On November 3rd and 4th 2012, I had the pleasure of attending the third Australian food blogging conference, Eat Drink Blog, which was held in my hometown of Adelaide. I was one of 80 lucky Australian food bloggers who were selected to attend the fun and food filled conference. Our first adventure was a tour of the Adelaide Central Markets on the Saturday morning.
I will be moving to Sydney soon and I am a little sad there is no such Central Market equivalent in Sydney! I will have to visit a supermarket to do all my shopping...ugh...
The Central Market is 140 years old, is the largest of its sort in the Southern Hemisphere and is South Australia's most popular tourist attraction with 8 million visitors each year. There are 5476+ years of collective experience in the market, over 626 employees, 21 languages and over 80 stalls.
The happy and excited food bloggers were separated into small groups and each group meandered itself around the market's aisles, meeting stall owners, learning about the produce, takings photos and taste testing.
Aubergines
Aubergine's is a fruit and vegetable shop in the Adelaide Central Markets which was been operating for over 25 years. They pride themselves on offering customers quality, fresh produce at affordable prices. They do their best to stock South Australian and/or Australian produce. I often buy Pink Lady apples from Aubergines as they seem to stock juicy smaller ones. I don't like apples the size of basketballs.
Before we knew it, little cups of fresh fruit salad were being handed out to us. We all felt quite special. You know, being 'important' food blogging people from the internet and all. I enjoyed a mango, rockmelon and blueberry fruit salad. It was delightful.
Lucia's Pizza & Spaghetti Bar/Lucia's Fine Foods
Toot toot, all aboard the wonderful food blogger train! Our next stop was Lucia's where we were served the most smooth and creamy white polenta with Lucia's tomato sauce. The tomato sauce contains no sugar! Big tick from me.
Lucia's Pizza & Spaghetti bar was opened in 1957 by Lucia Rosella. The current owners are her children. The shop besides it, Lucia's Fine Foods was established in 2002 and sells take home fresh meals, local and imported Italian produce and their own line of sauces.
There is often something bubbling in a pot of pan out the front of Lucia's. If you are at the market, check it out. I can also recommend the Lucia's hot chocolate. I have not yet found another hot chocolate in Adelaide that beats the Lucia's hot chocolate. I have written about one of my visits to Lucia's, here.
Vegas Poultry
Just a few steps away was our next stop, Vegas Poultry which was established in 1987. The shop is 100% South Australian owned and specialises in the sale of free range and organic chicken. The free range chickens are fed local grains, peas, vitamins and vegetables. Certified organic chickens are fed with certified organic feed and are certified by the Organic Food Chain.
I think the most important thing here is the fact Vegas chickens are not fed?antibiotics?or growth hormones. Yay! I can eat their chicken without being worried about how it will affect my life span!
On the Sunday, Vegas provided pandan chicken for our Eat Drink Blog lunch. I highly recommend it.
Providore
Providore was established in 1967 and is owned by the jolly Mark Gleeson. His shop is host to the wonderful chocolate fountain above and he also runs a Central Market Tour.
Everyone seemed to be amazed by these mega sized chocolate crackles.
Providore is a very homely and cosy stall, selling everything sweet including muffins, slices, waffles, cakes, biscuits, pastries, ice cream and chocolate truffles. Mark told us that many of the items are made by home bakers.
Unfortunately we did not try any of the cakes. However, we did try the chocolate fountain. It was so sweet but fantastic. If I were to break my diet (which I have broken anyway...), I would do it here.?Definitely?worth it.
Established in 2004, The Yoghurt Shop was?Australia's?first fresh yoghurt shop. The company now has a total of ten stores across Adelaide. Their yoghurts do not contain cream, thickeners, gluten, gelatine, preservatives, additives, artificial colours, flavours or sweeteners.
A range of yoghurts are available from Greek, passion fruit, berry and honey comb. They also sell smoothies. I tasted the mango smoothie and it had the perfect texture and consistency. Much better than the mango smoothie I once tried to make at home!
I tasted the passionfruit yoghurt on the Sunday for the Eat Drink Blog 3 breakfast and was impressed. The yoghurt was thick, creamy, filling and there was a good amount of passion fruit in my little tub.
Across the main aisle of the market, past some more fruit and veg shops and a health food shop, we stopped at San Jose Smallgoods. A little history here...the stall was previously known as Seven Hill Fine Foods which was owned by Elizabeth and Waldemar and specialised in Polish, German, Dutch and Scandinavian foods. When the two retired, the shop was bought my San Jose Smallgoods. Luckily, the new owners have continued to stock the most popular lines offered by Seven Hill and they also sell their own great quality products, making everyone happy.
San Jose Smallgoods are hand-made, using natural ingredients. Therefore, the result is a superior tasting product which has won a number of industry awards. Products are hand salted and matured for long periods of time in order to ensure maximum flavour. San Jose also use 100% Australian pork which they de-bone themselves; no nasty frozen imported weird stuff going on here!Friendly staff at San Jose
At San Jose we tasted the chorizo. It is something else. There is a strong meaty spiciness. Just wonderful. My auntie is also in the San Jose chorizo fan club. More expensive than other chorizo in the market, but worth it. We also tried a Kassler ham and something else (sorry I cannot remember) and both were great. Flavour!!!
The last stop on the market tour was the Mushroom Man stall. If you are wondering who the mushroom man is, it is Marco, the man on the right. Marco's family has been working in the Adelaide Central Market for over 30 years. His shop prides itself on offering customers value for money, excellent customer service and quality mushrooms.
You can find all sorts of mushrooms here; porcini, shitake, oyster, king brown and also truffles! Gift packs and mushroom salts are also for sale. I often buy mushrooms here and I can vouch for the friendly service, good prices and quality products. I also like the idea that a stall specialises in FUNGI!:)
Black garlic
The big hit with us food bloggers was the black garlic Marco showed us. He encouraged us to have a taste. I thought that was a little weird. Why would I want to taste garlic? Well, black garlic is not your every day garlic. I would describe it as a caramalised garlic/onion lolly. It sort of reminded me of a BBQ. It is also very soft and each clove can easily be broken without the aid of a knife. If you can get your hands on some black garlic, do try it.
Having visited all the stalls, it was time for our next adventure - WINE TOUR! :)
More about the wine tour another time....
Thank you stall holders!!
Before I go, a big thank you to all the stall holders. We?truly?appreciated all the time you took out of your morning to tell us about your businesses and products. Thank you for allowing us to taste some of your products and thank you for your understanding in regards to our food photography addiction.
For me, the tour was a great chance to see the market through a new set of eyes. I felt proud that my home city has such a brilliant market, containing so much history and tradition. The interstate bloggers were blown away by the Central Market and it made me feel really happy:)
What you need to know:
Where:?Adelaide Central Market, between Gouger and Grote Street, next to the Hilton Hotel at Victoria Square
When: Tuesday 07:00-17:30, Wednesday 09:00-17:30, Thursday 09:00-17:30, Friday 07:00-21:00, Saturday 07:00-15:00. Closed Monday and Sunday
Other: China Town is right next to the marketWebsite?<- ?Click here
For more information on Eat Drink Blog 3, click here.
For a full list of delegates, click here.
I attended the conference event free of charge thanks to Eat Drink Blog and the sponsors.
More tasty posts : Adelaide Central Market, aubergines, black garlic, conference, Eat Drink Blog 3, lucias, mushroom man, providore, san jose, Seven Hill Fine Food, smallgoods, tour, vegas poultry, yoghurt shop
Source: http://fruitsaladmixedveg.blogspot.com/2012/11/eat-drink-blog-3-part-1-adelaide.html
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