In today’s food news, the prawn trawlers head out for one last haul before Christmas, SA’s independent food and wine festival takes shape, tales of dining alone, and the opening of a gluten-free cooking school.
InDaily’s food and wine digest
Subscribers to InDaily should have received our first Food and Wine Digest this morning.
The weekly digest will give you the first look at food news from The Forager, and bring together the best of our recent food and wine content.
It’s just a way for us to keep our readers in touch with our daily food and wine coverage.
Prawn industry spawns a new campaign
Spencer Gulf and West Coast prawn trawlers are heading out this week for one last haul before the season takes a break for spawning.
It’s the last chance for the boat owners to fill their freezers with product for the lucrative Christmas market.
One of the bigger operators told InDaily the catch so far suggested there would be a shortage for this year’s festive period, with little expected to change in the week or so left on the water.
The smaller-than-expected catch will push prices up a bit in Adelaide, but more so on the east coast, where most of our catch goes.
The Spencer Gulf has the largest population of western king prawns in the Indo-Pacific region, followed by Gulf St Vincent and the West Coast waters of our state.
A bumper catch is expected in the season following the end of spawning in early February.
The local industry has launched a campaign to capitalise on Valentine’s Day, featuring two prawns joined as a love heart.
– Kevin Naughton
Spencer Gulf prawn trawlers in action. Photo courtesy The Spencer Gulf and West Coast Prawn Fishermen’s Association.
For deadly serious lovers of ham
If you love your Christmas ham – and I mean really love it – Feast Fine Foods is offering a fully customised option for the celebratory season.
Its Newbury & Watson Limited Edition Customised Ham gives you the option to choose the breed of pig (Berkshire, Tamworth, Large Black or Hampshire), choice of cure (maple, honey, treacle or raw sugar), spice (cinnamon and sage, or bay leaf and juniper), and even the wood in which your ham will be smoked (apple, hickory, red gum or cherry).
Feast’s website provides a guide to the different flavours and combinations to help you choose.
This is a limited offer that closes on December 15, but there’s a chance they could be sold out by then – despite the considerable cost.
This level of customisation doesn’t come cheap – each ham will weigh a minimum of 5kg, at a cost of $34.99 per kg. They’re all made in SA at Mt Barker.
Food and Wine Festival takes shape
The Adelaide Food and Wine Festival, due for its second run in April 2014, is taking shape.
The festival, masterminded by Amanda James Pritchard, has settled on a theme of “Collaboration” – and it will be fascinating to see how this develops.
Amanda says: “Think: emerging artists with South Australia’s leading chefs and winemakers; history buffs over breakfast; a musical town picnic; and a showdown like you’ve never seen it before.”
The popular “bacon trail” and “coffee crawls” will be back, along with the EASTENDWINEDOWN, market feast, regional celebration, and a special version of the Fork on the Road food truck gathering.
Amanda has also appointed two “creative spearheads” to lead the program: on the food side, cook and food writer Rebecca Sullivan, and on the drinks front, wine educator Gill Gordon-Smith.
Watch out also for a crowd-funding campaign to support the independent festival.
To get you in the mood, a festival “satellite” event – The Sunday Session – is happening at the Daniel O’Connell pub in North Adelaide on December 1.
The excellent price of $50 per head will include food from chefs Aaron Gillespie and Phil Whitmarsh and wines from the collective Winemakers without Borders. Details and bookings here.
Table for one
Dining alone can be a great pleasure – or a lonely endeavour – depending on your temperament.
The full gamut is run in a book of stories edited by South Australian culinary historian and, arguably, Australia’s greatest food writer, Barbara Santich.
Dining Alone: Tales from the table for one, to be launched this Friday, is a collection of short stories written by Santich’s food-writing students at the University of Adelaide.
Santich says: “The lone diners are men and women, young and old, aggressive and reflective, wistful and resolute, some content in their cloak of solitude while others envy the love and laughter at other tables.
“The stories are poignant and surprising, sometimes with a hint of mystery or political intrigue; some have bittersweet endings while other celebrate brave new beginnings.”
It’s published by Wakefield.
[I dare bold readers to grab a copy, go alone to their favourite restaurant, and ask the waiter to snap them at table, book in hand.]
Gluten-free cooking school opens
Adelaide-raised Rilka Warbanoff has made a name for herself as a food commentator on ABC Radio in Melbourne, where she also published a cookbook with a focus on authentic East European recipes.
Now, she has returned home to South Australia and opened a cooking school in a renovated barn behind her home in Hahndorf.
As well as celebrating the food culture of her Bulgarian upbringing, Rilka says she has also taken an interest in healthier eating. She has created a range of products free from gluten, yeast, sugar and preservatives.
In that vein, the cooking school uses gluten-free ingredients and fresh regional produce. Check her website for contact details.
Rilka Warbanoff
Small bites
After teasing us for a few weeks, Steven ter Horst Chocolatier has opened his cafe and patisserie at 256 Rundle Street. And it looks fantastic. Open seven days from 10am til late.
An intriguing new restaurant is opening in Stirling. Miss Perez has staked out a location in Druids Avenue. Stay tuned for details.
The Botanic Gardens has thrown open entries to the 2014 Tomato Sauce Challenge, part of its Tomato Festival, to be held next February. The 2013 challenge drew a record 131 home-made sauce entries. Go here for details.
Blood orange and chocolate tarts at Steven ter Horst Chocolatier. Photo courtesy Steven ter Horst Chocolatier
