ARTISAN IN Adelaide
ANNA KING SHAHAB WINES AND DINES SOUTH AUSTRALIAN-STYLE
South Australia may be famous for its multiple wine regions, but there are plenty of epicurean delights around its capital, Adelaide.
It has a population similar to Auckland’s but, happily for visitors and residents, Adelaide has a fraction of the traffic. It’s a breezy 15-minute ride from the airport to the city centre, where my first stop is Central Market.
For a century and a half, this permanent undercover market has been packed with purveyors of the best kind, with a focus on local produce and artisan products. Among the gems are charcuterie at Luigi’s, boutique gin from Kangaroo Island, smoked almonds (this region is the biggest almond grower in Australia), ‘roo sausies, camel hump (no, I didn’t), indigenous herbs and seaweeds.
Native ingredients are also high on the agenda at some of the city’s top restaurants.
Chef and owner of Restaurant Orana, Jock Zonfrillo established The Orana Foundation, partnering with remote indigenous communities to record and catalogue food traditions. The menu at Orana offers an insight into the nuanced ways indigenous cooks have used native ingredients for thousands of years.
At the Botanic Gardens Restaurant, we sit amidst the source of the modern Aussie cuisine that graces our dinner plates. Chef Paul Baker provides a list on the back of the menu of the dozens of things they’re currently obtaining from the 51-hectare garden.
A day or more in both the Barossa Valley and the Adelaide Hills offers contrasting pictures of South Australia’s wine country.
One of the most famous wine regions in the world thanks to its shiraz, the Barossa, 65km north of the city, is all fast-moving clouds drawing dramatic shadows across the tawny landscape, and villages dotted with the stone cottages built by German Lutheran settlers.
German traditions remain – we found, among other local products such as delicious bread and sausages at the Barossa Farmers Market and at Apex in Tanunda (a fourth-generation bakery), slow-fermented breads and cakes cooked in the woodfired Scotch oven, which has been used every day since 1924.
Contemporary flavours abound too. Also in Tanunda, FermentAsian provided many “wow” moments, with the beautiful modern Vietnamese cuisine of chef Tuoi Do matched to an outstanding drinks list.
Do’s parents are market gardeners and supply much of the produce to the kitchen, and the freshness shows.
Less than an hour’s drive east of the city, the bucolic Adelaide Hills is another wine-growing area that’s making its mark.
We start our day with the
360° panorama experience at The Lane Vineyard. After a breakfast of freshly shucked oysters (highly recommended), I put in a hilarious stint trying to hit a hole-in-one on the pond (champs get a bottle of The
Lane Helen Cuvee. I, sadly, was not a champ). After a tasting of premium wines in a luxe cabin with views, we get a tour of the winery and more tastings straight from the barrels.
The area is also home to a thriving community of natural winemakers and craft brewers. We loved the boho vibes at
Lost in a Forest in Uraidla, an old church converted to a pizza restaurant by unconventional winemaker Taras Ochota. We sipped natural wine and munched on organic pizzas (definitely try the sublime banh mi topping).
Back in the city on our last afternoon, a sunset cocktail is in order, so we head to where any self-respecting gin fan should: the tasting room at Prohibition, where you can sample your way through gins made onsite as well as dozens more varieties produced in South Australia.
On a Sunday arvo, that meant a few G&Ts, being serenaded with live music all while watching a peachy-coloured sunset.
Not a bad way to end a trip across the ditch.