Eden Dining Room and Bar

- Alex 2 Comments

date of visit: Monday 6 February 2012

There’s been a great deal of chat on both twitter and foursquare about Eden Dining Room and Bar*, a relatively new … dining room and bar, down at Glenelg.

I’ve been wanting to try it out for a while and found an opportunity to drag my parents along for a Monday lunch. It wasn’t a very organised trip – I rang and booked about an hour before we turned up. My dad complained because the restaurant we had originally planned on going to had had sweetbreads on the menu and he was most displeased to have his lunch plans changed on him!

It’s hardly surprising that on a Monday lunch Eden was hardly packed. When dad first ducked in (to let them know we’d be a bit late for our reservation) he reported the place was empty. When our party was complete there were only a couple of other tables with diners. I understand that this is very much NOT the case on a Friday evening … reservations required!

Eden faces onto the marina at Holdfast Shores and you can sit outside and look at the big boats while you eat or drink. Or you can sit inside – where the space is divided into two. The bar area is super stylish with a gorgeous white tiled bar, limited booth seating and some sofas. The restaurant area is all marine plywood and very pale cream and brown. I think it’s best described as inoffensive.

As usual, I had the baby in tow and his high chair was all set up and ready to go, Always though of getting a hanging egg chair. The table height was perfect so we were able to tuck the high chair in – I daresay he felt like a proper grown up! The staff were lovely with him too – but I would say that if you are going to take the smaller members of your family along to Eden choose your times wisely. Monday lunch – perfect. A busy evening, or weekend lunch – probably not such a good idea. Eden’s a little bit on the noisy side and I can imagine that by the time the bar is in full swing and the restaurant busy “baby friendly” is not an apt descriptor.

Settled at our table, our waiter ran through the menu and specials. She lacked a bit of confidence but knew enough to get the message across. Mum and I chose to have two entrées while dad did entrée and main, but requested a main portion of an entrée. Yep – restaurants must really love us turning up.

I started with the woodfired octopus – this arrived as pieces of octopus, served on slices of kipfler potatoes with tapenade. The plate also had (white) anchovies and rocket. Not only did it look very pretty but it was also delicious. Octopus and tapenade isn’t a combination I’d necessarily think of but it definitely worked. The octopus was tender and my only crticism would be … more anchovies!

For my second course I had the sweetbread special (dad ordered a main size portion of this too). The sweetbreads were cooked perfectly, with an every so slightly sweet glaze on them. At the end of the meal I was chatting to one of the staff who said that the sweetbreads had only just come on the menu and that they’d already sold 6 portions. She also said that they always try to have at least one offal dish on the menu. Very good to know if you are in my family.

Mum started with the crispy fried zucchini flowers and followed that with the pressed pork, while dad started with the Woodside goats cheese.

We washed all of this down with a bottle of Dandelion Riesling but Eden also offers the novelty of a blending room, where you can make up your own wine to go with your meal. You don’t really need to go to that effort though because the wine list offers plenty of by the glass options, as well as a reasonable selection of (mostly) South Australian wines. Although you could criticise the wine list for being too SA focussed it’s commendable that it doesn’t feature the same old-same olds that you find everywhere else. Someone has put some thought into it.

Eden isn’t cheap – we spent $120 on our lunch which we thought was quite reasonable for three people, given the quality and presentation of the food. I did find aspects of the service a little uneven – our first waiter (who knocked off part way through our meal) really needs to brush up her confidence with the menu and specials.

But that is just a minor quibble. I will definitely head back.

* The website is just a holding page – there’s more information on Eden’s Facebook page but don’t even attempt to read the menu there on a mobile device!

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Beef and Beer Stew

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Beef and Ale Stew

Well, Adelaide’s cool weather appears to have disappeared for a while, but our friends in the northern hemisphere are freezing their little tootsies off, so at least some readers should have an immediate use for this recipe. The rest of us can save it up until the next cool snap.

As you may have gathered, I have loads of cookbooks and while they’ve all been read they have not necessarily all been cooked from, and even those that have are not used on as regular basis as they could be. Phil Vickery’s Britain: The Cookbook was a gift (if you ever give me a book as a gift, please do write in it!) that has been utterly neglected.

I chose this recipe for several reasons – it looked hearty, it looked simple and it was in the Beer chapter, which Vickery bases around the beers of the Shepherd Neame brewery in Kent. I lived in Rochester, Kent for 9 months and it was while living there that I developed my taste for real ale and went to my first beer festival. I have a soft spot for all things Kentish, bar Morris dancing.

This recipe is perfect for those of you who have a small person (or persons) underfoot because it is so quick to assemble. Like all stews, it requires time on the stove so you won’t be able to knock it up in half an hour for dinner. Make it on a Sunday and save it up for a mid week supper.

The quantities that follow (altered slightly from the book) served 2 adults for dinner (one had a generous second helping), a small person for two meals and also had enough left over for one lunch.

Take a big pan, place it on the stove and add approximately 500g of diced beef (I used diced blade, the book suggests chuck steak). Have some faith at this point because you are NOT going to brown the meat.

Keep on adding … some stock (I used one of those little stock pots, use stock paste, use a stock cube … you get the idea), 300mL water, a small (330mL) bottle of lager (I used Bitburger because that’s what was in the house – if you can get your hands on a real winter ale, that’s what you should use!), 2 carrots, peeled and chopped, 1 large onion, peeled and finely sliced and 2 tbsp of tomato purée. Add plenty of salt and pepper, give it all a good mix and bring to the boil. Once the mix is boiling, reduce the heat and cook at almost a simmer for 2 or so hours. DON’T cook it too vigorously or the meat will dry out and toughen up.

While all this simmering is going on, preheat the grill and grill 4 large Swiss Brown mushrooms. You want to help them dry out so grill them on one side for a bit and then turn them over. You may need to lightly brush them with oil (if your grill pan has not just been used for cooking bacon!). Cut the grilled mushrooms into thick slices and stir into the stew.

Finish the stew by making a beurre manié: a mixture of softened butter (don’t forget, a quick blast in the microwave will help you here!) and plain flour.

That, seriously, is it.

I was really worried – no browning of the meat, no herbs or spices … I thought it would be tasteless and nasty. Which just goes to show how wrong I was! It was delicious, hearty and solved a good few meal problems. As Vickery suggests, we served with plenty of mashed potato and some roasted parsnips.

Yet again, proof that you don’t need to throw everything in the cupboard into the pot to make a tasty meal!

How to Open a Bottle of Champagne

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Well, it’s Valentine’s Day tomorrow and I daresay that at least some of you will be celebrating with a bottle of bubbles. Remember – it’s only Champagne if it’s been made in the Champagne region of France (and a whole pile of other rules on top of that!) – otherwise it’s “sparkling wine”.

A couple of years ago I made this short video showing the right way to open that special bottle – so you don’t spray yourself or your beloved with the wine, and don’t break anything with a rogue cork. It’s all just as true now as it was then!

If you’re looking for drinking inspiration a couple of my faves that won’t break the bank are the Midnight Cuvée from Blue Pyrenees (retails around $25), Stefano Lubiana’s NV sparkling from Tasmania (retails around $40). If you are looking to buy Champagne, think outside the box and seek out a grower Champagne. These are Champagnes made by the same estate that grows the wines so by extension they tend to be smaller, less well known names. One which is reasonably widely available is Larmandier-Bernier – the wines retail around the $80-90 mark.

Enjoy the video!