There's No Place Like Oz

After a 2-week stay in the culinary capital of Australia, who knew I’d write a post saying I was more excited about the food I had in Adelaide?! Radelaide FTW!

Let’s get straight to it, shall we?! (See, I can hardly contain my excitement!)

First up, brekky:

The Big Table at Adelaide Central Market has a wonderful menu with healthy and not-so-healthy options. You can grab a table or choose an empty stool right at the counter — if you can find one!

Visit #1: Scrambled eggs with fetta and rocket with fat toast and a flat white (coffee — pretty much a latte without the bit of foam). This is what was *leftover* — I ate one piece of “fat toast” and some of the eggs before calling it quits.

Visit #2: Muesli with fruit & yogurt. You can’t see the muesli here because it’s hiding under the fruit, yogurt, and rhubarb compote!

I also had a tasty and healthy breakfast at Bliss Organic Cafe. Visit the link and check out the photo of the Bliss Fruit Pancakes — I chose apple with maple syrup 🙂

Kamal (roommate and several day travel partner) and I also visited Bliss for lunch.

My Pumpkin & Sweet Potato Soup with yummy toast — tasted *much* better than it looks.

Kamal’s Grilled Vegetable Sandwich. Though you can’t tell with all of the lettuce, it’s: grilled seasonal vegetables (eggplant, zucchini, sweet potato, capsicum), mixed with home-made pesto, served with fresh garden salad, on Turkish pide

Continuing the trend of visiting places twice, I dined at Amico Cafe on two occasions to take advantage of Albert’s $12 pizza + glass of wine special. On my first visit, I learned that Albert had spent 5 years living and working in the US and loved it. Contrast that with the night before when the restaurant manager I met told me how much the world LOATHES Americans, repeatedly, while I waited for my meal (yeah, got it pal, thanks). I don’t have photos, but I went for the 1) Tuscan (Marinated Chicken, Spanish Onion, Roasted Mushroom & Shaved Asiago Cheese) and the 2) Special (Basil Pesto, Bocconcini Cheese, Wild Rocket & Proscuitto), both with a different sauvignon blanc (the second was from Nautilus and very nice). Oh yeah, and it didn’t hurt that Albert is cute too.

My favorite meal in all of Adelaide (and that’s saying a lot) was hands down from Manna Caffe, which is just down the road from my hostel.

I debated between three things but settled on the Rocket & Pear Salad: “Baby rocket, walnuts, sliced pear, grilled halloumi cheese, avocado, and red onion in a lemon vinaigrette dressing.” They used almond slivers instead of walnuts, and I asked for grilled chicken to be added, and I received breaded and fried, albeit *delicious*, chicken instead.

The second the salad was put before me, the aromas of the grilled breaded chicken and halloumi cheese made me pause and close my eyes in a moment of bliss.

The fresh pear, lemon vinagrette, and chicken were all winners, but the cheese put this salad in an entirely new category of fantastic I’d like to call “Contender for best meal I’ve had in Oz”. Apparently I’ve never had halloumi before, at least grilled, because I’d never tasted anything like it. All four pieces on my salad were savored slowly. *cue angels singing*

On my second visit I had the Roast Pumpkin & Spinach salad: Roasted sesame seed coated pumpkin, baby spinach, chick peas, feta, and toasted pine nuts in a mustard honey dressing. Another WINNER!

Also worth checking out:

— Health Foods on Rundle Mall…they have fabulous vegan muffins! The blueberry & coconut resulted in a return visit to try the banana & sultana.

— Coopers Alehouse, one of the few places I saw open after 4:30! I met Dan and Tim there for dinner and a drink during their quick trip from Melbourne.

Places I didn’t try but will next time

— I only learned about The Coffee Club on my last day so sadly I didn’t have time to go. There are other locations in Australia, so perhaps I’ll check it out elsewhere. They had quite a crowd, and a fellow traveler raved about it just yesterday!

— I passed Buskers on Rundle Mall just about every day and always figured “I’ll go tomorrow.” That never happened! Who knows if the food is any good, but it’s a great spot for people watching.

By the time I’m posting this, I have been in Australia for six full weeks, and I left Adelaide a week ago. By far, the best food I’ve had on the trip was during my 2-week stay in Adelaide. Now that I’m back in Sydney for a few days before heading up to Queensland, I’ll see if I can find anything to rival my Radelaide eats.