Tasting Australia is one of Australia's longest running food festivals since its inception in 1997 with over 150 events spread all over 12 regions of South Australia. Come along as we explore the opening weekend of the festival and see what some of the events hold.
It has been over 10 years since my last visit to South Australia and the reason for my return is a delicious one. It's Friday and opening night of Tasting Australia. Town Square or Victoria Square, also known as Tarntanyangga is abuzz with people. They've transformed this space into an enormous outdoor area and this serves as Tasting Australia's main hub open all day from 11am until 9pm to midnight. There has been a concerted effort to offer guests a variety of choices in different budgets and at Town Square there is free entry with live entertainment. The popular food festival attracts more than 68,000 locals and visitors every year. I meet a man who has purchased tickets to 16 events and has come every year for the last 3 years.
Town Square Vendors
Wine! Wine! Party! Party! is the opening night's main event held at the University of Adelaide marquee. It promises a fun night with lots of tastings but because I have arrived early (time difference, oops!) I decide to grab something to eat first. There are 14 food stands here including names like Africola, Peel St, Braising Boy, Ong, Sassi Ice Cream and Cheekies chicken.
I head straight to Africola, the Adelaide restaurant with a big following. South African chef Duncan Welgemoed serves up a range of South African inspired dishes that are also vegetarian friendly. There are four dishes on offer tonight: the peri peri chicken, a canteen veg bowl, Africola pipis and hot pork sausage. It's hard to choose but I go for the Peri Peri chicken served with boom chakkalaka tahini, fire sauce and flat bread. The chicken is wonderfully juicy with a nice char on it and the tahini lends it a creamy element while the fire sauce gives it a bit of heat. This is satisfyingly good and we are off to a great start.
Right next to the Africola stand is Ông a Vietnamese stand and judging from the queue, a popular stop. I am at first tempted by their idea of a banh xeo taco but then am convinced by them to try the pork crispy rice paper, their version of a pizza. The pizza base is actually made of grilled crispy rice paper topped with a generous amount of pulled pork, hoi sin sauce, sriracha mayonnaise, spring onion oil and shallots. It's crispy and delicious and reminds me a bit of crispy duck pancakes (more than a pizza).
Wine! Wine! Party! Party!
Then it comes time for Wine Wine Party Party! to start. Upon entry I receive a glass, welcome drink ticket and leaflet detailing all of the wineries present. There are 19 wineries from the wine regions Barossa Valley, Adelaide Hills, Riverland, Clare Valley, Coonawarra, Langhorne Creek, McLaren Vale and the Limestone Coast and each winery has 2 wines to taste.
You make your way around to each trying each wine and chatting to each winery about their wine. There's lots of couples and groups of friends chatting and trying the wines and at $60 a person it's great value as you get to try as much wine as you would like. There are also snacks available like sausage rolls being served throughout the night. The wristland allows you to go in and out and the party lasts from 6-8.30pm.
Gnocchi Making With Mitolo Family Farms
“Potatoes don’t like tech. They’re like my mum,” says Callum Hann, ex MasterChef alum and season 2's runner up and now owner of many businesses in South Australia including Sprout cooking school. He's standing at the front of one of the Dining Galleries glass rooms at Town Square. He's explaining how three simple ingredients can produce the lightest, fluffiest gnocchi (or if you get technology involved, chewy and hard gnocchi).
The main ingredient of gnocchi is potato and he holds up a bag of mashing potatoes. South Australia grows around 80% of the potatoes consumed in Australia. At Mitolo Family Farm they grow around 40 varieties of potato over 40,000 hectares. When they are ready to harvest, they do so at night and within 24 hours they are in the hands of customers around Australia.
To make these potatoes Callum is using starchy Concordia potatoes. He explains that to make best gnocchi, "Just make a bloody good mashed potato." Start with boiling the potatoes until they are soft. "If your potatoes are ugly that’s good," he explains. By that he means that potatoes that look soft and a bit roughed up are ready for mashing. You want to avoid mashing potatoes that have sharp edges as they are not soft enough to mash. Also key is avoiding using any technology for potatoes; instead pass them through a sieve, use a mouli or potato ricer as the idea is to work the potato the minimum amount possible. Use a rough weight of 700g/1.5lbs of potato, 1 egg and approximately 200g/7ozs of 00 or plain all purpose flour.
We have a ready made gnocchi mixture in front of us and all we have to do is don some gloves and roll a portion into a log using just the right amount of flour. He also gives an excellent tip on how to lightly flour a surface in preparation for rolling. Rather than grab a fist of flour and throwing it all down onto a surface, take a small amount of flour and using your thumb, pointer and index finger lightly sprinkle some with these three fingers. This ensures an even, light dusting of flour. After rolling the dough into logs, we cut them up and then place them in boxes that we can take home.
Callum is also making a large batch of gnocchi for us to eat at the event and he asks a guest to help him fold the gnocchi, thyme, butter, oil, black garlic, yellow and white oyster mushrooms and cavolo nero. He finishes it off with a generous amount of parmesan cheese. The gnocchi are soft and tender, just as promised and melt in the mouth and they serve the gnocchi along with a glass of Nero d'Avola wine.
At the end of the 1.5 hour demo class, there's a short section at the end where people can ask Callum questions. And there comes the inevitable question about MasterChef - "Is the food cold by the time the judges eat it". Callum answers that yes the food can be cold by the time the judges taste it and they can wait anything from a few minutes to a few hours although the judges taste it while they are cooking it at various stages.
Each class participant receives a bag with a potato peeler, a bag of Mitolo Farms mashing potatoes, a Tasting Australia plate and the recipe for the gnocchi, all for $69 a person.
Fiesta
What happens when you pair a chef from America with 3 chefs from South Australia? You get a fiesta or Mexican feast for the ages. The 5th of May is Cinco de Mayo and that date presented the perfect opportunity for a Cinco de Mayo Fiesta. At Tasting Australia they usually have a couple of overseas chefs as well as local and interstate and this year they have invited Claudette Zepeda of Taqueria Zepeda in San Diego (she also had a pop up in Sydney).
She is joined by Daniella Guevara Munoz of La Popular Taqueria in SA, Jessie Spiby of My Grandma Ben in SA and Duncan Welgemoed from Africola in SA with Mark Reginato from Hellbound Wine Bar in SA as Sommelier. Tickets to this event are $295 per person. There's live music and the atmosphere is lively and festive tonight.
Each chef cooks their course outside in the fire pit area and outdoor kitchen. Daniella is in charge of the snacks and we start with a refreshing lobster aguachile made with Southern rock lobster cured in lime, cucumber and green chilli and served with crispy corn half moon tortillas. She follows this with a Caldito de camaron or a hearty spicy prawn stock cantina style. We squeeze some lemon into the shot glass and down it. There is a rich depth of flavour from cooking down the shells.
This is followed by an Oaxacan cheese quesadilla made with epazote (a South American herb) and tomatillo salsa. These are crispy and delicious served hot - the tomatillo salsa is a must as it adds a punch of flavour to the milder cheese quesadilla. This course is served with Estancia Raicilla from Jalisco, Mexico and made from the agave plant.
The next two courses are from Africola's Duncan Welgemoed and they are paired with a 2022 Somos "Los Melones Dinamicos" viognier from McLaren Vale. My favourite course from the whole evening is the Tostada el Guero made with Spencer Gulf prawns. It's a large, very crisp crunchy base topped with prawns, avocado, coriander and salad and paired with a tahini style sauce. It's brilliant and all about textures and punchy flavours. When I think of the bright, vibrant flavours of Mexican food I think of dishes like this.
This is followed by the grilled Yumbah abalone "in the style of Tia Bandera" with a browned butter sauce and toasted nuts. The abalone is so tender and this is another favourite dish of the night for both the abalone's tenderness and the flavour of that browned butter sauce.
Mains are up next and that is where Claudette's dishes come out. The main is a lamb barbacoa in adobo (a paste made with dried chillies) with broken rice wrapped up in a banana leaf and parchment. The lamb from Monapilla Estate is superby tender and just falls apart when you prod it. I love the rice, particularly the crispy bits at the base.
The lamb comes with a variety of sides like stewed white beans, Daniella's hand made tortillas made with nixtamalised Australian maize from Four Leaf Milling, salsa macha and wedges of lime. The mains are paired with a 2021 SC Pannell "Smart" ganache from McLaren Vale.
Dessert is chef Jess Spiby's arena and there are two on offer share style. These are paired with a 2023 Seppeltsfield 21 year old para tawny. There's a bunuelos or donut but this time it's as a flat, crisp pancake with a dark chocolate ganache drizzled over it and a fine crumble of chilli hazelnut praline. But everyone's favourite dessert (and a brilliant idea) is the aromatic and moreish horchata spiced burnt Basque style cheesecake with an orange caramel, almonds and rose petals.
So tell me Dear Reader, have you ever been to Tasting Australia and if so what did you think of it? Do you have a favourite food festival?
Tasting Australia
Tasting Australia runs from May 3 - 12 2024.
https://tastingaustralia.com.au/
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