixed milk white moulds from Piedmont, just to name a few. Many of the regional cheeses included are selected and aged by Italian affinatore Luigi Guffanti. More information can be found here.

2KW & Kaesler “Old Vine Dinner” – June 3
Indulge in a rare opportunity to taste back vintages and limited-release Kaesler Old Vine Shiraz matched to dishes prepared by 2KW chefs at the rooftop bar and restaurant. Tickets are $100 per person. Bookings must be made by Friday at [email protected].

Lolo Houbein at the Seasonal Gardeners’ Market – June 7
The Adelaide Showground Farmers’ Market will welcome the author of One Magic Square: Grow Your Own Food on One Square Metre to speak at the Seasonal Gardeners’ Market. Activities also include a gardening workshop for children by Green Gecko at 10am. Gates open at 9am and the market concludes at 1pm. Entry is free.