Big Table, Adelaide Cental Markets

I feel like I'm better person when I order a salad at Big Table. Which is lucky - I'm actually a pretty awful person and need all the help I can get! Fresh veggies, legumes, seeds and nuts are a tonic for the body and supporting local business is a tonic for the soul.

Big Table make excellent coffee and fabulous rolls, sandwiches and wraps but the stand out for me are the salads. Masters of texture, Big Table seem to have the knack of devising salads that snap, crackle and pop.

I ordered a rainbow of salads including two of my favorites - soy bean and beetroot with lentil - and one I hadn't seen before - brown rice and pumpkin.



I ALWAYS order the soy bean salad. It's da bomb. Popping soy beans, broad beans and peas peppered with crunchy nuts and flecked with salty, creamy chunks of feta.

Beetroot and lentil is also a good 'un. Toothsome chunks of roast beetroot with the pop of lentils and the crunch of roast walnuts. Delish!



Almost like cold risotto the brown rice salad felt creamy with the pumpkin melted through it. Pumpkin seeds and fresh baby spinach provided crunch and a squeeze of lime gave a fresh finish.

Big Table are also justifiable famous for the breakfasts. Well priced and generous I'm a big fan of the BLT (with either house made pesto, mayo or both) and the green eggs (scrambled eggs with pesto) and ham.

After a weekend of sinning (or of you're just generally a bad person like me) Big Table is the place to go for a little slice of redemption.

Totally Fresh, Gawler Place

I think I've finally found my soup joint this Winter. Unfortunately for me, it looks like most of Adelaide had already found it.

I was walking down Gawler Place and noticed that the line for Totally Fresh was just about the door. Being a human sheep and knowing that the taste buds of most South Aussies are generally good so I wanted to see what all the fuss was about.

After a short wait a chalk board listing 5 or 6 different soups including minestrone; chicken and corn; tom yum; and tomato and bacon greeted me once I reached the front of the line. I ordered the minestrone. The soup tasted truly of tomato and had plenty acid to get the salivary glands going. Vegetables were plentiful and tender but held their shape well and the chopped herbs added an uplifting freshness. You may have noticed that I'm finding it a little difficult to sell this soup. What can I say - it's soup. I'd be the first to admit that I have trouble getting excited about soup - but it was really excellent.




The following day I returned and ordered a Cajun chicken roll. Bizarrely, in addition to the spicy chicken, carrot, capsicum and lettuce the roll also had warm rice noodles. I didn't think rice noodles were particularly Cajun but they added a warm slippery texture that really worked. This was a fresh, tasty roll.



A day later I purchased a Caesar salad pizza for lunch.The great flaw with this pizza was the base. Neither thin and crispy nor thick and chewy the base was somewhere in the middle. In fact, it was more like shortbread than anything else and needed some more salt and some more char. And despite the over generous salad dressing the toppings were pretty good. Particularly impressive was the still runny baked egg.



Totally Fresh promise fresh, nutritious and fast lunch and on those they deliver. The soup is excellent and rolls are good but the pizza is let down by its base.

Miss Mai, James Place

I introduced a colleague to Miss Mai a few weeks. He cannot get enough of place so I joined him there for lunch today. Browsing the menu I found something I hadn't ordered yet - a pork and spring roll noodle box. Two of my favourite things (pork and spring rolls) together in one meal. Excitement!! Lunch was served in this groovy plastic bowl. Actually, the plastic bowl isn't all that groovy but vibrant orange sticker sure is! 



Choc full of mouth-watering goodies the lid of the plastic bowl could hardly close. Noodles, nuts, fried onions, crunchy salad, fresh herbs, ngoc cham dipping sauce - this bad boy had everything. But lets talk about the heroes of this dish - the pork and the spring rolls. Chopped up and tossed through the salad the spring rolls were crunchy, porky and slightly herby - very well executed spring rolls indeed. Glutinously fatty and tender but with a great crackling crunch the warm pork was the perfect protein to crown this textural and tasty salad.



Everything I've had from Miss Mai has been excellent. So, do me a favour - if you haven't checked this place out yet - please don't. I'd prefer Miss Mai remain mine.