Thursday, October 30, 2008
Adelaide is an underrated city. Most international visitors head for straight for Sydney, or maybe Melbourne, never making it this far. I swear I’m not working for the tourist bureau, but believe me when I say that Adelaide offers something for everyone. It’s a lovely city to walk around; old Victorian buildings, outfitted with frilly wrought-iron balconies, sit affably alongside their modern counterparts, creating a dynamic cityscape. The Torrens River cuts an elegant swath through the town paralleled by miles of lanes, shaded by mature, arched trees, to bike or jog down. One afternoon we sat by the river and watched groups of young men in crew teams silhouetted against the late afternoon sky, as a gigantic, snowy pelican swooped down to perch on the dock.
The city center boasts a vibrant core that seems to be buzzing at all hours of the day. The excellent public transportation system is usually packed, ferrying passengers to hip restaurants with world-class, global cuisine. Adelaide is a foody’s dream. Leafy pedestrian malls offer local shops and boutiques to browse through. One edge of town is ringed by Glenelg, a soft, white-sand beach that locals can escape to. With its breezy shops and towering palm trees, it feels like a laid-back southern California beach town.
Adelaide has a thriving arts scene, hosting the world’s second largest fringe theatre festival, second only to Edinburgh’s. A huge arts complex rests alongside the river, providing multiple performing venues in one space, hosting shows from all over the world; Adelaide has more arts festivals per year than you can shake a stick at. Add to this a number of universities which gives Adelaide an open, intellectual feel that is always exciting and fun.
Just outside of town is the award-winning Cleland Wildlife Park which houses an amazing array of Australian native species, from toothy Tasmanian devils to towering emus. Here you can hand-feed kangaroos and snuggle a koala, something I never dreamed I’d do in my lifetime.
The amazing thing to me is all of this is happening in a city of one million people, the size of Albuquerque.
My hands-down favorite activity in Adelaide was visiting the Central Market. We spent a full morning cruising through the fruit and vegetable stalls in a cool industrial building, boasting locally-grown produce from South Australia. We scavenged the market for dinner, choosing bright spring greens (a novelty in October), slender haricort verts, finger-sized asparagus, crunchy peas, and sweet little cherry tomatoes. We dipped into one of many cheese shops, selecting soft, white mounds of Barossa Valley cheese and toothsome, veined Tasmanian blue to accompany our recent wine purchases. Then we selected briny, burgundy, tear-dropped olives and heaps of dewy fruit to enjoy as an aperitif to what was amounting to a real feast. Next it was on to the pasta store for fresh fettuccine. Famished from all the shopping, we sat down at rustic tables for lunch: Maikael chose homemade Russian piergois dressed with sour cream and fronds of dill, served up by a real Babuskha who was busy dissecting massive heads of cabbage. I settled for an outstandingly fresh baguette sandwich. I was surprised, but delighted, to learn that the European style of a la carte shopping is thriving in Australia.
If I’ve learned anything on this trip it’s to share what I have, even, as is at present, it isn’t much. So we brought our bounty home to enjoy with our hosts, Ben and Colleen. They have helped us to have a great South Australia experience, and most nights have ended in shared bottles of wine, laughing, talking, and furious rounds of Guitar Hero. There has also been a fair amount of razzing about which side of the road is the proper one to drive on, and how to pronounce “basil.” Ben feigned mock horror when he discovered that Maikael hadn’t been using his turn signal to negotiate roundabouts. We’ve been given an education in Australian lexicon, which is not British English but a whole new vocabulary: it’s not just lorries and lifts and crisps. I know that bogans are holligans, tea is dinner, and that tall poppies are fierce overachievers. But clobbering, spuds, and hicksville have the same meanings for them and us, and I am reminded once again that most of us in this world are more similar than different.
From: “The Urban Dictionary”
foodie: A dumbed-down term used by corporate marketing forces to infantilize and increase consumerism in an increasingly simple-minded American magazine reading audience. The addition of the long “e” sound on the end of a common word is used to create the sensation of being part of a group in isolationist urban society, while also feminizing the term to subconsciously foster submission to ever-present market sources.
Though the terms “gastronome” and “epicure” define the same thing, i.e. a person who enjoys food for pleasure, these words are perceived by the modern American consumer as elitist due to their latin root forms and polysyllabic pronunciations.
Also spelled “foody”
This newest repackaging of Third World derived ingredients in the latest Trader Joe’s product is ever so delicious and different, it’s really made for all you foodies out there to BUY NOW!