Ignite Unley – Craft Brewery Afternoon

February 27, 2014April 1, 2015 - Alex Prichard 1 Comment

fun in the sun in Unley

date of event: Saturday 22 February 2014

I honestly can’t remember which of the many emails that rest briefly in my inbox informed me that there was a craft brewery afternoon coming up in Unley. It was obviously one that I read though!

Ignite Unley has actually been a council of programme of summer events, each with a different theme and each free. The events started back in November so I appreciate that I’m very much behind the curve here.

It happened that on Saturday (the ‘craft beer’ themed day) we needed to be out and about anyway, so timing things to drop in and see what it was about was almost no effort at all. The events are held at the Soldiers Memorial Gardens, on the corner of Thomas Street and Unley Road (next door to the shopping centre that is opposite the Town Hall).

We arrived shortly before the 4pm kick off but the market stalls were all set up, a ‘drinking’ area (complete with security guards!) was cordoned off and music was playing. There were plenty of games and toys and tunnels and tents for little people and, while there might not have been quite enough chairs in the bar area initially, staff were on hand to sort this out.

The breweries that had set up shop were Gulf Brewery (based in Hahndorf), Prancing Pony (one of my favourites, based in Mount Barker), Birbeck’s and Barossa Valley Brewing, showcasing a range of beers and ciders. Birbeck’s Captain is very popular with me – if it weren’t quite so fizzy and served quite so cold it would almost qualify as a good session ale. It’s also very low in alcohol so it was perfect for anyone driving on the day.

Birbeck’s Captain takes centre stage

As we were heading out for a curry (more on that later) we didn’t sample of any of the food on offer – but the toddler made good use of the play equipment (if you’ve never seen a three year old try to play badminton you should probably put it on your bucket list!) and we enjoyed sitting in the gardens and trying some new beers (well, that was Andy!).

It was a great use of public space and a really family friendly event. It would be lovely to see more councils put on events like this over the summer months: they’re a good way of fostering community spirit and a really obvious way for the council to participate in the lives of its ratepayers.*

The next Ignite Unley event is on Saturday 8 March – no food theme, but with a garden cinema from sunset. However, the Adelaide Fringe sees the same gardens host the Double Shot Unley Coffee Fiesta on Sunday 16 March (10am – 4pm) and on Saturday 5 April Ignite returns with wine and cheese.

I’d recommend checking out these events for yourself – even if you don’t live in the Unley area, the more successful they are, the more likely your own council will pick up on the idea!

*I’m aware our council rates pay for mundane, but very important, things like rubbish removal. But seeing the money putting fun things in action is always good too!

[CLOSED] WIN CS Kochsysteme Induction Pans

February 24, 2014March 19, 2014 - Alex Prichard 40 Comments

Disclaimer: Crest Electronics supplied both the prize for this competition and a set of pans for me to try.

A couple of weeks ago I was discussing this post and giveaway with a food blogging friend. I was excited about both the product and the giveaway and she expressed some reservations about whether or not she’d be able to get excited about some pans.

Exhibit 1: some of the pans (now consigned to the bin) that I’ve been cooking with over the last 10 or so years.

I am the kitchen gadget queen and I have lots of beautiful and shiny kitchenware. And I also have a lot of really knackered kitchenware. The grey pan in the photo above: purchased in 2001 from a cheap supermarket in the UK by a student housemate. Its non-stick surface has well and truly disappeared. The 70s retro pan? One (of a set of three!) that Andy’s mum purchased for him from a car boot sale prior to heading to uni. I have bought the odd pan over time but often I’ve been paralysed by the choice, the range of sizes and my lack of research has always meant I’ve spent less than I should.

So when the email arrived asking if I’m interested in reviewing … AND GIVING AWAY … the CS-Kochsysteme pans which are new to Australia (and being sold by The Good Guys) it was something of a no brainer. One of the big selling points of this cookware is that its induction hob friendly (something my knackered aluminium pans most definitely wouldn’t have been!) but it does, naturally, work on other cooking surfaces. In my case (a ceramic electric hob) which is critical is flat bottomed cookware that won’t warp. Trust me – even these days it’s possible to buy stuff that is either not flat to start with or doesn’t stay flat for long.

I was sent the Vision 5-piece set (and you can win one … keep on reading) which retails for $199. This set consists of a 7 litre stockpot with lid, a 1 litre saucepan with strainer lid and a 20cm deep non stick frying pan. The pans are all beautiful: I’m a sucker for a brushed stainless steel finish and I consider glass lids (with steam holes) an absolute essential – I’ve never understood why someone would NOT want to see in the pan!

The saucepan has pouring lips on both sides making it suitable for left or right handed cooks and the strainer lid is, frankly, an excellent idea. Cooking pasta for one in this pan, the strainer lid meant that I didn’t have to dirty a colander in order to drain my pasta. Simply swivel the lid to line up the coarse holes with the lip and pour the water out – job done. I don’t think I’ve seen this on saucepan before and now that I have, I find it remarkable that it’s not more widespread.

The stockpot has so far been used for cooking pasta. I like to use a generous amount of water and the stockpot is a lovely change from the small 70s pan! I think it would handle pasta for up to about 4 quite comfortably. I’ve also made a curry (recipe to come) and a bolognese sauce in the stockpot. It gets a HUGE tick from me for being big enough to cook generous quantities in while still fitting in the dishwasher.

The frying pan, with its lovely high sides, is perfect for cooking small stirfries or scrambled eggs for two. I imagine it would also be very good for risotto (having a greater surface area means the rice will cook more quickly) and, if you ever need a bit of quick deep frying, I think this frying pan would come to your rescue.

As someone who agonises over pan buying, I’m quite happy to say that these are quality products and that the set is well thought it. It would be a generous gift for someone who was just moving out of home and is a great options for couples looking to upgrade some knackered cookware.

And the best part? Well, you can win your own set of CS Kochsysteme cookware. All you have to do is like the Eating Adelaide Facebook page and (optionally – but it is an extra entry) share the competition post that’s pinned to the top. Just make sure you fill in the form below.

This competition is only open to Australian residents and I will verify entries. I’ll email the winner who will have 48 hours to get in touch before I redraw.

Best of luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Gin Long Canteen

February 17, 2014September 11, 2021 - Alex Prichard 2 Comments

amazing sambal noodles

date of visit: Wednesday 12 February 2014

Last week, Tara, of Sydney-based food blog VegeTARAian, was in Adelaide so a few blogging types headed out to Gin Long Canteen in North Adelaide for dinner and a catch up (and, in my case, to actually meet Tara for the first time).

Wednesday was a stupidly hot 40-something degree day and by the time I arrived at Gin Long all I was really interested in was a cold beer (or two). Hot weather tends of destroy my appetite, so food-wise I wasn’t feeling picky (not that I ever am). There were six of us at dinner (the minimum number Gin Long will allow you to book for) and our table was reserved for 6pm (again, Gin Long will only allow you to book for either 6 or 8pm). Even at that early time, Gin Long was busy although not at capacity – by the time we left at 8pm the restaurant was well and truly packed. And on a Wednesday night – not a bad effort at all. I would say – don’t go without booking, but …

Gin Long has been a hot venue since opening and, in recent weeks, with the arrival of Nu Suandokmai, straight from the CBD’s Golden Boy, it has become even hotter. The fact that Suandokmai isn’t planning on being in the kitchen long term (the media is suggesting he’ll be opening his own venue at some point) I think adds to the general excitement.

Seated at our table (having been informed we’d be leaving by 8!) and beers in hand, we turned our attention to the menu. With one vegetarian and one vegan at the table we ordered the banquet ($39 per head, minimum of four people) but also ensured that they would be well catered for.

‘very exciting’: beautiful flavours

Food started arriving quickly. First up the “very exciting” beef salad. This was a light, Thai style beef salad laced with fresh mint. Flavour wise it was excellent but I managed to get a piece of beef that was laden with gristle (and which I had to extract from my mouth most inelegantly!) so that suggests that there’s some room for improvement in the attention to detail department. We also had sugar cane prawns, netted spring rolls (which I didn’t try) and the Malay curry puffs. These curry puffs easily, at this point, the best thing on the table. Crisp pastry, not greasy, a light filling which packed in plenty of curry leaf flavour – I would have been happy to sit down with a huge plate of just these.

Malay curry puffs: amazing!

Entrées over, our main courses started coming out. I didn’t try some of the vegetarian dishes, such as the chargrilled tofu or the Vietnamese coleslaw, but I did put in a solid effort sampling the rest of the spread. The tamarind prawns didn’t really work for me (and be warned, as they are served with their shells on): there just wasn’t enough complexity of flavour. The braised pork belly was delicious but the star dish was the sambal thin egg noodle. This was a hearty dish with a good whack of chilli spice and topped with an egg. Noodles are one those dishes which can be so one dimensional and almost bland (yes, throwing chilli at something doesn’t necessarily give it flavour) but not these noodles. Plenty of flavour, plenty of heat and plenty of moreishness.

I suspect that some of the dishes may have been a little on the salty side – it wasn’t something I noticed at the time but later on I did have the tell tale slightly dry mouth, slightly thirsty sensation I always experience after eating salty food. But maybe I also just ate too many noodles …

By this time, it was almost 8pm and we were getting a bit nervous about what would happen with dessert. So we asked. “Oh”, said our waitress, “I always feel really bad about this, because people always ask and there is no dessert included”. You would imagine that at this point, we might have been offered the dessert menu … but no. Perhaps it was just too close to 8pm.

I enjoyed the food and thought that it was reasonable value for money. However, I really dislike restaurants with overly complicated booking policies. Part of me understands why restaurateurs make these decisions but, for the punter, they are really too often an inconvenience. The service at Gin Long was erratic: while our orders were taken quickly and food was served quickly, neglecting to tell us the banquet didn’t include dessert (especially when it seems to be a very common query) was an unfortunate oversight. After our food was all served, we were then forgotten about so getting the bill proved to be a lengthy exercise (one of our party has been a few times and says this has happened every single time).

Although Gin Long Canteen has a very funky interior, it suffers from an excess of hard surfaces and, at times during our meal, the music seemed particularly intrusive. And while I’m prepared to concede that I am particularly old-fogey-ish in this respect other people also felt the same way.

My final gripe? The staff need to be identifiable as staff. There was a real mish-mash of attire: Converse trainers mixed with VERY LOUD wedges, outfits dominated by fluorescent colours, and rather too many hot-pants edged with lace (I realise that for some people this may be a plus …).

If you can’t tell, I left Gin Long with very mixed feelings. I’m not sure I’ll be back in a hurry. The food makes it definitely worth a visit, but unless you’re a bona fide hipster you might leave feeling a little less than cool …

Gin Long Canteen
42 O’Connell Street
North Adelaide SA 5006
phone: 08 7120 2897