Forage Cereal

- Alex Prichard Leave a comment

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Disclaimer: I was sent the cereal to road test. Check out the full range at foragecereal.com.

Once upon a time I used to make my own cereal. I actually found it a very quick process (I used bran flakes from a health food store as the base) and was able to customise it to my taste exactly. It wasn’t cheap and it obviously took more time than picking up a pack of something but after a good year or so of eating my own cereal it was really noticeable how sweet commercial cereals were.

The upshot of that is that I rarely eat commercial cereals now – the exception being the extremely low sugar offering my small child eats. So when the Forage PR team got in touch I almost turned down the offer of the cereal because I thought it would not be my thing at all. However, when I saw that the cereal was also gluten free I reconsidered my position (regular readers will know that a relative of mine is a coeliac).

Forage was developed by an Australian naturopath and chiropracter and now comes in four formats – the standard cereal, a bircher, a porridge and Forage Paleo. No matter how hippy or faddist that might sound, the products are based on the idea that they should be a good balance of protein, fat (good fat, of course!), fibre and carbohydrates.

The cereal’s ingredients are: almonds, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, dried cranberries, and puffed brown rice, quinoa, millet, amaranth and buckwheat. All the grains are organic. There’s no added sugar (perhaps that’s stating the obvious).

I have really enjoyed eating the cereal. I just plonk some standard cows milk on it and off I go – but those with a healthier bent could add an alternative milk, yoghurt or fruit. I like that it’s not overly sweet and I think the fact that it has some texture and you actually have to chew it is a good thing – far too much cereal turns to pap two seconds after you add milk.

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The recommend serve is 40g (see above for how much this is) which I didn’t find was enough to last me through til lunch. I ended up going for a whole cupful (closer to 100g) which did the job – this is obviously something you’ll need to experiment with yourself.

One word of warning though – if you’re not vigilant about ensuring the bag’s ziplock is well closed you’ll find that the cereal does go soft quite quickly. You can solve this by decanting the cereal into an air-tight plastic container when you open it (or by making sure you close it properly). While the cereal tastes fine if you do stuff up like this, it tastes better when it’s crispy!

All the products are widely available (and, of course, you can purchase on line) and while they’re not cheap (a 1kg bag of the cereal is around $30) you’ll be spending a lot less than heading out for a muffin and coffee every morning.

And it’s much better for you.

Zucca Greek Mezze, Glenelg

- Alex Prichard Leave a comment

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date of visit: Wednesday 17 September 2014

A few weeks ago now it transpired that a couple of my friends all had time off work – mid week, so we were able to pretend that we’re ladies who lunch. We decided to meet at the marina at Glenelg and, being a Wednesday lunch time, just try our luck.

There wasn’t too much umming and aahing until we settled on Zucca, Adam Swanson’s (he of San Remo pasta fame) Greek mezze restaurant. It turned out that I was the only one of us who had much experience of Greek food before so I was in charge of any menu interpretation that needed doing. Fortunately the menu is largely self explanatory and the staff at Zucca are reasonably attentive and more than capable of helping out.

After a bit of negotiation to suit tastes we decided on tzatziki and bread to start, followed by a large Greek salad, the SA calamari, the pork gyro (that’s a yiros) and the braised Clare Valley lamb. While we definitely had plenty of food, in hindsight I don’t think we did the best job of ordering dishes that really catered to everyone’s preferences. Which is a shame, because the menu at Zucca is quite extensive. There is really something for everyone, but I think the problem is that with mezze style dining you need to end up finding several things that suit everyone and that can be tricky.

The dip and bread was absolutely fine (there’s only so much you can say about tzatziki!) and was followed quickly by the main dishes. The calamari is simply floured and fried – so don’t be expecting anything like salt and pepper squid. The ‘condiments’ with which it is served are a cornichon, some tartare sauce and a wedge of lemon. The tartare sauce was actually pretty good and the squid was tender and not greasy (which, incidentally, is at polar odds with my mum’s experience of it here a year or so ago).

Greek salad is pretty hard to get excited about and I’m not sure about Zucca’s presentation where a slab of feta is placed on top of the salad. Great if you don’t like feta and want to eat around it but both a bit impractical and unattractive. The salad did get a tick from me for not being too heavily dressed.

The Clare Valley lamb with orzo and kefalotiri cheese was served on the bone so this also made sharing challenging. For me this was the most disappointing dish, as, even though the lamb was soft, I found it too heavy handed with the cinnamon.

Pork Gyro (Yiros)

The pork gyro was the stand out dish. Impressively plated up, it arrived at the table as a “build your own”, with salad, tzatziki, breads and even some crackling. Of the three main dishes we ordered this is the one I would order again. However, I did think it was a shame that when we ordered it wasn’t pointed out to us that the pork came with tzatziki as I felt we doubled up there and we might have ordered a different dip.

With only soft drinks ordered we spent in the region of $30 a head. I definitely had enough to eat and thought it was reasonable value, especially as mezze style eating can rack up in price quite quickly. The wine list offers a good selection of wines by the glass and a cross section of wines by the bottle, including some lesser known wines from Greece. Prices seem quite reasonable.

One thing I have noticed from online reviews (which, incidentally, are very uneven), which is not made clear on Zucca’s website, is that it does not seem to be particularly child friendly. If you do intend dining with a small person I recommend that you call ahead and check that it won’t cause problems.

While I left feeling reasonably happy, on reflection I’d best describe myself as ambivalent. I would go back again but it is not on the top of my list either. Zucca seems to trade a lot on position (stunning views of the sea or marina, anyone?) but my gut feeling is that it could try just a little harder.

Zucca
Shop 5, Marina Pier
Holdfast Shores
Glenelg SA 5045
phone: 08 8376 8222

Zucca Greek Mezze on Urbanspoon

Variety on King William Menu Launch

- Alex Prichard 1 Comment

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Disclaimer: I was a guest at the menu launch.

If you follow me on instagram (you can expect food, wine, cats and roses) you’ll have noticed that last Tuesday I was posting some very beautiful dishes … and that’s because I’d been invited along to the menu launch for this year’s Variety on King William lunch which is a regular feature in the Adelaide Fashion Festival. King William Road (KWR) itself turns into both fashion runway and restaurant as literally hundreds of people sit down to enjoy a fine dining experience. Not only do people get to be well fed and watered, but the feel good factor kicks in, as the event raises money for Variety, the Children’s Charity. This year the lunch is being held this Friday, 17 October.

The menu launch not only showed off the amazing food that will be on offer, but it also demonstrated how well traders in an area can work together and how much these kinds of collaborative efforts benefit everyone. When you’re turning out hundreds of plates of food, no one can afford to be precious, and staff from all the restaurants pitch in to ensure that the event runs smoothly.

Guests at the menu launch were given strict instructions to arrive promptly at Ichitaro Dining for a 1230 start – apparently cars would be waiting! I was a bit confused by this (after all – how long is King William Road?!) but Peugeot is one of the event’s major sponsors and had laid on cars to take us on the two longest hops of our prandial progress.

At Ichitaro, Akira greeted us with salmon rolls and Japanese style vegetable croquettes (yasai croquets). As all the wine sponsors were also being showcased, this was paired with the Totino Estate Cartia sparkling white. There were a few quick photo opps and the final guest arrived and we jumped in the Peugeots to head to Bottega Rotolo.

I haven’t been to Bottega Rotolo’s year old KWR store before – but my goodness – it is very impressive. Very bright and modern, well stocked with all sorts of goodies and a very impressive cheese display. Here we were treated to more canapés: saffron and leek tartlets with a truffle ‘caviar’ (created by that now almost stalwart of molecular gastronomy techniques, spherification) and anchovies with sun dried tomatoes and Grok (Grana Padano which has been oven baked and turns into crispy intensely flavoured cheesy crumbles – it’s very very good!).

The leek and saffron tarts were absolutely delicious. The pastry was light and crisp, the filling soft with a cleverly balanced depth of flavour added by the saffron and the earthiness from the truffle. I think everyone was oohing and aahing about these.

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These were both paired with Fox Gordon’s Pinot Grigio. As I was driving, I was holding off on wine tasting but I can tell you that the wine has a very pretty pink blush to it.

We then walked up to Faraja (where I’ve previously enjoyed a very good lunch) for the first of the two main courses (that’s right – guests enjoy two main courses at this lunch so wear something comfortable as well as stylish!).

This was barramundi cooked in a banana leaf and served with a remoulade and salsa – and it was paired with a Tomich Hill Sauvignon Blanc. This is a smart dish when catering for large numbers as the parcels can be prepared in advance and cooking fish en papillote is forgiving. My fish was absolutely perfect: moist and full of flavour.

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Already feeling rather full, we were picked up by our Peugeot cars (by this stage we were all thinking we could get used to this …) and taken down to Parisi’s for the second main course and the desserts. Here we enjoyed fillet steak with a light apple and rocket salad. This was beautifully presented and it seemed something of a shame to tuck in but … tuck in we did. This was paired with the Wicks Estate Shiraz.

This was a really smartly sized dish – the piece of fillet steak was generous in size but the salad was smaller and very light and refreshing. The steak was cooked heading towards medium which did generate some discussion. Cooking steak for hundreds of people must be an utterly thankless task – even at our table of 15-20 people there was no consensus on what would be right or appropriate so my hat is well and truly off to the kitchen at Parisi’s for taking this on. While the steak was over done for me (but I do rather like my steak warm all the way through but still jelly like in the middle) I do think that how it’s been cooked will not rock too many boats. Good luck for the event!

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We wrapped up by sampling both desserts that will be on offer. At the event, it will be an alternate drop, but for the sake of completeness, we got to try both. By Blackbird’s little green dome (something I would never have tried had I walked into the café) was a mint and vanilla tart on a poppy seed base with a basil and lime gel. It was lovely – the tart filling was very light, the gel not at all tough and the biscuit base was crisp. I’m probably the last person in Adelaide to have not been to By Blackbird but it’s now definitely on my to-do list.

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The final dessert came from Mulot’s: a berry chiboust with strawberries, raspberries and blueberries served with a raspberry coulis.

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The two desserts are paired with sparkling wines from Tomich Hill and Wicks Estate. For those of us driving (rather than drinking – that would have been me!), we enjoyed coffees from Cotto Espresso.

This was a really well put together event that did a brilliant job of not only promoting the Variety on King William lunch but also showcasing some of King William Road’s restaurants. It reminded me that really I need to make an effort to head that way a little more often.

Tickets for Variety on King William cost $140 a head ($1400 for a table of 10) and can be purchased online. The lunch kicks off at midday on Friday 17 October (and finishes at 3:30pm) – and if you can’t make the lunch you can still support both Variety and KWR by checking out the fashion show or having a coffee or lunch at another venue on KWR. While part of the street is closed to traffic all the shops will be open and Parisi’s will be hosting the ‘after party’ from 4pm.