Eat Like Ushi

After a tasty meal at Mandoo, I meandered back towards the Royal Adelaide Hospital (where I was staying). The scenic walk by the river in the evening heat of 34C was peaceful and a good way to settle the food load. After reaching my destination, part of me decided to continue walking through the streets nearby. Even though I'd like to think this was in order to get a bit more exercise and scope out a breakfast destination for a couple of days later, I'm realistic enough to know I also had a craving for ice-cream.

Not knowing anywhere specifically that had dessert (other than Steven ter Horst chocolatier which looks very nice but more expensive than I was willing to spend on myself), I was lucky to come across Cocolat. It's quite a large cafe and I would have treated it like a typical average Italian gelato place (ie. likely looked but ignored) if it wasn't for the sign that said "Australian Grand Dairy Awards - Back to Back Champion".

Looking on the website now, they won in 2011 for hazelnut-choc royale and 2012 for pistachio. Inside the store itself I only saw the award for the ferrero-roche (which the girl told me was the hazelnut-choc royale). I tried the pistachio as I simply do at every place, but even though the flavour was reasonable and mild, the intense green colour put me off slightly (NB. I like my pistachio dark green or brown).

Nonetheless I had a double scoop cup for $6.50 with hazelnut-choc royale and coconut. The lovely petite red-haired girl serving was in an ecstatic mood and gave me two enormous scoops. Even by her own admission she was feeling generous that day, which ended up being way too much for me alone but I appreciated her enthusiasm.

Both flavours were well blended and smooth, without any hint of ice crystals. The texture was broken up by pieces of ferrero-roche, chocolat slices and small coconut flesh. The coconut was the best version I've had (and also the favourite of the red-haired girl). I can see why the hazelnut-choc is popular but ended up being too sweet and intense for me. Nonetheless I'd happily go back again, especially if she is serving. If the flavour makers ever read this, coconut-pandan is the way to go. Hopefully next time.

There seems to be a lot of Thai restaurants in North Adelaide, all along the same street all within a few minutes walking distance of each other. It always intrigues me how this happens in any area - presumably one opens, has success and so the competitors come in? Maybe someone leaves the original and decides to try and steal the business away? Who knows. In any case Regent Thai seems to be one of the better reputed ones, but admittedly the decision to get takeaway from this place over the others wasn't overly pedantic.

The usual staples are the on menu and serve as my measures of judgement:
- Tom Kar Prawn (prawn in coconut milk flavoured with chilli, lemon, galangal, mushroom)
- Red Duck Curry (red curry, chilli, basil)
- Chilli Fish (deep fried barramundi topped with chilli sauce & basil)
- Regent Fried Rice (rice, prawn, chicken stirfried with chilli, garlic & basil)

I have recurring themes for my preferred classic Thai flavours - coconut milk, galangal, red curry and basil. The food was very nice and lasted around 4 meals. It would be difficult to say it was the best, but easy to say it was adequate and satisfying.

One of the few "culinary(?)" delights of North Adelaide is the AB. Having never heard of it until reading up about the local area to my apartment, the AB apparently is an abbreviation for abortion - because the dish is likened to looking like an abortion. Perhaps it isn't the most appealing mental image, but the idea of chips, lamb giros and sauce on a plate doesn't sound too bad for the souvlaki-hungry person in me.

Blue & White Cafe is reputedly the original and the best, so there was no better opportunity to try it. I suppose eating this at 3am after a few drinks would enhance the experience, but it's always a good test of hangover food to try it when sober. For lunch. At 2pm.

Overall the dish is pretty average - standard chips (not as crispy on the outside as I prefer), relatively tasty lamb (not as tender or flavoursome as the souvlaki's in Melbourne I'm used to) with some garlic and chilli sauce layered on top. It isn't bad by any means, and the combination has promise, but better chips and meat would certainly elevate this further.

In any case it's always worth trying the local cuisine.

Burgers - all the rage. Melbourne, Canberra and Adelaide seem to have picked it up the last few years. Although I don't think any have yet been able to recreate the same sense of fulfilment as London's MEATliquor and Tommi's, I'll keep trying to see if I find one.

Burgastronomy is one of Adelaide's contenders for their burger crown. It's in North Adelaide which makes it potentially a little further away from the hustle? Nonetheless I'm sure it's popular at peak drinking times.

One of the nice interior touches is the grungy cartoon/graffiti on the walls. It adds colour and I'm sure in the evenings creates a different atmosphere or focus while you line up to order. I was a bit hungry and maybe ordered more than I should. Oh well, I don't think I'll be returning to (North) Adelaide for a while...

- The Hot One (Hot) - beef, lettuce, cheese, chipotle BBQ & mayonnaise. The meat is decent quality but probably cooked a little more than I'd like. It's nice and the burger doesn't fall apart. The Hot rating is about right for me. A little chilli burn but nothing painful or that slows me down in eating;
- Sweet Potato Chips - everyone seems to comment on how inventive these are. Granted they are good, but it also made me think some of these people probably haven't been around much. Nonetheless these ones were very nice, sweet and served piping hot with a salty outside. It had some crisp to it too which is great;
- Southern Fried Chicken - succulent chicken, crispy outside, not overly salty. I liked it.

When I ordered I asked "how hot is hot?" They answered 8.5-9/10. Useless information. How does it compare to Nando's Hot? Don't know. Well that isn't useful either. Sitting down eating and realising that my hot burger was probably about the same as Nando's hot gave me the idea of an app that allows you to rate the heat of dishes around the world so you know what to order for yourself if you ever go. I still think it's a good idea (although not really money making), but I'd use it.

Next time I would order a Southern Fried Chicken burger (probably Hot Bacon Bird). The chicken was great, and the table near me where everyone had that (and the cook was a family member, so I assume he knows what's best) made me wish I had too. Otherwise the free standing chicken is good too.

After a few short evenings of work in North Adelaide, it seemed appropriate to find a reasonable breakfast before flying out. I'm not sure what the standards of things were around here (probably similar to an Australian country town I'm thinking), but regardless if people are giving a 96% (85 votes) rating on Urbanspoon, it can't be all that bad.

After a 15minute walk east, I came just in time for the 10am opening. As the first and only customer thusfar, I got first pick of tables and food. The room has some lovely cute homewares, although the only thing I picked up was a delightful birthday card that reminded me of someone in London.

- Cherry tomatoes, fresh basil + feta bruschetta - tomatoes were good, feta was good, bruschetta was good and balsamic salad nice contrast. But the basil was surprising - they used Thai basil! I've never had that before. It was such a different flavour and so unexpected. Such a simple dish, but worthy of adding to my list of things to recreate at home when I'm out of ideas.

The soy chai latte was ok. There wasn't much gingerness detected, but it was nice and the cinnamon was carefully added and not caked on like many places outside Melbourne seem to do.

There's some granola, fruits, breads, bagels and salads to pick from. The menu isn't extensive nor sound unusual, but there was a twist in my dish so you never know...