Celebrating mid-week did not deter the crowd from attending this fantastic event at the prestigious Sean’s Kitchen in Adelaide Casino. Held by SA Life Magazine along with CityMag and InDaily under the management of South Australia’s Innovative, Solstice Media, this exclusive event was designed to officially declare the month of July as SA Food Month for appreciating and celebrating the amazing local food and wine South Australia has to offer.

Admittedly winter can be a quiet season for restaurants, but this is more reason to commemorate this joyous occasion and remember how lucky we are to have such delectable treats available in our own backyard. Therefore, on their 7th edition SA Life Magazine has come up with something new and completely different, thus being part of SA Food Month. Over the last decade they’ve seen an explosion of interest in food from gardening to home cooking, restaurants and production of wine and agriculture. So, this year the magazine decided to present everything we need to know about dining and drinking around Adelaide and South Australia surroundings in little bite sizes. Let us take you for a taste of what the 352 pages of this year’s magazine edition have up their sleeve from the night’s event.

As quoted by chef Sean Connolly himself, “It is a priviledge to be in South Australia with the best local produce that we can find anywhere in the region. From seafood to great wine and to great butchery as well”. This is in fact, not an over statement coming from the celebrity chef. We were so lucky to be able to taste some of the most amazing food that night. Spoilt with the freshest Smoky bay oysters from International Oysters & Seafood, which was stationed outside the entrance of the restaurant, it was hard not to linger as we continued inside.

Greeted with 5-star service, the staff brought a delicious variety of finger foods including a green pea with guacamole on a lettuce taco, king fish with salmon roe on a cucumber slice, blue fin tuna tarte with aioli parsley and capers and also our personal favourite the delicious mushroom cigars and deep fried prawn rolls. If you think that was generous, I kid you not, that was just the beginning. After we took a look around, we were stunned by the amazing display of a whole tuna fish proudly positioned in a glass container by Stehr Tuna who are known for their fresh seafood, because once we tried the sashimi and maki rolls, it would be hard to imagine having any other tuna but this. They were simply divine.

Another station that caught our eyes were the Barossa Fine Foods with it’s interesting history. Now almost reaching 100 years to date and still going strong, keeping it in the family business, Dieter Knoll was there to slice up some delicious ham for all of us to get our hands on. We couldn’t resist the ham on bone served with pomegranate glaze and their duck terrine served on melba toast with beetroot and balsamic relish.

The highlight of the night was the Mayura Station wagyu beef. Available to enjoy on a farm in Millicent called the Tasting Room, we had a taste of their beef skewers and the wagyu beef brisket tacos, and no, we couldn’t stop at one. They were cooked to perfection and if we didn’t bother to appreciate the taste and texture of the meat it would have been unnecessary to chew. It was that tender!

More food stations spoilt us for choice including the local Say Cheese, located on stall 46 in Adelaide Central Market. We also got the sneak peek of two new flavours from Golden North Ice Cream: vanilla sundae and spearmint sundae. These flavours are mainstream but honestly not one to be missed, you can really taste the spearmint melting in your mouth like an after-dinner mint. Very refreshing indeed.

To support all these amazing food and desserts, Kay Brothers Wine from the Mclaren Vale region and Pirate Life Brewing in Hindmarsh coming in strong with their wine, pale ale, lager and stout game. Not forgetting the popular gin from 78 Degrees gin which is now officially in our favourite list of gins. And just in case we weren’t ready to end the weeknight, a coffee cart from Coffee Barun was there to save the day.

The SA Food Month 2019 event was a very well thought out and perfectly timed night. From beginning to end we were treated like royals. We did not have to wait a second for food to come our way. The setup of the individual food and drink stations were also very well looked after. This was a 10/10, which I guess is to be expected when these high caliber vendors come together to create such a fabulous and successful event.

SA Life Food & Wine List 2019 magazine is now out for $14.95. A great purchase for future references or even now for everything former and new about South Australia’s best (but not limited to) dining.

Words and Images by Dee Pene from Adelaide Food Authority