Prospect Rd has a world of differing food cultures
From Indian delicacies to handmade noodles, Vietnamese beef pho or spiced lamb, find the flavours of the world along just one road. Here’s the best food on Prospect Rd.
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Welcome to Prospect Rd, Adelaide’s most multicultural dining strip. A big call, perhaps. But where else, within a couple of kilometres, could you snack on Indian pani poori and samosa chat or Swedish gravlax, then follow with a bowl of handmade noodles in a lip-tingling Uygur sauce, fragrant Vietnamese beef pho or skewers of spice-laden lamb, grilled over charcoal, Afghan-style.
Dessert could be Middle Eastern baklava with its crisp layers of pastry wrapped around syrup-saturated nuts, or a decadent chocolate gateaux.
You could accompany that with a short black, of course, from a large array of cafes, or maybe a shake made from Pakistani chikoo, a fruit that looks like kiwifruit on the outside but has a unique, malty flavour. Even a winery with strong links to the Liverpool Football Club in Britain has its cellar door here.
Want bread? The street is dotted with bakeries, turning out everything from crusty baguettes that could have come direct from a Parisian boulangerie to skateboard-sized flatbreads scattered with sesame seeds.
Most of the food destinations of Prospect Rd fall into two distinct clusters that reflect the communities living around them. The first group, around the cinema complex and old town hall at the city end, is more polished and commercial, with proper signage and greater attention to customer comfort.
The other zone, on the northern side of Regency Rd, is more rough around the edges. Suburbs such as Kilburn and Blair Athol have become home to many Afghan immigrants in the past decade or two and this strip is lined with their supermarkets, bread shops and kebab houses.
However, there is also a strong Vietnamese influence, as well as elements from across Asia and the Middle East.
PROSPECT RD FOOD MAP
NORTHERN END
AFGHAN SUPERMARKETS
Let’s start this tour at the Blair Athol IGA (371 Prospect Rd). From the outside, this box of a building surrounded by acres of space for carparking and trolleys looks like many other unremarkable supermarkets.
But two years ago, after Coles vacated the site, it was taken over by the owners of the much smaller Khurasan (430), right across the road.
Hanif Rahimi and his wife Kamelah decided to blend the standard grocery items with the more exotic ingredients their Afghan and other customers would expect to find.
Walk the aisles and you will discover shelves filled with all the spices, nuts, pulses and other staples of a Middle Eastern store. Loaves of Tip Top and Helga’s sit alongside pide and flatbreads. The butcher offers lamb heels next to the sausages and mince. Confections such as Persian fairy floss and sugar-coated chickpeas provide additional temptation to the standard chocolates and lolly snakes.
Hanif, Kamelah and their young family are Hazara, an ethnic group that suffers continuing persecution from Taliban forces in Afghanistan. They fled after Hanif was taken away and left for dead by soldiers, escaping to Iran and then Indonesia, before a perilous boat journey to Australia ended at Ashmore Reef. They were kept at the detention centre in Woomera before being granted protection visas in 2001.
Ali Mashouf, who owns the Afghan Supermarket(376)up the road, has a similar story, having also come by boat and spending time at Woomera.
He says his shop, which includes a butcher to one side, was the first of its kind to open in the area.
Ali keeps a superior selection of spices, all packed in handy containers with screw-top lids, from regulars such as cumin and turmeric to rose petals and weeka (okra) powder from Sudan. A small display of vegetables include lauki, a long gourd, and bitter melon.
A few doors away Vatan Super Market(384) is particularly neat and well organised. This store is a favourite of the Ayubi family, who run the much-loved Parwana restaurant in Torrensville. Their exquisite pilafs are made with long-grain rice found here – look for the sacks with a picture of a stag (deer) standing by a lake.
Also recommended is the friendly Abkho (428), which has an excellent display of meats, especially lamb and goat.
MIDDLE EASTERN
Breads from five different local bakeries can be found atAbbas Market(357), a store that isn’t nearly as big as it looks from the outside. The owner boasts he has products from 25 countries, all across Asia and particularly the Middle East.
It’s a good place to find miniature frozen okra, dried figs and a wide range of elaborate hookahs and hoses.
KEBAB SHOPS
The aroma of skewers of spiced lamb and chicken grilling over charcoal can be smelt in many parts of the road.
The largest and most celebrated of these eateries is The Ghan Kebab House(366), which began as a small takeaway before expanding into a substantial restaurant, including a platform for diners who wish to sit while eating in the traditional way.
Afghan Cuisine and Charcoal Kebab House (327) is run by Ali Mashouf (see earlier), who splits his time between this and his supermarket across the road. Kebabs are only a small part of a more sophisticated menu at Rumi Palace(303), where you can also find a delicious dish of palaw rice and slow-cooked lamb, curries and dumplings.
VIETNAMESE
The herbs and greens on display at Lucky Asian Grocery(410) look like they have been snipped off only minutes before, even on the hottest of days. At one end, bunches of common mint nudge into the slender leaves of Vietnamese mint or rau ram. At the other, beyond the choy sum and various types of spinach, the deep green and purple amaranth look so pretty they could be used in a bouquet.
Lucky also has a large range of noodles and condiments, including jars of the enticingly labelled “Special Pure Pickled Mud Fish” and “Preserved Snake-head Fish Sauce”.
For dining-in options, Saigon Gate(402) is a favourite of the food fraternity, including Africola owner/chef Duncan Welgemoed, who reckons the oxtail broth and spring rolls are the best in the state.
Closer to town, Viet L’Amour(93) plays on the French colonial link, its dining room filled with padded reproduction chairs and chandeliers, and a menu that includes duck a l’orange with the cold rolls and steamboats.
UYGUR
The Uygur people made the first noodles and pasta, long before Marco Polo took the idea back to Europe, says Shahret Yusuph who runs Nava Uyghur Cafe & Restaurant(360) with his wife Rahila.
Each day, Rahila makes a variety of long and short noodles by hand, to use in dishes such as “Ganbian Pidaimania”, a stir-fry of lamb pieces and vegetables in a punchy sauce.
The Uygur people are mostly Muslims from Central Asia, particularly northwest China. Their diet includes plenty of lamb, which is reflected in a menu that includes soups, dumplings, pies and kebabs.
BREAD SHOPS
Walk up the western side of this part of the road and you will smell the wonderfully named Tasty Bread(428) long before you see it. That’s a good thing, because this teeny little shop could easily be missed, despite its lime green paintwork.
Inside, there is the plainest of counters and, beyond that, large racks where the breads are taken from the oven and wait for a buyer. These include the thicker, puffier Turkish bread and the Persian-style or barbari flatbread that is scattered with sesame seeds and sold in such lengths you will be tempted to roll it like a carpet. Either way, the bread will be hot and impossible to leave alone during the trip home.
Also recommended is the Barakat Bakery (389), a little further north. For sweet treats, including baklava, pistachio pastries and honey sticks, as well as a colourful range of biscuits, head to Sajad Bakery(297).
DRINKS
Hot and bothered? Drinks don’t get much more refreshing than the watermelon juice from Agha Juice House (317). As well as a large selection of fresh fruit and vegetable juices, Agha has milk-based shakes (including the chikoo mentioned above) and ice cream. For an extra sugar hit, try the dessert drink falooda, a pretty-in-pink concoction including vermicelli, basil seeds and rose syrup. Ghan Agha Juice(366) has a similar selection on the other side of the road.
CITY END
FRENCH
For nearly three decades, Robert Ziolek and Darek Pietka have been putting a smile on faces of the local community with their patisserie treats at Muratti Cakes & Gateaux (114). Whether it’s an intricately decorated gateaux to celebrate a special occasion, a little tart or macaron to have with coffee, or the crunch of a fruit-filled danish, the quality and freshness are beyond reproach. Come early to see a display that wouldn’t look out of place in a Parisian boulevard.
ASIAN
The colonial charms of Hong Kong or a leafy laneway in Phuket? The choice is yours at Rosemont Hall and Sunnys Shop(106), a two-part venue created by Aaron Ratanatray just up the road from the cinema complex. Rosemont is an original, Art Deco building in which the graceful bones have been transformed in a style that brings to mind a classic tea house or even Raffles Hotel.
It’s a good fit for the retro Chinese offerings (honey chicken, sweet and sour pork) of Mr Chan, one of the two food stalls feeding diners in here. The other is Sunnys but, if the weather plays ball, that pad thai or papaya salad is best suited to eating outdoors, alongside swaying tropical plants in a little alleyway that could easily be in Bangkok or Bali.
SCANDINAVIAN
From the family behind Swedish Tarts, New Nordic(98) offers a contemporary Australian view of Scandinavian food – or maybe that should be a contemporary Scandinavian view of Australian food. Either way, more predictable cafe fare is interspersed with plates such as torched gravlax with shaved fennel, aquavit-cured kingfish and house-smoked venison with burnt onion and raspberry. The blond wood furniture, hanging greenery and marble feature wall could only come from one part of the world.
ITALIAN
There are plenty of standard suburban pizza joints up and down the strip but Anchovy Bandit(96) stands out from the moment you step inside and settle in to this dark and handsome room. Part bar (enjoy the film references in the cocktail list), the Bandit also takes its pizza making seriously, with a wood oven flickering at the back and toppings such as smoked eggplant, salami, olive and anchovy (of course).
GREEK
Even when Meze Mazi(86) is packed with noisy diners, as it most often is, there is a comforting sense of family about this loveable taverna.
Perhaps it’s the black-and-white portraits that line the walls. Or the bold, homely flavours of dishes such as rice-stuffed vegetables or slow-roasted lamb shoulder. Or the good-natured service corps led by owner Andrew Papadakis.
There’s no better place to experience Greek food – and Greek hospitality – in Adelaide.
INDIAN
Hidden away in a shopping arcade, opposite the local Foodland,Rasooi The Traditional Kitchen(4/85) ventures beyond the usual Indian restaurant formula, particularly in its range of street-food snacks. Paani puri are fragile, hollow spheres filled with a sweet-and-sour water. A selection of chats follows the formula of smashing up something crunchy (say samosa) and smothering it in chutney and yoghurt to make a big, delicious mess.
Also look out for the paranthas – wholemeal bread stuffed with fillings such as cauliflower or scrambled eggs.
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