The following summary on the Adelaide Festival Centre Fork on the Road, held between 12pm and 5pm on 28 April 2013. This has been provided by Prettified Paleo at her blog at http://prettifiedpaleo.blogspot.com.au
Fork on the Road 28th April 2013
Fork on the Road. I’ve been to three of these now and loved every single one. The atmosphere is great, the music is great and the array of food on offer is overwhelming! On this occasion I took a friend with me and we opted to share all our food choices (good way of getting to try all of the things!) This time it was held at the Festival Theatre in conjunction with the Oi You! Adelaide urban art exhibition (which was awesome if you like that kind of thing).
Anyway..on to the food. First up… a kangaroo burgers with native mint and spices, quandong & chilli sauce, caramelised onion and saukeraut salad on fresh-baked spelt sourdough from Conscious Lifestyles This was amazing, and healthy and pretttty paleo (bread had grains obviously). I love kangaroo, and this burger had such an awesome lemon myrtle taste to it!
Next up, a pulled pork toasted sandwich from Little Big Cheese Co. I haven’t eaten a cheese toasted sandwich in over a year. Since having some surgery in 2011 dairy upsets my digestive system, also tends to make my skin go crazy. (plus dairy and bread = totally not paleo!) So if I decide to ‘off-road’ with dairy it had better be amazing! Well, Little Big Cheese Co did not disappoint! Pulled pork, King Island Cheddar and a homemade slaw which was the perfect way to offset the expected oil factor from the other ingredients! I ate half of this, and it was almost life changing!
On to food item number three (yes i did eat a lot!), half a burger from the infamous Burger Theory Van. These guys always have a huge queue, but they have a pager system which is a really smart way to manage the orders. We shared the number two burger, which was made up of a Coorong Angus Beef patty, crispy pancetta, onion confit and Adelaide Blue cheese sauce (again with the dairy :/ I didn’t feel very well later that night). Burger was great, not to greasy, perfect size (I’m not a fan of huge oversized burgers you can’t fit in your hands/mouth) sauce was full of flavour and the pancetta added the right amount of crunch! For me, Burger Theory definitely live up to their reputation!
Beverage wise I indulged in a pink lemonade from the The Little Van That Could. Soft drink is something I never have, but I made an exception for this homemade version and it was lovely, fresh and not overly sweet.
On to dessert. I’d heard that Four Seeds made some pretty epic brownies, and they had been on my food bucket list for a while. Me and my friend shared half a dark chocolate brownie (no photo…it was demolished before we remembered!). It was perfect, in that chewy but soft but crunchy way only an amazing brownie can be. I have partaken in another brownie from four seeds since then (the peanut butter flavour) and hubby has tried the salted caramel and I have to say they have yet to disappoint. Possibly the best brownie I’ve had. Hubby also ranks them pretty highly.
Next up was macarons from The Macaron Man. We tried bubblegum, cookies and cream and peanut butter I think… Flavour-wise all were great. The bubble gum was exactly like eating Hubba Bubba! However the peanut butter wasn’t as good as similar flavoured macarons I’ve had elsewhere.
And that was it foodwise. I ended up not eating dinner I was so full. Plus my stomach was pretty grumbly from the dairy/grains. Definitely had an off road hangover the next day. But I think for events like this, where your sharing experiences with friends, and its not an every week thing it’s worth it. For me paleo is a long term lifestyle choice, which means it has to accommodate me enjoying life, not just being a paleo perfectionist.
We also checked out the urban art exhibition and went on the paddle boats (first time since I’ve ever done it, plus I got to burn off a few calories at the same time). Overall had a fantastic day, Fork on the Road is a great concept, and I hope can keep happening with Adelaide’s support!