Montezuma’s (Melbourne St, North Adelaide)
Meh. Okay if you like the same ten or so ingredients recombined fifty different ways. Standard stuff including tacos, nachos and chill con carne but also some wacky entries like the dubious sounding garlic prawn nachos. There are better places to eat round there.
Curry Chongs (Food Court, Central Market, Adelaide)
Still doing the best damn chicken curry in this town, and at a ridiculously cheap price. You can eat in the food court and sympathize with fellow Chong customers as your stomach slowly fills to bursting point as a result of being given a platter sized portion of delicious rice, curry and veggies from only $6.50. The Laksa House two stalls down also rates a mention here, as does the Vietnamese stall near the entrance with their made to order cold rolls, and the ever popular Ricky’s Chicken Rice. Not sure what’s in that green sauce they serve but damn, it’s good.
Goodlife Organic Pizza (170 Hutt St, Adelaide)
If you haven’t been here yet, do it. I went to a birthday dinner here the other day and our ‘private function room’ was the garden shed, whitewashed and complete with tealights and music from speakers on the walls. Now that’s atmosphere. Not only do they serve my favourite wine, the hard-to-find Rockford Alicante Bouchet, but the swiss brown mushroom pizza with garlic aioli ($14.50/21.90) is bloody amazing. Everything is organic and local and there is just no comparison. How people should eat.
Bazu (39 Gouger St, Adelaide)
Fuck yes, hot pot! Get excited because this Schezuan restaurant serves one of the world’s greatest interactive meals. The hot pot involves cooking your own food, morsel by morsel, right at your table in a steaming vat of aromatic broth. Take the checklist and choose between paper thin slices of lamb or beef, pork dumplings, fresh tofu, Chinese spinach, bean vermicelli and seafood. Get some sesame garlic sauce for the side and you’re ready for action. Chuck in anything or everything and wait for the magic to happen. Then, as each spinach leaf is steamed, dumpling stewed and tofu slice tender, it’s your job to locate the ladle (which has often slipped unnoticed to the bottom of the broth, thereby requiring excellent chopstick skills to retrieve it) and remove the morsels as they become ready and whack em in your chops. You’ll find Bazu upstairs between the Buddha Bar and Cibo. I’ll probably be there too.
Wild Thyme Organic Market & Café (Melbourne St, North Adelaide)
The way the world is heading. These guys have the right idea with their café shop front and organic supermarket out the back, where you can buy all the ingredients of the quinoa salad or organic chicken ceasar wrap you just ate. That said, it’s surprising to see so many brands and products there that I already buy, so clearly everyone’s jumping on this bandwagon into the organic, free range, free trade products. You can takeaway or eat in, and they also do awesome coffee. Like a younger, more environmentally and socially conscious version of The Store. Lots of young trendies spotted here recently.
Tuesday, 13 May 2008
Monday, 12 May 2008
Hannah’s Top 5 Interactive Foods ... Because we all like to play with our food.
1. Steamboat.
Steamboat is a dish originating in China, and involves cooking ingredients at the table in a communal pot of boiling broth. It has the magical ability to not only keep one entertained for hours but also provide a delicious and healthy meal. See my review of Bazu restaurant also in this edition for more details.
2. Vietnamese Cold Rolls
Get some round rice paper wrappers from your local Asian grocer. Finely slice up some cooked meat and veggies, pick some fresh mint and coriander, peel some prawns and then wrap a bit of everything up together with some chopped peanuts and rice vermicelli. Use hoisin as a dipping sauce. Fresh and nutritious, although it takes some practice to roll them up without mini disasters occurring, and you’re going to want to learn how to dip the rice paper in hot water for just the right amount of time so it neither cracks nor disintegrates when you roll them up.
3. Crustaceans
There’s nothing quite as satisfying as peeling a fat fresh prawn, or cracking a juicy crab claw open. When I lived in Barcelona I would regularly visit the famous La Boqueria food market to choose live seafood off counters lined a foot deep with crushed ice. Massive crabs and lobsters still waving their arms never made it home with me to my student budget but the prawns got their revenge in what I can only describe as ‘the accident’ one night at a restaurant at the Port. In Adelaide, head to the Central Market to find yourself some nice ones and don’t forget to buy a lemon.
4. Fondue
Be it chocolate or cheese, it’s the same principle. You’re going to melt it down, add some booze and then dip things into it, all at the table. For the cheese fondue, get a couple of different kinds of cheese (the traditional ones are raclette and gruyere), some white wine, a splash of cherry brandy (Kirsch) and some garlic. Rub the garlic around the inside of the fondue pot, then melt down the grated cheese and the alcohol. You can add spices such as nutmeg too, then serve it up with a couple of crusty French sticks. Chocolate fondue is simpler – just add liqueur, cream or both to your fondue pot along with the grated chocolate and make sure there’s plenty of fruit, nuts or biscuits to dip. Skewers are a necessary evil for both.
5. Toasted marshmallows
Hot coals, stick, marshmallows. No further explanation needed. Not strictly only for campfires, either. One night at the Grace Emily Hotel I had gotten through quite a few Frangelicos when I suddenly ran round the corner to the servo, returning with a large bag of Pascalls and a couple of sticks cracked off a nearby tree. I spent the rest of the night happily taking orders from patrons for marshmallows toasted to their desired crispiness. I believe the fun ended when we ran out of marshmallows and I tried to toast a beer instead. Try it in your fireplace, over the barbeque, or on the beach. Not during fire ban season though.
Steamboat is a dish originating in China, and involves cooking ingredients at the table in a communal pot of boiling broth. It has the magical ability to not only keep one entertained for hours but also provide a delicious and healthy meal. See my review of Bazu restaurant also in this edition for more details.
2. Vietnamese Cold Rolls
Get some round rice paper wrappers from your local Asian grocer. Finely slice up some cooked meat and veggies, pick some fresh mint and coriander, peel some prawns and then wrap a bit of everything up together with some chopped peanuts and rice vermicelli. Use hoisin as a dipping sauce. Fresh and nutritious, although it takes some practice to roll them up without mini disasters occurring, and you’re going to want to learn how to dip the rice paper in hot water for just the right amount of time so it neither cracks nor disintegrates when you roll them up.
3. Crustaceans
There’s nothing quite as satisfying as peeling a fat fresh prawn, or cracking a juicy crab claw open. When I lived in Barcelona I would regularly visit the famous La Boqueria food market to choose live seafood off counters lined a foot deep with crushed ice. Massive crabs and lobsters still waving their arms never made it home with me to my student budget but the prawns got their revenge in what I can only describe as ‘the accident’ one night at a restaurant at the Port. In Adelaide, head to the Central Market to find yourself some nice ones and don’t forget to buy a lemon.
4. Fondue
Be it chocolate or cheese, it’s the same principle. You’re going to melt it down, add some booze and then dip things into it, all at the table. For the cheese fondue, get a couple of different kinds of cheese (the traditional ones are raclette and gruyere), some white wine, a splash of cherry brandy (Kirsch) and some garlic. Rub the garlic around the inside of the fondue pot, then melt down the grated cheese and the alcohol. You can add spices such as nutmeg too, then serve it up with a couple of crusty French sticks. Chocolate fondue is simpler – just add liqueur, cream or both to your fondue pot along with the grated chocolate and make sure there’s plenty of fruit, nuts or biscuits to dip. Skewers are a necessary evil for both.
5. Toasted marshmallows
Hot coals, stick, marshmallows. No further explanation needed. Not strictly only for campfires, either. One night at the Grace Emily Hotel I had gotten through quite a few Frangelicos when I suddenly ran round the corner to the servo, returning with a large bag of Pascalls and a couple of sticks cracked off a nearby tree. I spent the rest of the night happily taking orders from patrons for marshmallows toasted to their desired crispiness. I believe the fun ended when we ran out of marshmallows and I tried to toast a beer instead. Try it in your fireplace, over the barbeque, or on the beach. Not during fire ban season though.
Monday, 5 May 2008
Come all Ye Faithful
The Unibar has been reborn this year amid controversy, uncertainty and death threats, but who’s actually running the joint now, and more importantly, where the f#@% are the wedges? Hannah Frank reports.
Last year before the Adelaide University Union handed its commercial operations over to the University, the President at the time, David Wilkins, began receiving threatening anonymous phone calls, warning him that there would be trouble if the Board of Directors were to give up the Unibar.
Fast forward a few months and the doors still open every day at 12pm sharp; beer is still $4.50 a pint and there are familiar faces pouring the pints. Meanwhile, the Adelaide University Union is getting on with its core mission of promoting student life on campus without the threat of bankruptcy.
The new owner of the Unibar is actually the University itself, and they’re also running the Mayo and other campus cafes through the catering department of the National Wine Centre.
Steering the ship is new bar manager Alan, and the bar supervisor Ash, whose controlled chaos approach so far seems to be winning over suspicious student groups and regulars who have cautiously begun returning to see what the deal is with the relaunched venue – but not everyone is happy with the changes.
There are hate groups on Facebook denouncing the new bar, and everything from the salad to the setup to the brands of beer have come under fire. So what are the new managers going to do with our bar?
“We’re here to make sure students are happy” says Alan. “We want them to feel that this is their bar”. The Unibar has already sponsored ten clubs and societies on campus this year, giving them drinks specials and discounts in order to encourage them to come in after meetings and for special events. The biggest so far has been the AUES pub crawl, which packed out the venue with yellow clad engineers clamoring to claim their free tequila shot, paid for by the bar.
But there are bigger plans, too. “We want to bring things to the Unibar no one has ever seen before” says Ash. “We’re going to have rodeo nights where you can ride a bull.”
It’s but one of many plans to make the Unibar bigger and better and more inclusive than ever – others include the Clubs Association Cup, a year-long tournament of ten competitions culminating in a karaoke grand final, as well as a newly installed cocktail bar, novelty drinks, a wider selection of wine and imported beers, and ongoing pool competitions.
But while this all sounds great in planning, do these two have the skills to pull it off? Only time will tell. Alan has just returned from the UK where he spent five years running student bars around Oxford.
Ash began his hospitality career as a kitchen hand in the Whitsundays and worked his way up through positions at the Seacliff Beach Hotel and the Hilton International in Adelaide as well as cocktail bars at the ski resorts of Thredbo and Mt Buller. His new position of bar supervisor at the Unibar is just the next step; “I wanted to get into the management side of things”.
For Alan, coming back to Adelaide Uni is a bit of a homecoming; “I did my honours in philosophy here. It was about the morality of war and we were going to Afghanistan at the time so it was very topical”.
Hospitality background aside, there is a certain comic disparity between the two. Alan likes pubs; Ash likes clubs. Alan would rather listen to a live band while Ash would cut up the dance floor with a DJ. Alan smokes; Ash doesn’t.
For all their differences though, it seems to work in the anarchic environment. Alan prefers early mornings and works during the day, while Ash prefers late nights and takes the late shift every night. Ash is keen to get more live DJs into the Unibar, while Alan wants to make sure local talent has a place to do their fledging gigs.
There is one thing they have in common though; having worked in hospitality for years, it is safe to assume that these boys like a drink. Alan says his usual drinks of choice are Coopers Pale, a good glass of wine or a ‘Russian Monk’, which is made of vodka, Frangelico, milk and cream with a dash of cinnamon or nutmeg on top.
“Believe it or not” confesses Ash when I ask him about his favoruites, “but for me, it’s scotch, scotch, and more scotch”. Realizing that this perhaps doesn’t quite add up with his cocktail obsession, he offers; “For me, the enjoyment in making cocktails is seeing the person smile when they take a sip. Believe it or not, there are actually more ingredients you can use to make a cocktail than a chef could use to cook.”
I don’t believe him, but at the same time, I’ve tasted his drinks and they are pretty damn good. We’re just waiting on some more equipment, he says, before a fully equipped cocktail section is operation in the Unibar.
Throughout the interview, there have been constant interruptions; suppliers calling about the next promotion; student groups want to know what their drinks specials are; and bar staff needing to go on breaks. At about the seventh knock of the door I see the usually calm Ash snap; the place he ordered lunch from got his order wrong. He throws the bag down on the desk, with an exasperated look. “Can’t they get anything right?”.
Getting it right is what it’s all about, and the new managers are acutely aware of the need to widen the appeal of the Unibar from recent years. “We’re trying to bring the reputation back to the Unibar as a live venue and to make it a place where people can go for a good night out, not just a place to go for a drink after a lecture” Alan explains.
So now comes the test of the Unibar fanatic; what do Alan and Ash think of The Guru? “You mean the dude out there?” asks Ash, and I nod. “Yeah, it’s like a culture sort of thing”. Well, yes. The Guru, for those who haven’t heard the legend, is a portrait of a man sitting partly submerged in a deck chair, encased in a wife beater, with a few stubbie cans floating about. Its removal a few years ago prompted an engineer called Bill Fuller to run a “Save the Guru” pub crawl and the painting was reinstated to its place on the back wall.
“I like the Guru.” says Alan. “In fact. after six weeks I couldn’t imagine not having him here. When I come in the morning at 9am I grab a coffee, light up a cigarette – outside – and on my way I walk past The Guru. I look up at him, he looks down at me and together we get ready for a big day.”
Touching as this newly formed friendship is, I am keen to point out that the most pressing issue is still unresolved. Repeating my demand for answers, Alan leans back in his chair and pauses for a moment. “The wedges” he says “are in planning. When we got here the kitchen wasn’t what we considered standard for this sort of food, so for now we’re just waiting to see how things go. Baby steps.”
Wrapping up the interview, I ask them if there is anything else they want to add. “I suppose we just want people to know that we’re young – well, Ash is young – and that we want it to be a fun place to be. We’re willing to take ideas and turn this into a place where everybody on campus can go.”
The Unibar is open from 12pm weekdays, and is located on Level 5, Union House on the North Terrace Campus of the University of Adelaide.
Disclosure: The author was a Board Director of the AUU in 2007. Minutes of meetings held are available from AUU Reception.
Last year before the Adelaide University Union handed its commercial operations over to the University, the President at the time, David Wilkins, began receiving threatening anonymous phone calls, warning him that there would be trouble if the Board of Directors were to give up the Unibar.
Fast forward a few months and the doors still open every day at 12pm sharp; beer is still $4.50 a pint and there are familiar faces pouring the pints. Meanwhile, the Adelaide University Union is getting on with its core mission of promoting student life on campus without the threat of bankruptcy.
The new owner of the Unibar is actually the University itself, and they’re also running the Mayo and other campus cafes through the catering department of the National Wine Centre.
Steering the ship is new bar manager Alan, and the bar supervisor Ash, whose controlled chaos approach so far seems to be winning over suspicious student groups and regulars who have cautiously begun returning to see what the deal is with the relaunched venue – but not everyone is happy with the changes.
There are hate groups on Facebook denouncing the new bar, and everything from the salad to the setup to the brands of beer have come under fire. So what are the new managers going to do with our bar?
“We’re here to make sure students are happy” says Alan. “We want them to feel that this is their bar”. The Unibar has already sponsored ten clubs and societies on campus this year, giving them drinks specials and discounts in order to encourage them to come in after meetings and for special events. The biggest so far has been the AUES pub crawl, which packed out the venue with yellow clad engineers clamoring to claim their free tequila shot, paid for by the bar.
But there are bigger plans, too. “We want to bring things to the Unibar no one has ever seen before” says Ash. “We’re going to have rodeo nights where you can ride a bull.”
It’s but one of many plans to make the Unibar bigger and better and more inclusive than ever – others include the Clubs Association Cup, a year-long tournament of ten competitions culminating in a karaoke grand final, as well as a newly installed cocktail bar, novelty drinks, a wider selection of wine and imported beers, and ongoing pool competitions.
But while this all sounds great in planning, do these two have the skills to pull it off? Only time will tell. Alan has just returned from the UK where he spent five years running student bars around Oxford.
Ash began his hospitality career as a kitchen hand in the Whitsundays and worked his way up through positions at the Seacliff Beach Hotel and the Hilton International in Adelaide as well as cocktail bars at the ski resorts of Thredbo and Mt Buller. His new position of bar supervisor at the Unibar is just the next step; “I wanted to get into the management side of things”.
For Alan, coming back to Adelaide Uni is a bit of a homecoming; “I did my honours in philosophy here. It was about the morality of war and we were going to Afghanistan at the time so it was very topical”.
Hospitality background aside, there is a certain comic disparity between the two. Alan likes pubs; Ash likes clubs. Alan would rather listen to a live band while Ash would cut up the dance floor with a DJ. Alan smokes; Ash doesn’t.
For all their differences though, it seems to work in the anarchic environment. Alan prefers early mornings and works during the day, while Ash prefers late nights and takes the late shift every night. Ash is keen to get more live DJs into the Unibar, while Alan wants to make sure local talent has a place to do their fledging gigs.
There is one thing they have in common though; having worked in hospitality for years, it is safe to assume that these boys like a drink. Alan says his usual drinks of choice are Coopers Pale, a good glass of wine or a ‘Russian Monk’, which is made of vodka, Frangelico, milk and cream with a dash of cinnamon or nutmeg on top.
“Believe it or not” confesses Ash when I ask him about his favoruites, “but for me, it’s scotch, scotch, and more scotch”. Realizing that this perhaps doesn’t quite add up with his cocktail obsession, he offers; “For me, the enjoyment in making cocktails is seeing the person smile when they take a sip. Believe it or not, there are actually more ingredients you can use to make a cocktail than a chef could use to cook.”
I don’t believe him, but at the same time, I’ve tasted his drinks and they are pretty damn good. We’re just waiting on some more equipment, he says, before a fully equipped cocktail section is operation in the Unibar.
Throughout the interview, there have been constant interruptions; suppliers calling about the next promotion; student groups want to know what their drinks specials are; and bar staff needing to go on breaks. At about the seventh knock of the door I see the usually calm Ash snap; the place he ordered lunch from got his order wrong. He throws the bag down on the desk, with an exasperated look. “Can’t they get anything right?”.
Getting it right is what it’s all about, and the new managers are acutely aware of the need to widen the appeal of the Unibar from recent years. “We’re trying to bring the reputation back to the Unibar as a live venue and to make it a place where people can go for a good night out, not just a place to go for a drink after a lecture” Alan explains.
So now comes the test of the Unibar fanatic; what do Alan and Ash think of The Guru? “You mean the dude out there?” asks Ash, and I nod. “Yeah, it’s like a culture sort of thing”. Well, yes. The Guru, for those who haven’t heard the legend, is a portrait of a man sitting partly submerged in a deck chair, encased in a wife beater, with a few stubbie cans floating about. Its removal a few years ago prompted an engineer called Bill Fuller to run a “Save the Guru” pub crawl and the painting was reinstated to its place on the back wall.
“I like the Guru.” says Alan. “In fact. after six weeks I couldn’t imagine not having him here. When I come in the morning at 9am I grab a coffee, light up a cigarette – outside – and on my way I walk past The Guru. I look up at him, he looks down at me and together we get ready for a big day.”
Touching as this newly formed friendship is, I am keen to point out that the most pressing issue is still unresolved. Repeating my demand for answers, Alan leans back in his chair and pauses for a moment. “The wedges” he says “are in planning. When we got here the kitchen wasn’t what we considered standard for this sort of food, so for now we’re just waiting to see how things go. Baby steps.”
Wrapping up the interview, I ask them if there is anything else they want to add. “I suppose we just want people to know that we’re young – well, Ash is young – and that we want it to be a fun place to be. We’re willing to take ideas and turn this into a place where everybody on campus can go.”
The Unibar is open from 12pm weekdays, and is located on Level 5, Union House on the North Terrace Campus of the University of Adelaide.
Disclosure: The author was a Board Director of the AUU in 2007. Minutes of meetings held are available from AUU Reception.
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