Tag: Adelaide Central Market

ADELAIDE CENTRAL MARKET AT FAIR SEAFOOD

When I go to Adelaide, I always look forward to buying and eating fish, and one of the best places for eating fish in a casual place is a small stall at the Adelaide Central Market called Fair Seafood.

I used to live in Adelaide and am very aware that many varieties of excellent tasting fish that is caught and sold in South Australia, but Fair Seafood is not just about fresh fish – it’s about sustainability, and knowing exactly where your seafood comes from. Here you will also find hung fish.

 Producers who look after their produce is something I really appreciate, especially when it comes to supporting fishers and ethical practices.

Apart from sustainably fished South Australian varieties of fish they also source fish from other places in Australia, but I was also very pleased to see salmon from New Zealand (King salmon) on the menu. I live in Melbourne and have been buying this salmon at the Queen Victoria Market. Tasmanian salmon has been off my menu for many years; their farmed salmon industry has attracted significant criticism for its continued expansion and alleged environmental impact.

King salmon is farmed in New Zealand and is a green-listed alternative and  farmed more responsibly. The impact of salmon farming in New Zealand is kept under tighter government control.

There were four of us who ate at Fair Food last year and we had such a great meal that I was determined to go back, this time with some new friends to share the experience. And just like last year, the five of us were not disappointed. The food was just as amazing as I remembered, and their menu has expanded even more since my last visit.

As an added pleasure, they have a wine licence – so we paired our meal with some new to me, South Australian wines. In Victoria we don’t have access to many wines from the less known regions and wineries from South Australia, so I feel very pleased to have the opportunity to try new wines. The table service was excellent. The personnel is very well informative and happy to share information and to tase the wine.

If you’re ever in Adelaide, the Adelaide Central Market is always worth a visit so if you feel like eating fresh fish go to Fair Seafood. Whether you’re buying fresh fish or enjoying a meal, you’ll be supporting sustainable practices and getting a taste of some of the best seafood around.

You can sit on a stall and eat at the counter or at tables.

 

This is the post I wrote about Fair Seafood last year. It contains more information about Sustainable fish:

FAIR SEAFOOD, Adelaide Central Market

FAIR SEAFOOD, Adelaide Central Market

It seems that all of our Adelaide friends (irrespective of culture) discuss food and where to eat, and there was one place that almost everyone seem to recommend. It is in The Adelaide Central Market, and the stall called Fair Seafood and it deals with sustainable seafood.

We told others we saw, especially unexpected friends and acquaintances from Melbourne that  we encountered while in Adelaide: they then recounted that they indeed found this stall at the Adelaide Central Market and what a wonderful place it was to eat and to buy fish.

Finally, we got to go there. And it was indeed excellent.

It is called Fair Seafood.

Fair Seafood is the first and only Australian seafood wholesaler and retailer to provide 100% fisher-to-consumer traceability on all products. Customers can know where, when, how and by whom it was caught, and even more importantly, when and how it was processed.

100% Traceability, 100% Transparency, 100% Peace of Mind.

This is because the profess that Fair Seafood connects directly to fishers and the sellers know where, when, how and by who your seafood is caught. and they also know when and how it was processed. And this is indeed what we all want from  our fishmongers.

I also found out other information from various websites that mention Fair Seafood. Some of this I knew, but it was good to hear it again:

Over 75% of seafood consumed in Australia is imported from overseas.

Over 4,000 fish species in Australia – why do we put pressure on less than 9 common species.

89% of consumers buy filleted fish. The more fish is handled, the more it costs.

Adelaide is known for its premium and versatile fish industries.  When I go to Adelaide I think of King George Whiting, Garfish, Snapper, Sardines from Port Lincoln, Coorong Mullet, Goolwa Cockles, Mulloway, Squid and Tuna when it is sustainably caught, and Fair Seafood is focusing on selling only sustainable fish. To provide better value for buyers they sell more whole fish that requires less processing and also the lesser-known varieties that are not necessarily found at fishmongers.

And there is more:
Fair Seafood’s mission extends beyond sustainable seafood; it champions ethical and transparent practices within the industry. As consumers become more conscious of the impact of their choices, businesses like Fair Seafood are stepping up to meet the demand for sustainable options.

There were four of us. We had some simple dishes and very suitable for a quick lunch:

Sashimi Scallops, Sashimi Market fish, Sardines with Romesco sauce, a Cabbage Slaw and a Lobster roll.  All excellent, and of course we drank South Australian wine.

And why not?

Fair Seafood is at:

Stall 12, Adelaide Central Market

Shop 6,430 Brighton Road, Brighton

THE ADELAIDE CENTRAL MARKET

Recently, I made a very short visit to Adelaide and a brief dash to the Adelaide Central Market. It has been a while since I last visited this market.  I am never disappointed.

The historic, heritage listed Adelaide Central Market is unique and is one of the largest undercover, fresh produce markets in the Southern Hemisphere. I stress, “fresh” produce.

It was a pleasure to see such a huge range of quality fresh food – the beautiful fruit and vegetables, meat, seafood, cheeses, bread and baked goods, smallgoods and wine. Marino Meat and Food store, (specialty butcher) is still there and what used to be Goodies and Grains, now called WHOLE+SOME. I used to shop at both of these places very frequently when I lived in Adelaide.

What I like most about this market is the emphasis on artisanal  and local foods and produce promoting South Australia .

Along with the small selection of the popular cafes and small eateries within the market there are the popular, long standing Asian restaurants that line Gouger Street.

Two particular stalls in the market especially caught my eye.

Something Wild, an Indigenous owned stall that specialises in Aboriginal bush food and produce – the most common as well as the harder to source bush meats, native greens, herbs, fruit, spices, gourmet sauces, jams, chutneys and prepared foods. The range of native game is also outstanding and they even make Gin.

Something Wild, Stall 55, Adelaide Central Market.

The other stall I have always found engrossing is The Mushroom Man, a small stall in the southwest corner of the market.

The Mushroom Man is opposite the famous Lucia’s and Lucia’s Fine Foods (quality olive oils, spreads, breads and ready-made meals).

The  had fresh porcini from the Adelaide Hills. Was I enthusiastic? Very.
The Mushroom Man,  Stall 68, Adelaide Central Market.

But I cannot complain about the lack of porcini mushrooms in Victoria because I have my own supplier of Saffron Milk Cap mushrooms (Lactarius deliciosus, also known as red pine mushrooms). We have friends who live in the Mornington Peninsula who bring me presents very often.

A batch of freshly picked Milk Cap Mushrooms Milk Cap Mushrooms were delivered to welcome me home and to remind me of the good produce in Victoria and that I also have good friends in Victoria as well as in South Australia.

MUSHROOM RECIPES:

There are many recipes for cooking mushrooms on my blog. Use the search button and key in Mushrooms

Also:
WILD MUSHROOMS  Saffron Coloured, Pine Mushrooms and Slippery Jacks

PORCINI in ADELAIDE

 

PORCINI in ADELAIDE, Yeppee

Should I move back to Adelaide?

I moved to Melbourne in 2002 but after receiving photos of Porcini gathered in the Adelaide Hills, I am tempted to return.

Pocini clump

Yes, Porcini, the large family of wild and meaty mushroom with a rich flavour. Porcini belong to the Boletus genus and there are about 12 different species. When I was living in Adelaide I did collect wild Mushrooms, but never Porcini.

I knew that Porcini were in the Adelaide Hills, somewhere secret.

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I  had bought and still have a very scientific publication, a handbook of Flora and Fauna of South Australia printed by the South Australian Government in 1976 : Toadstools And Mushrooms and Other Larger Fungi of South Australia, by John Burton Cleland MD.

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Dried Porcini have been available  from specialised stores for a long time in Australia and are most commonly used to make mushroom risotto. As you’d expect mushrooms have an intense flavour and fragrance when dried. My mother use to add dry porcini to enrich a strong, slow cooked sugo (ragù –ragoût). My polish friend wouldn’t dream of making sauerkraut without some dry mushrooms; her Pierogi  stuffed with sauerkraut are marvellous. Dry mushrooms added to a fresh mushroom braise make a fabulous topping for polenta.

These latest photos were sent by Adelaide friends who wish to make me jealous. and entice me to move back to South Australia.

This Porcino (by the way, porcino means ‘little pig’) and it is easy to see why … weighed about 425g. Now, how many would you need to make one risotto?

Porcini and wine glass

Italians are very enthusiastic about Porcini and they can be found in all regions of Italy. I have been in Paris and in Tokyo when the Porcini mushrooms first hit the market – a very exciting time for locals … I must like to travel in Autumn!

A few years ago I visited Calabria and the host, a family friend, took me to a restaurant  in the Sila, a National Park whose woods are a fertile mix of conifers, interspersed with larch pine, beech, chestnuts and white fir trees. In this particular restaurant every dish featured mushrooms as the main ingredient … pickled, raw and cooked. Marvellous.

Local produce, local food. On that particular day I ate more than mushrooms….there  are chestnut trees growing in the Sila.  I ate dark bread made with chestnut flour.  Pasta is also made with chestnut flour. There are cinghiali  –  wild pigs/boars and deer in these mountains, too. Just the thing to get the cacciatore’s pulses racing. I ate the chestnut bread with a prosciutto made from the wild boar. And we stopped on the side of the road and drank fresh (freezing) water from a spring on the side of a mountain.

In Adelaide, the Porcini are being sold at the Adelaide Central Market and other places, one friend reported seeing them at his local greengrocer.

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My daughter works at an eatery called Minestra that specialize in using produce that locals offer to the eatery… I call it an eatery because it is more like a trattoria than a restaurant and they had Porcini on their take away menu last week. Lucky them and how generous was one of their patrons!

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I am a lover of the saffron coloured pine mushroom and do not mind a Slippery Jack or two, especially when they are picked young. Slippery Jacks are fantastic when dried. Easy to do, slice them if they are too large or you wish them to dry quickly,  Place them on a cloth near a heater … but not too close, you do not want them to cook…. turn them once or twice and when dry, store them in a jar.

And do not worry, my friends will be respectful and not trample and destroy the  mushroom habitat…unfortunately, non-professionals collecting mushrooms can damage the beds.

Below are some pine mushrooms also collected in the Adelaide Hills.

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There are a number of recipes for mushrooms on my blog.

WILD MUSHROOMS – Saffron Coloured, Pine Mushrooms and Slippery Jacks

MORE AUTUMN PRODUCE… lemons and quinces, wild mushrooms and homemade pasta

WILD MUSHROOMS, I have been foraging again

PASTA WITH MUSHROOMS – Pasta ai funghi