On Monday afternoon Adelaide Food Central jumped on board one of the Princess Cruises ships departing from Adelaide and was introduced to their exciting 2020-2021 Australia and New Zealand Program. We were also treated to chocolate and wine tasting from d’Arenberg and a three course meal on one of the boats restaurant The Sterling Steakhouse.

We were delighted to hear that Princess Cruises have introduced 20 new cruise options departing from Adelaide. This is a great accomplishment not only from the cruise company but also for the tourism industry in South Australia. It is said that it will be Princess Cruises biggest summer season, with the introduction of these new trips and a new boat Majestic Princess. This is the biggest commitment a cruise line has dedicated itself to within South Australia. These exciting new trips will be released for sale to its elite guests on Tuesday 10th of April and to the public on Wed the 11th of April.

Before we were introduced to the exciting new program we were lucky to be treated to a chocolate tasting paired with wines from the famous d’Arenberg winery. The head sommelier of the cruise along with chief wine maker from d’Arenberg, Chester Osborne took us through some of the rich red wines they have on offer. One of their famous wines being The Dead Arm shiraz which was paired with a rich and decadent chocolate truffle.

We then were directed to the beautiful Sterling Steakhouse which looked out of the ship onto the sparkling water. We were extremely excited to see what this beautiful cruise ship offered on their menu, as we all know at Adelaide Food Central we love our food. We started off the meal with an entrée you could choose from: Prawns, Onion Soup and a Goats Cheese Salad.

We went for the Black Tiger Prawns and Papya Salpicon with Mustard Seed Aioli, we were very impressed with the fresh seafood that was used in this dish. The salpicon, a dish with one of more ingredients diced or minced, incorporated mustard, prawns, herbs and papaya. It was then garnished with two fresh and delicious prawns. Some restaurants can be rather stingy when it comes to seafood but this dish was prawns galore. The flavours were light and not overly fishy which can sometimes be the case and the sweet papaya added that little bit of difference. We were very impressed with the entrée and were excited to move onto the main meal.

There were two main meals on offer sea bass and steak, as we had seafood for our entrée so decided on the New York Strip, a traditional thick cut sirloin with sides of red skin mashed potato, garlic and herb French fries, sautéed wild mushrooms and grilled asparagus. The steak itself was a phenomenal cut of meat cooked medium rare and extremely juicy. The sides were simple but delicious and worked perfectly with the divine steak. It was such a large serving size and we were impressed with how well each and every element had been cooked.

We ended with the amazingly pretty and delicious dessert: Milk Chocolate and Peanut Butter Bar with Honey Roasted Peanuts. This dessert is a tribute to the love and marriage of peanut butter and chocolate. The base of this delicious dessert, developed by Chef Love, is a moist cake made from almond flour and brown butter topped with a silky, smooth peanut butter cream and topped with a layer of milk chocolate moose. This dessert honestly looked too good to eat, and tasted even better.

We would love to thank the team from Princess Cruises, and d’Arenberg for treating us to an enjoyable and exciting evening. We were overly impressed with the sheer size of the cruise ship along with the amazing amenities and restaurant choices it had on board.

Words by Tomika Salerno