01 March 2011

A Street Food Tour of Adelaide's Chinatown Food Courts


Adelaide has a great Chinatown, it's not big but the offerings are diverse and it's very popular at night, with a couple of joints open till the wee hours. In this post we explore the food courts.





Adelaide Chinatown consists of a couple of streets surrounding the Central Market, and a small paved mall. We eat here all weekend, breakfast lunch and dinner.



We check into the YHA which is just a block away. It takes us just a few minutes to sniff out a Chinatown food court. Yay.



The Market Plaza Food Court is just what we hoped for: there's a an interesting range of stalls, it's wonderfully down-market, and there's plenty of punters.



Welcome to Adelaide!



Ricky's Chicken Rice is our first food stop. These guys must be popular, it's the only food court stall I've ever seen with an electronic ticket system.



Ricky's Hainanese chicken rice is a winner, a great deal at only $7.50. The chook is served wet in a bowl of soy based sauce that has a light Chinese cooking wine flavour. Delicious. Interestingly the ginger\shallot sauce has been blended to a pulp, a nice twist on a classic.



The chook is super juicy and tender as advertised.



Thanks Ricky!



Alison is lured by the Seng Kee Yum Cha stall.



Alison opts for chicken feet and pork. The chook foot is braised in a red vinegar and soy. The pork is plain and simple.



We're back the following day, the Taipei Snack Bar has my name all over it.



Braised minced pork with noodles - only $6, or $5 with rice instead of noodles. The noodles are like like spaghetti and the pork mince has lovely flavours of star anise\five spice. Cheap and tasty tucker. 'Chinese Spaghetti' is a fave.



Alison is homesick for Marrickville and opts for Vietnamese.



Bun Riue - Rice noodle with crab meat, pork mince, egg tomato in chicken soup. The broth is a little sweet with a hint of tumeric, perfect when cut with the supplied lemon. The little balls of pork mince and crab are heavenly. It seems a little stripped back from what we are used to in Marrickville, but excellent all the same.



The Market Plaza food court adjoins Adelaide's famous Central Market. We can't resist the wee cakes from Bun Chef Delicious Tart.



The Delicious Tart production line.



A Delicious Tart.



Custard innards. Also comes in coconut, red bean, chocolate, and savoury ham cheese and corn.



We breakfast at Taldy-Kurgan Russian Piroshki stall in Adelaide Central Market. At first we wonder why Chinese folks have a Russian stall, then we notice the boss is a huge fella who appears to be from the around Chinese Russina border.




A piroshky is a ball of fried dough filled with goodies.



Beef and onion piroshki innards. A fine hangover breakfast.



For Sunday breakfast we try the 'Food Plaza' food court in the Chinatown mall.



'Food Plaza' is a dark and cavernous joint.



Singapore Delights is our pick for breaky.



Hainanese Chicken Rice $7.50. Chicken rice has become one of my favourite breakfasts: plain and simple, protein and rice. I get the breast which isn't as moist as the thigh. It is served fried onions which is a nice variation, the onions taste like barbecued onions. I enjoyed Ricky did the better chicken rice of the two, but both were good.



Lor mee (or Loh Mee) - hokkein noodles in a thick gravy-like soup with a little bit of everything: egg, pork, chicken, you name it.

Overall we thoroughly enjoyed our Adelaide food court finds. The food was good though it didn't have the wow factor we often find in Sydney's Chinatown food courts.

4 comments:

  1. What a great eating time you had! Cheap, tasty and filling. :-) Haven't been to Adelaide for a long time.

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  2. That Russian stall is pretty famous - I've even seen a show about it on the teev. Looks like a great weeekend. I love the Adelaide markets and Chinatown.

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  3. If you go back next time try the Chinatown Cafe which is in Moonta Street just opposite from the Food Plaza. It gets packed from noon and has a full range of Hawker dishes. Or around the corner in Gouger Street is Adelaide's famous Ying Chow with it its aniseed tea duck. See this: http://thehungrybonvivant.com/2011/02/12/the-last-meal-ying-chow/

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  4. We spied the Chinatown Cafe and would have gone but there wasn't enough eating opportunities to be had. We'd also love another go at Ying Chow, so many delights!

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Thanks for your comment joy - please keep your musings happy - if you want to complain about a restaurant please do it on a restaurant review site (or your own blog) - we're all about celebrating cultural diversity and the great eats that come along with it :-)

Our ethics: We pay for all our own meals and travel (though sometimes Mum shouts us).