100 things you must eat in SA

LOOSEN your belt and feast your eyes on this bucket list of the state's best food experiences.

SA's Top 100 Food Experiences: Part 10.

Reviews: Simon Wilkinson, Dianne Mattsson, Tony Love, Kylie Fleming, Katie Spain, Renato Castello, Michelangelo Rucci, Tory Shepherd, David Jean

Smoked oysters

Kangaroo Island oysters.

Pull up a padded milk crate and table outside this esplanade shop, and slurp some stunning oysters with the shortest food miles of all — they are farmed just across the road. You can also build a tidy supper of house-smoked oysters and smoked oyster dip made with KI Island Pure labne, plus abalini (tiny abalone from nearby Smith Bay), and the freshest local fish, with chips, to take back to your holiday digs.

While you’re there: Mix a seriously good G and T made with gin from KI Spirits’ cellar door at Cygnet River.

Oyster Farmshop - Kangaroo Island
486 Tangara Dr, American River
8553 7122
www.facebook.com/OysterFarmShop 

Crayfish

Fresh crayfish at Sky Seafoods.

Lemon, salt and a good, crisp white wine is all you will need to makes a memorable feast on your next visit to the South-East. Sky Seafoods sell these beauties, either live or cooked, out front of its fish processing plant in the industrial precinct of this tourist town. Add some fish wings or prawns to feed a crowd.

While you’re there: The cray, while competitively priced at SS, is still extravagant, so balance the cost with excellent fish’n'chips from Polly’s at the Marina on the other side of town.

Sky Seafoods - South-East
58 Robe St, Robe (October-May)
8768 2899
www.skyseafoods.com.au 

Muntrie Cheesecake

Muntrie cheesecake at Sandy Grove.

This is a cheesecake to travel for, made all the sweeter because you can see the muntrie bushes from the verandah where afternoon tea is served. The biscuit base is perfect, the gorgeous creamy cheese is loaded with the fresh muntrie fruit and a cream topping is dusted with chocolate. South-East producers Robyn and Ashley Clark keep the recipe secret but happily share some of the produce from around the edges of their olive groves at this farmgate veranda cafe.

While you’re there: Take home chutneys, jams and sauces.

Sandy Grove - South-East
Lot 11, Pinks Beach Rd, Kingston
8767 2722. 

Figs

Willabrand/Glen Ewin Estate fig salad.

In their short season, deep purple, teardrop-shaped figs with luscious seedy flesh feature in salads, desserts and even savoury tarts at the smart Glen Ewin Estate bistro and cellar door. They come to plate fresh from the Willabrand orchard next door, where you can also pick them yourself. Out of season, good cooking continues, notably the pizzas, a big salad of Atlantic salmon two ways and a choc tart with berry compote.

While you’re there: Willabrand’s glace and choc-enrobed figs are a treat all year round.

Willabrand/Glen Ewin Estate - Adelaide outskirts
Lower Hermitage Rd, Houghton (February-April)
8380 5657
www.glenewinestate.com.au 

Cheddar cheese curds

Fresh dairy at Alexandrina Cheesery.

Forget chips and lollies for the drive down south: these cheese curds which curl and squeak on the tongue are the greatest travel snack, and a lot healthier too. Chances are the cows will be milling by the cheesery cafe when you stop in for a milkshake or Alexandrashire tea, with time to peek through the window and watch the cheesemakers at work. Make sure you bring a cool bag to take away cheese, yoghurt, cream and milk.

While you’re there: Stop at the Mt Compass store for venison pie.

Alexandrina Cheesery - Fleurieu Peninsula
Sneyd Road, Mt Jagged (via Mt Compass)
8554 9666
www.alexandrinacheese.com.au 

Picnic to go

Maggie Beer at the Pheasant Farm.

You can eat inside at Maggie Beer’s famous Pheasant Farm, or on the deck overlooking the prettiest of ponds, but we also like to gather a picnic for feet-up B&B time after a Barossa day trek. Pop duck and orange pate, quinoa salad, crusty bread, some bitter orange and almond cake into a coolie bag, (plus ice cream if it's the last stop) and the staff will wrap perishables in ice at no extra charge.

While you’re there: Stop in at Sokool Orchards at Stockwell for stunning seasonal fruits oozing every last drop of juiciness.

Maggie’s Farm Shop - Barossa Valley
Seppeltsfield Rd, Tanunda
8562 4477
www.maggiebeer.com.au 

Seafood to share

Inland Sea seafood platter.

Set on a rather jumbled site of a former farm and now seafood processing plant a couple of kilometres west of Warooka on the southern Yorke Peninsula, this half-and-half retail outlet and restaurant doesn’t skimp on generosity. Here amongst a mostly traditional oceanic menu, the $120 summer platter has four of everything, including fresh and smoked local fish, scallops with mango salsa, big local prawns (cold), grilled Slipper lobster, gravlax, Coffin Bay oysters, S&P squid, plus Moreton Bay bugs. It’s one of the best when it comes to YP food options, while the attached farmgate shop is your best choice locally for fresh and frozen seafood.

While you’re there: Try Palate 2 Palette Gallery/Restaurant at Port Broughton, or go deep Yorke to the Marion Bay Tavern.

Inland Sea - Yorke Peninsula
Marion Bay Rd, Warooka
8854 5499 

Elvis pancakes

Minniribbie pig farm.

A pig farm in the middle of nowhere is the last place you would expect to find this decadent treat of banana, bacon, syrup and peanut butter, if you like, all enveloped by a pancake curling at the edges and thick enough in the centre to mop it all up. Look up from this feast and drink in the West Coast view from the veranda of this combination of farmgate and antique store. Farmer Warren Smith is likely to be nearby tending his very spoilt Black Berkshire pigs that live an easy life until needed for the butchering side of the business.

While you’re there: try a simple fried pork scotch steak ... delicious.

Minniribbie Farm - Eyre Peninsula
40 Snapper Hill Rd, Wangary
0402 352 368 
www.minniribbiepaddock.com.au

'Mean' Meringue Pie

Havenhand chocolates.

Chocolate is their main focus, but Havenhand’s high and mighty lemon meringue pie is made with the best local citrus, part of this surprising little shop/cafe/factory’s push to feature all things fabulous in the Riverland. Apart from the pie, the local fruits go into the scrumptious chocolates and desserts brought to tables on the lawn out front, overlooking this particularly picturesque section of the river.

While you’re there: Try a Ned Kelly pie from the Waikerie bakery, just across the road.

Havenhand’s Chocolate Factory - Riverland
22 Peake Tce, Waikerie
8541 2134
www.havenhandchocolates.com.au 

Vege burger

Gumtree Cafe vege burger.

Nestled in the southern Flinders Ranges is an unassuming cafe with big burger brag rights. This heaving concoction includes cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion, pineapple, beetroot, a fried egg, mayo and a crunchy potato-based vegetable pattie between a lightly toasted bun. Bizarrely it also contains strips of bacon (only in rural SA!) so if you’re a vegetarian make sure you request it meat-free. The heaving spectacle is served up by a group of ladies dressed in green whose chatter adds to the friendly country vibes.

While you’re there: For the carnivores, Orroroo Kangaroo (Dews Meats) is hidden away on the corner of Ninth St and Thirteenth St and sells kangaroo meat: sausages, roasts, pastrami, kebabs, mince and bacon — you name it.

Gumtree Cafe and Take-Away - Flinders Ranges
22 Second Street, Orroroo
8658 1016
www.facebook.com/orroroogumtree