This week’s food news includes a locally produced raw milk cheese which is causing a buzz among top chefs, the eternal “best coffee” question, Prospect Farmers’ Market, and plenty of small bites.
The real raw deal
Quietly and carefully, the southern Fleurieu Peninsula’s Hindmarsh Valley Dairy has released a raw milk cheese onto the Australian market.
Its Emmental-style goat’s milk cheese – called the Emme – is only the second raw milk cheese released by an Australian cheesemaker.
And the buzz from chefs is growing.
Hindmarsh Valley Dairy cheesemaker Denise Riches says she fielded a call this week from the executive chef at Rockpool wanting to get his hands on it; Jock Zonfrillo has ordered it for his new Rundle Street ventures, Street and Orana (both opening soon); Tony Carroll from Jolley’s Boathouse is into it, and it’s on the menu at the Kitchen Door at Penny’s Hill.
As yet, no South Australian retailer has yet agreed to stock it. It couldn’t be the raw milk aspect, could it? Most supermarkets happily sell Parmigiana Reggiano, a rather famous raw milk cheese produced in Italy using a similar process to the Emme.
Denise played a role in the development of the Australian standards for raw milk cheeses – standards that have been in place for about a year and allow the production of hard cooked curd cheeses made from raw milk.
She says the Emme is aged for 120 days and carefully tested. This, coupled with the salt content and low moisture of the product, means any pathogens in the raw milk cannot survive.
“Cooked curd cheeses are, on the whole, incredibly safe,” she says.
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Given that so many Australian cheesemakers – not to mention eaters – have been clamouring for the ability to make and eat raw milk Australian cheeses, Denise says she’s surprised that only two such cheeses exist on the market.
She has conducted trials to compare raw and pasteurised milk cheeses and says the flavour difference is marked.
“It makes an incredible difference. I wouldn’t have credited it before I started my own trials. There’s just something about the complexity of flavours – the pasteurised cheeses were very predictable; the raw milk ones were very different.”
The public can buy the “Emme” direct from Denise at the Adelaide Showgrounds Farmers’ Market and the Victor Harbor Farmers’ Market.
Espresso love
The Forager hesitates to enter this fray, given the finicky nature of hard-core coffee drinkers, but here we go.
Where is Adelaide’s best coffee?
We’ll offer these names as a starting point: Espresso Royale on Magill Road (The Forager’s personal favourite, but we don’t get there often enough); The Coffee Barun, Main North Road; Coffee Branch, Leigh Street; Exchange, Ebenezer Place; Dolce & Co, Burnside Village; and Bar 9, Glen Osmond Road and city.
Narrowing it down might be difficult – there are many places with different approaches and strengths. But we all need more than one place to source our coffee, right?
[To get you in the mood, check out this assessment of the best time to take your morning coffee – from a pharmacological perspective.]
Over to you. Mail your views here.
Next week, best sandwiches.. we might start with Hey Jupiter’s pork belly…
Stay informed, daily
Prospect Farmers’ Market
The Prospect offshoot of the Adelaide Showgrounds Farmers’ Market has had a “soft” launch for the past two weeks and it’s already proving popular with the local community.
The official launch is tomorrow at 2.45pm, with the market proper opens from 3-7pm every Thursday.
Market CEO Amanda Daniel says the organisers have been humbled by the community’s response to the Vine Street market.
The list of stallholders attending the market gives an indication of why Prospect locals have been happy – it covers the gamut of fresh fruit and vegetables, bread and pastries, cheese, beef and other meats, pickles, dried fruit and nuts, olive oil, edible plants and seedlings to grow at home, mussels and more.
Check the website from late Wednesday for the latest list of stallholders.
Small bites
Steven ter Horst Chocolatier is still open at his Unley location – but not for much longer. As The Forager reported several weeks ago, the chocolate cafe and patisserie will be moving to Rundle Street in November. The new opening date is November 14. A sign on the door promises – “the caramel is coming”.
Golden Boy is now open at the Botanic Bar on North Terrace, serving Thai street food. The restaurant is open late for dinner from Wednesday to Sunday, and for lunch on Friday.
On Sunday, the Fork on the Road food truck festival hits the south parklands (go to the Facebook page for map and directions). This special version of Fork will also help out a good cause – the Hutt Street centre and its work with the homeless. BYO chairs and rugs. The event runs from midday to 5pm.
Burger Theory has successfully crowd-funded a frozen custard machine from the US, which it will install in its Union Street restaurant. One of the rewards for donating to the cause was to have your name in lights above the machine (and if you photograph your name above the machine, you get a freebie).
Veteran food critic Ann Oliver is promising a “measured response” to the rather ugly Twitter brawl that broke out between her and a stack of SA’s young-gun chefs last week. Oliver sparked the attacks on her by questioning – in no uncertain terms – the big prize winners in The Advertiser’s food awards. She says she will publish on her Galaxy Guides website, an explanation of her criticisms. UPDATE: Her first installment, justifying her criticism of the best restaurant award, was posted here today.
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