The Forager: Fashionable food, modern Chinese
This week in The Forager: What the fashionistas will eat; a modern take on Chinese tradition; beefing up the flavour of beef, and writing about food.
Fashionable food
It’s not all about the clothes at Variety on King William, the annual alfresco four-course luncheon and parade that will be staged by the King William Road traders this Friday.
The road is just as much a restaurant strip as it is a fashion strip, and at this year’s Variety on King William event the spring flavour is inspired equally by the food and wine businesses clustered in the precinct.
Providore Bottega Rotolo and restaurants Ichitaro, Faraja, Parisi’s, By Blackbird and Mulot’s Patisserie have come together to create a menu to cater for the expected 650 guests at the event. Highlights include a saffron and leek tartlet topped with Tartufi Morra truffle caviar (Bottega Rotolo), an aburi salmon roll (Ichitaro), barramundi fillet baked in banana leaf (Faraja), Thomas Farm’s eye fillet (Parisi’s), Chiboust light vanilla bean custard (Mulot’s), and a mint and vanilla tart (By Blackbird). Each dish will be matched with locally produced wines.
“Our restaurants have worked collaboratively on this menu over the past few months, making sure the flavours and dishes work together to create a taste sensation for our guests, who will enjoy a fine-dining experience with all the trimmings,” said Variety on King William committee chairman John Karran.
“We are also lucky to have Tomich Wine and Fox Gordon’s cellar door right here on King William Road. They join our friends from Totino and Wicks Estate, who have been incredibly generous in donating all wine for this event so that we can raise money for Variety.”
While a small section of King William Road will be closed to traffic for the event, the footpaths are open and the restaurants, cafes and other businesses will be trading as usual.
Variety on King William is staged in partnership with the Adelaide Fashion Festival. Tickets for the luncheon are $140 per person. Bookings can be made here.
East meets west
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A former police station in Wright Street has been transformed from artless 1960s offices into a modern Chinese restaurant where east meets west in everything from the food to the setting.
Taste opened yesterday, with owners Jian and Jiaqian (Jerry and Jackie) Zhang saying it is one of few modern Chinese restaurants in Adelaide.
“This restaurant has a very special theme we name ‘the exquisite four’ – our appetisers, our mini hotpots, our high-class service and romantic ambience define the uniqueness of the restaurant.”
Taste offers a fusion of mostly traditional Chinese dishes presented in a modern industrial-style setting. Exposed pipework on the ceilings has been painted black, and a range of stone and timber finishes decorate feature walls, along with Chinese art and pottery. Comfort is catered for with chunky 1970s-style white vinyl upholstered dining chairs and banquettes.
There are two private function rooms that offer a more luxurious ambience – each has a large round marble dining table with overhead crystal chandelier and glass lazy Susan.
A standout of the large menu is the silky soft Crispy Tofu, deep fried and served with a tomato puree. The Chinese say deep frying fresh tofu is difficult to master, but this is done to perfection.
Another highlight is the Taste Fried Chicken, a Chinese version of the American dish featuring crumbed and deep-fried boneless chicken. The chicken is incredibly tender and the crumb, which we are told takes two weeks to perfect, is sprinkled with Chinese spices including “lip-numbing” Szechuan pepper.
The wok-tossed Tea-Tree Mushroom dish is a must-try – dried tea-tree mushrooms soaked and cooked until tender with ginger and pork mince. They have a big earthy, meaty taste with a chewy texture.
But the Taste Fried Noodle is the star – fresh “hand-pulled” noodles made on-site, infused with deep-fried spring onion and shrimp. According to the Chinese guests at Taste, this dish is “yuanwei” (authentic).
The drinks menu includes a range of Chinese teas such as jasmine green tea, tieguanyin, high mountain tea, pu-erh and bamboo green tea, as well as a range of local boutique wines and beers.
More information can be found here.
Beefing it up
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A Hereford Beef has resurrected the traditional method of ageing beef by hanging it “on the bone” for a minimum of 30 days (dry ageing) – just like butchers used to do in the days of sawdust floors and before prepared cuts and wet ageing.
The brand produces products using Hereford cattle, an ancient English breed regarded highly for consistently good-quality eating if grass fed.
“Grass-fed cattle produce a truer, cleaner (and beefier) flavoured meat – a profile that is intensified and enhanced with the dry ageing process,” says Tim Burvill, managing director of the South Australian Cattle Co, which produces A Hereford Beef.
“The centuries-old technique of dry ageing allowed two processes to occur. Firstly, some of the moisture is lost, creating a greater concentration of flavour and taste. Secondly, natural enzymes break down the connective tissue in the muscle, which leads to more tender beef. These enzymes also break down proteins into amino acids, and small amounts of carbohydrates in the meat into sugars, so the beef tastes sweeter.”
Burvill says wet ageing, where the meat is packed into vacuum-sealed plastic bags a day or so after processing, is vastly more efficient than dry ageing, because it requires less time and refrigeration space, and also eliminates weight loss from shrinkage and trimming. However, the meat lacks the flavour provided by dry ageing.
“With a little help of a more modern low-humidity cool room, we have brought back this lost art in a quest to create the most intensely flavoured steaks. We believe this gives the best expression of the grass-fed Hereford cattle we work with.”
A Hereford Beef is produced at Lucindale and also sourced from other Hereford breeders in the cool-climate zone of south-eastern South Australia and western Victoria. It can be purchased at select Foodland/IGA stores and at Haydon’s Fine Meats at Burnside.
For the full A Hereford Beef dry-aged beef experience, visit A Hereford Beefstouw steakhouse on Hutt Street. The new Slide into Sundays lunch menu featuring sliders of pulled pork, buffalo mozzarella, beef and classic cheese can be combined with dry-aged beef selections from the main menu.
Events
Writing about Food with Barbara Santich – October 19
Adelaide food historian and food writer Barbara Santich is giving a one-off workshop at the SA Writers’ Centre, introducing participants to the world and potential of food writing. Using fiction, memoir and cookbooks, Santich will offer some of the best examples of food writing and practical exercises for producing delicious prose. Bookings and further information can be found here.
Head in the Clouds Wine Hike –October 19 and November 2
Head in the Clouds winemaker Tom Robinson is also a great lover of the outdoors and his wine hikes are a great way to experience up to a dozen wines in diverse natural environments. The October 19 hike begins at Norton Summit and the 3.5-hour round trip explores “Intriguing European” wines. The three-hour November 2 hike begins at Belair National Park on slightly easier terrain and will explore “Alt Favs from Interstate”. Cost is $30 per person per hike. Group sizes are limited so book early. More information can be found here. To purchase tickets email: [email protected].
Cooking classes
Rilka Warbanoff has launched a new season of cooking classes at her Hahndorf cooking school.
The spring/summer classes at Rilka’s Real Food Cooking School cover Gluten and Sugar-Free Cakes and Desserts; Mediterranean and Middle East Flavours; Spanish, German and French classes; Christmas delights; and Create Your Own Feast (groups only).
Individual and group bookings are welcome. Classes are three hours long, hands-on and limited to 12 participants per session. Participants each receive an apron, a copy of her book – Rilka’s Feasts – and enjoy a selection of Adelaide Hills wines during the class. Bookings can be made here.
