Cellar Door Fest: Insider Sneak Peek

Tidswell Wines
Tidswell Wines’ Norwood Cellar Door

Disclaimer: I was a guest at the event

Now we’ve all forgotten about Christmas and New Year, Festival season is well and truly kicking off in Adelaide. I can read through my Facebook feed without tripping over events, street parties and must-see acts.

One event which South Australian wine lovers should look forward to is the Cellar Door Fest, held every February at the Adelaide Convention Centre.

This year, the Fest kicks off on Friday 26 February and, as a sneak peek, a few of Adelaide’s food and wine lovers were treated to an urban cellar door tour.

The beauty of the Cellar Door Fest is that, in one weekend, you can (try to!) visit 180 wineries covering 15 of South Australia’s wine regions. Every year the Fest adapts and changes, and this year sees a strong focus on experiences. Alongside the masterclasses and long table lunches (an extended program) 2016 also sees the introduction of a beer garden. There’s a strong emphasis on food (especially cheese) so you’ll also be able to taste new products and chat to producers.

Charcuterie and cheese
Charcuterie and cheese by Bottega Rotolo

We started at Tidswell Wines, on Sydenham Road in Norwood. Tidswell’s vineyards are on the Limestone Coast and when they were planted in 1994 they were part of the Coonawarra. Unfortunately, when the Coonawarra GI was established in 2003 the vineyards fell outside the boundary. Today, Tidswell produces a range of red and white wines, all of which we could try (unfortunately I was driving – something of a fail for a cellar door tour). We also snacked on a lovely plate of charcuterie and cheese, provided by Bottega Rotolo.

Signature Wines
Lots of oohs and aahs when the door was thrown open to reveal the setting at Signature Wines

Next stop, and literally across the road, was Signature Wines. You’re unlikely to find Signature in a big bottle shop – Dan and Bec focus on on-trade sales, partnering with many of Australia’s top restaurants, as well as sales through the Norwood cellar door. Here we enjoyed a flight of four wines, accompanied by a pulled beef burger, put together by Jackie Singh of Ruby Spice.

Chocolate
Chocolate – from bean (far right), through nib, cocoa powder and finished products

Finally, we moved on to Tomich Wines‘ cellar door on King William Rd. We were greeted with more bubbles and wrapped up the evening hearing about chocolate. Marcus, from Stirling’s Red Cacao, took us through the chocolate production process and we enjoyed coffee and truffles (his raspberry ganache chocolate I HIGHLY recommend).

Throughout the evening we heard from people who have been involved in the Cellar Door Fest for many years. It’s easy to fall into the trap of assuming it’s all about wine but there is so much more on offer. And really – you can either take a week or two off work and spend a LOT of time driving, or … you can high-tail it to the Convention Centre and spend a couple of days checking out the best our state has to offer.

As something of a Cellar Door Fest veteran (I remember the very first one!) here are my four top tips:

1. Book online. Sure – you can buy your tickets at the door but you’ll save money and queuing time by booking online.

2. Get your timing right. That means – go early. The Friday evening session is usually quieter than the full weekend days so it’s a good option. If you are going on Saturday and/or Sunday – arrive early. As in, arrive when the doors open. There are fewer people so you’ll have the opportunity to talk to producers who aren’t faced with a phalanx of punters and who haven’t yet said the same thing over and over and over.

3. Make use of the pick ‘n pack service. THIS IS THE BEST THING EVER. Sure … you can pretend you’re not going to buy wine but you are and pick ‘n pack will look after your goodies and deliver them safely. Who’s to argue with a whopping 75% of last year’s Fest-goers?

4. LEAVE THE CAR AT HOME. This is a Cellar Door Fest and there’s never an excuse for drinking and driving. The Adelaide Convetion Centre is immediately adjacent to the train station and North Terrace is well served by buses and trams. There are also plenty of taxi ranks for the journey home.

Cellar Door Fest runs from 26-28 February at the Adelaide Convention Centre.

Christmas a la Malaysia

20151125_115637laksa poached prawns

Disclaimer: I was a guest at the event

A couple of weeks ago I headed to Sprout Cooking School for an event hosted by The Malaysian Trade Corporation.

Callum Hann and his team put together a three-course Christmas dinner but with a Malaysian twist. I arrived not really sure what to expect – we hadn’t been sent a sneak-peek menu and I wasn’t even sure if we’d be cooking ourselves (we weren’t).

What I didn’t realise before the event is that Christmas is a big deal in Malaysia. After all, Malaysia is both hot and steamy and its official religion is Sunni Islam. But talking to the Malaysians at the event, it turns out that the heat doesn’t put anyone off the idea of turning on their oven and roasting a turkey for Christmas Day. I was assured that Malaysian aircon is super-efficient!

The point of this lunch was to showcase Malaysian ingredients and techniques and how they could be incorporated into what many would consider a traditional Australian Christmas lunch. Everything was presented share-style and the table was soon laden with all sorts of goodies. We had Christmas-themed place settings, complete with crackers and before long everyone was reaching across the table to try something.

Seafood featured heavily – particularly for the first course. The laksa poached prawns were delicious and this is definitely not an idea you need to reserve just for Christmas. We also had kingfish sashimi and, of course, oysters.

20151125_123922potato salad

Main course featured a couple of standout dishes for me. The big one being the satay potato, spring onion and peanut salad. Potato salads can be very hit and miss. Invariably, at best they are pretty boring and at worst downright nasty. This was absolutely delicious and something I’ll have to look at replicating. Just for the surprise factor alone, I was happy to rate this my dish of the day.

20151125_123917tomato and snake bean salad

The tomato and snake bean salad with sesame and ginger dressing was also really popular, and the tamarind pork with a nasi lemak cucumber and mint salad also hit the spot. We also had szechuan pepper crusted duck and the showstopper was a glazed ham. But, in keeping with the theme, glazed with chilli, palm sugar and fish sauce.

20151125_124012glazed ham

For pudding, we had a Malaysian riff on a trifle containing mango, coconut, lychee, kaya (a kind of coconut jam) and macadamia nuts. Although it looked scarily sweet and rich it was actually a well balanced and light dessert.

20151125_133346mango and macadamia trifle

If you’re in South Australia and looking to source Malaysian ingredients you won’t be surprised to learn that the Central Market is your go-to destination – especially if you want to pick up anything slightly more obscure than satay sauce! However, it’s more than likely you’ll find a few bits and pieces in your local supermarket.

As our family’s supply of Christmas prawns has arrived, I hope to find the time to experiment with them in a laksa and maybe even perfect the satay sauce potato salad.

 

Sean’s Kitchen Turns One

20151020_131728Disclaimer: I was a guest at the lunch.

I’m quite surprised that Sean’s Kitchen, one of the Casino’s flagship restaurants, is just one. In a year which has been packed with restaurant and bar openings, Sean’s Kitchen has done a good job of keeping itself at the forefront of my consciousness. Remember those black burgers for Friday the 13th, a while back?

It is rather the story of my life at the moment that I seem to have not eaten at places and that’s certainly true of Sean’s Kitchen. It has moved up and down ‘the list’ and never quite percolated to the top.

Until last Tuesday, when I headed along to a lunch to help celebrate the restaurant’s birthday.

A small group of bloggers and media was hosted by both the Casino and Sean himself to a lunch which showcased some highlights from the new summer menu and concluded with an enormous birthday cake. If you have never thought of sponge, chocolate ganache, meringue, popcorn and salted caramel sauce … you should start thinking about it now.

Firstly – the drinks (even at lunch time a glass or two of good wine is essential). Very excitingly for the wine geeks out there, Sean’s has put on a dedicated ‘Rosé Repertoire’ list of rosés, available by the glass. The wines are predominantly dry (which can be an achievement in itself) and also interesting. I suspect that not only did someone have fun coming up with the list – patrons should have fun drinking it over summer. We started with a big platter of oysters which was quickly followed by a very comprehensive selection of the smaller plates available.

20151020_122307 The two absolute stand outs for me were the soft shell crab sandwich, served with green goddess dressing, and the crab salad with bloody mary vinaigrette. If you order this, you will need to ensure that you either have plenty of bread to mop up the vinaigrette or a spoon – otherwise you may feel compelled to slurp it from the bowl and that wouldn’t be a good look … 20151020_123559 New summer dishes include an heirloom tomato, strawberry and watermelon salad, dressed with pomegranate seeds and labne, and grilled peaches, served with mozzarella and pistachio pesto (another highlight for me). I also loved the grilled octopus salad, served with kipfler potatoes, olives, chilli and gremolata. Super simple but just wonderful. 20151020_130101

Having motored through all of this, I was starting to feel quite full … but saved some space for the birthday cake. The arrival of the cake was heralded by a Marilyn singing ‘Happy Birthday’ (apparently quite a while ago, Sean had asked for a Marilyn and then promptly forgotten about it …). Apparently the kitchen had been at full tilt producing ganache so that patrons throughout the day could all be treated to a piece of cake.

The combination of soft meringue and pop corn, with a dash of salted caramel sauce, was just delicious. You almost didn’t need cake too. Almost, but not quite!

At this point I had to leave but before I did, the barbecue short rib appeared from the kitchen. It’s a hefty share dish and looked delicious (and from all reports it tasted delicious too). I hope the remaining diners did it justice!

It might have been a Tuesday lunch but Sean’s Kitchen was almost full to capacity – no mean feat given that it is definitely at the pricier end of the Adelaide dining scale (main courses hover between $30 and $40).

It is great to see what we can now call an established venue that is thriving. Sometimes I think Adelaide’s dining scene is a little too flighty – always chasing the next trendy thing – but the success of Sean’s Kitchen shows that it is possible to survive and thrive beyond the 6 month mark.

Sean’s Kitchen
Station Road
Adelaide SA 5000
phone: 08 8218 4244

Sean's Kitchen Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato