We went on a road trip to South Australia over the Christmas/New Year period. The main reason was because my brother wanted to host Christmas, which I posted about here. We thought that we would also take advantage of the compulsory shutdown at my husband's work to see a bit of Australia that we haven't seen a lot of.
Our plan was to head to the Eyre Peninsula, staying in Kadina, then catching the ferry over to the Eyre Peninsula, then driving to Port Lincoln, up to Venus Bay, across to Port Augusta, back to Adelaide and then home via Mount Gambier.
We saw a lot as we drove. I have previously posted about the amazing silo art that we saw, and I will post a few other things as well, but today I wanted to focus on the food side of the trip!
On Christmas Eve Eve, we went for a drive through the Barossa Valley. My brother in law spent a lot of time up in the Barossa growing up, so we visited some of the places he knew in search of really great cured meats. The plan was that we were going to have them with some crackers and pate for dinner on Christmas night. That didn't end up happening as it was so hot (39 degrees), they ended up deciding to drive back to Melbourne that night. Nobody was going to be getting any sleep in the caravan or tents in that kind of heat. We were staying in a cabin with a tiny air conditioner in and that took forever to cool down as it was.
Anyway, I digress. We also visited Maggie Beer's Farm Shop which is in the Barossa Valley. Maggie Beer is a legend in the Australian food and TV industry, and she has a lovely shop where she sells all sorts of produce and housewares.
There is a whole food and wine trail that starts in the Clare Valley, goes through the Barossa Valley and then down to the McLaren Valley. If you like food and wine, then Adelaide is a pretty good place to visit!
Robert and I then when to visit a Dutch shop that I had heard a lot about. For him, it was a real walk down memory lane as he looked at all the different products in the store. he talked about the things his grandmothers and mother would make. We ended up buying some chocolate letters for each of the kids, yes, even my son the grown up kid and some nasi goreng spice mix. The store itself is super cute and I can definitely see us going back there when we visit Adelaide again.
There is a cafe attached to the store where you can get all sorts of Dutch food, like traditional croquettes, and we couldn't resist trying the Dutch version of vanilla slice which is called Tompouce. There was a huge mural, so it could almost have felt like you were sitting next to a canal in Amsterdam. Almost, but not quite.
On Christmas Eve itself, we took my 5 years old nephew last minute Christmas shopping for presents for his mum and dad, and then he came and played in the pool at the caravan park. A bit later we headed to the beach for fish and chips. Have I mentioned it was hot!
On Boxing Day we started the next stage of our trip driving to Kadina, via lots of silos. The next day we caught the ferry to the Eyre Peninsula. The less said about that the better, as it was a bit rough and I did get a bit seasick. We then drove the east coast of the peninsula to Port Lincoln, which is a huge fishing town, and is rightfully famous for it's seafood. There was also a pretty amazing French bakery in town, which was very popular. We ended up eating our sitting on a bench by the beach because it was booked out. All their pastries looked amazing.
One of the places I really wanted to visit was Coffin Bay which is about 30 minutes from Port Lincoln. I had been there once many years ago, but it was completely different to what I remembered! The food highlight of the whole trip was the Seafood Experience we had at 1802 Oyster Bar in Coffin Bay. Fortunately, you don't have to have oysters, because we don't like them very much, but the lunch we did have was spectacular and it was a lovely day to sit out on the deck and indulge. This is the description of the seafood experience from the menu
Kingfish collar, wild caught tuna, barbecued Spencer Gulf prawns, whole squid, octopus & mussels
I really loved the mussels which were in a sweet sauce and the curried kingfish collar, which we were encouraged to eat with our hands! I am not sure I would normally have chosen that off a menu, but it was so good! Everything was great really.
The final touch was grilled peaches and ice cream. I am going through a real peach phase at the moment. Can't get enough of them!
After just chilling for a couple of hours under the shade of a big tree, we finished our delightful day in Coffin Bay with a sunset cruise on a catamaran. There was a charcuterie board as well which was a lovely touch to a fab way to spend a couple of hours. There were also a lot of oysters on offer which we didn't have, but there were a couple of oyster lovers on the boat who ended up having a massive feast!
It was a fabulous day!
We then started to make our way back to Adelaide where we spent New Years Eve. We had walked all around the Botanic Gardens in the heat looking at art by acclaimed glass artist Dale Chihuly, so I was exhausted, and I hadn't thought to book anything ahead of time. We knew that we did not want chips as we were all pub mealed out) so we ended up finding a nearby Thai restaurant that had a vacancy, and we had a really lovely meal there. I was dead to the world by 10pm and didn't even wake up for the fireworks which were just down the road!
We had Moneybags and satay chicken for starters, and then I had ordered pineapple chicken fried rice and Roberts ordered Thai Green Curry. I didn't expect my rice to be delivered in half a pineapple, but it was. Finally, we shared a dessert of Cheesecake Spring Rolls - delicious!
Along the whole way we stopped at various bakeries. We love a small town bakery and there were a couple that were absolutely fab, particularly in the small town of Tumby Bay. If we lived in Adelaide I could definitely see us visiting this little town more as we loved the feel of the place.
One of the things that I am always reminded when we cross the state borders, is that you can get all sorts of different things in each state. You would think there wouldn't be that many differences! So to give you some examples, in South Australia you can get Apple and Custard tarts whereas I don't recall seeing them here in Victoria. They also have different cream filled buns called Kitchener buns, you can easily get a chocolate donut filled with cream. The thing that I had the most this trip though was a pub classic - Beef Schnitzel. Now in Victoria you can get any number of variations of chicken schnitzel at any pub, but beef is nowhere to be seen, but in South Australia, you can get both. I had it a couple of times. This one was from a pub in Port Augusta!
All in all, it was a very successful road trip, seeing a different part of the country. Now, we are looking forward to our next trip in about 9 weeks!
Saturday - Boerwors, ribs, potato salad, corn (BBQ)
Sunday - Lemon Salmon with potato gratin
Monday - Butter Chicken Pizza
Tuesday - Steak, egg and chips
Wednesday - Baked chicken, mash, beans, gravy
Thursday - Spice Pork Noodles
Friday - Takeaway
.png)
Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book reviews (novel, nonfiction), cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs, restaurant reviews, travel information, or fun food facts. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page
Your trip looks like you had a great time and wow, such beautiful food!
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeletethe food looks fabulous. We have relatives in Melbourne and we would visit if the trip wouldn't be such a long one! The sights and the food look worth it!