Sumptuous Feb/Mar 2009
Innes National Park - 'The Gap'
Yorke Peninsula – Loved for decades by fishing fanatics, surfers and shackies, the Yorke Peninsula has never been seen as a food destination – but it looks like that’s about to change.
There's something about the geography and the style of the Yorke Peninsula that makes every trip there seem like the discovery of a secret.
The journey from Adelaide is always surprisingly short. No matter how many times you drive into Innes National Park, you’re struck by the almost foreign beauty of the coastal landscape – the steep cliffs, the islands dotted off the coast, the stark silence of the ghost town of Inneston, deserted now for more than 70 years.
For many, the food production credentials of the peninsula are also a surprise. Despite the fact that this is essentially a farming and fishing community, it isn’t a straightforward task to taste the local produce, except for any seafood you catch or gather yourself.
It’s easy to forget that Yorke Peninsula produces some of the best barley and seafood in the world, with a range of other successful food industries from sea salt to bush food.
But with costal development taking off, including the Dunes development at Port Hughes, and the more and more people waking up to Yorke Peninsula’s obvious charms, there are signs that the local food culture is set to boom.
Dining in the paddocks
No matter how Yorke Peninsula grows, the locals and regular visitors hope it will always retain it’s identity as a down-to-earth farming and fishing community.
Ballywire Farm, a few kilometers from Yorketown, captures the essence of Yorkes, with rustic tea rooms, farm displays and a brand new 18-hole mini-golf course (complete with ‘cow pat’ obstacles on the greens)
In the tearooms, you feel like you’re sitting in the middle of the paddock, with large windows taking in the gently sloping acres. Chef Jo Minks grew up here and, with parents Peter and Chris, has turned this working family farm into a favourite destination for families.
Jo cooks each batch of fresh scones to order and the lunch menu includes meat, eggs and other produce grown on the farm.
Heading south, you come to another dining experience in a paddock.
Rob and Robyn Wilkinson have been running Napco Seafood, based about four kilometers south of Warooka on the Marion Bay Road, for 30 years.
The wholesaler and retailer opened a restaurant in 2007 and it’s been gathering huge word-of-mouth support.
Rob agrees the location is a bit unlikely – a “sheep paddock”, as he describes it – but he has created a landscaped al fresco area and pleasant dining room. Plus Rob’s very accommodating to his guests: a ‘free camping’ sign indicates that Rob’s happy for you to pitch a tent in his paddock if you’ve had that kind of night.
The kitchen turns out a broad menu including a very special lobster banquet (you need to book ahead for this) chilli crabs, local calamari, whiting and local gummy shark cooked with Moroccan flavours.
The lobster is a particular drawcard – Rob say’s it’s the best in the world. When we talked to him, he was preparing to export a huge shipment to central China.
“I opened the restaurant because I got sick of people coming into the shop and saying ‘where can I get a decent feed of local seafood on the lower end of Yorke Peninsula?”
“So I decided to open a restaurant right here. Everyone laughed at me, but I knew it would work.”
Keep travelling south and you come to Marion Bay, a small town with a shop and two taverns. It’s also home to some of the best food on the peninsula.
The very smart Marion Bay Tavern is doing a great job with it’s a’ la carte menu. Chef Adam Sommariva has been at the tavern for nearly four years, because he loves the laid back lifestyle.
As owner Josh Harkins says: “Adam is very innovative in his cooking and we’re very lucky to have someone of his quality down here.”
Josh includes as much as the local seafood as possible and the town’s fishing heritage is reflected in the Tavern’s seafood platter – vongole (cockles), tommy ruff, squid and whiting (the cockles are used to catch the tommys, the tommys are used to catch the squid, and so on).
He's hopeful that within a short time, a lot more local produce, including seafood, will be processed and available on the southern part of the peninsula.
Beyond the seafood, Adam’s food attracts visitors and locals as far away as Port Vincent. When we visit, the menu includes a Canuck salad – the basis of which is an Atlantic salmon fillet, hot smoked on the premises – a stack of pub favourites, and the very well cooked ‘Oscar’ signature dish – a scotch fillet, topped with Moreton Bay bug tail. Wood oven pizzas and burgers are of a superior quality.
The producers
Justin Murdock is an engineer by profession, but he also happens to be one of Australia’s most awarded amateur brewers. He’s giving up his amateur status to go pro, with a new brewery, restaurant and function centre due to open near Coobowie later this year.
The 28-year-old is also the chair of the Yorke Peninsula Producers – a small group of locals who are working together to bring the flavours of Yorke Peninsula to locals and visitors.
“People are looking for that local experience,” he says. “Local food is always the best, and it always has been – ours is that good that it has always been exported.”
He plans to bring the local tastes to a new crowd through Yorke Brewing, which he promises will be the largest micro-brewery in South Australia. He’s growing his own hops on the peninsula and will use the local barely and wheat in a range of boutique brews, including a wheat beer, a lager and an ale. He’s also experimenting with an exotic mulberry-wheat beer.
Justin has won 27 national brewing awards and there is a wide interest in his new venture. He says 17 hotels on the peninsula are keen for his products and deals are in offing with Hilton Australia and Dan Murphy’s.
Marion Bay caterer Caroline Bonnett is also a key member of the Yorke Peninsula Producers and an enthusiastic spruiker for her regions produce. She started selling Yorke Peninsula sea salt under her C-foods brand and she is planning other product lines.
“I’m so passionate about the Yorke Peninsula,” she says. “There’s so much potential here for tourism, for people who want to create new food products.”
The list, while not always obvious, is impressive. There are oysters at Stansbury, bush foods, at Port Victoria, one winery (barley Stacks at Urania) and spicy olive oil and marinated olives from Maitland’s White Flint Olive Grove.
Butchers offer local meats and a range of bakeries do excellent products, from the Cornish pasties of the Copper Coast to Ardrossan Bakery’s near legendary bread.
You can sample local produce, including White Flint Olive products, local honey, jams, chutneys and more at Harvest Corner, the Yorke Peninsula Visitor Information Centre in Minlaton.
West coast
Good alternatives to standard pub grub and fish and chips are starting to crop up all over the peninsula.
The towns on the western coast of the peninsula have a range of new options including Port Broughton’s Palate 2 Palette, which is combining good food and art, and the popular Coopers Alehouse, right on the Copper Cove Marina at Wallaroo.
Accommodation
Caravan parks and shacks are, justifiably, the accommodation choice of the peninsula.
But if you’re looking for something different, there are a number of appealing options.
The Wallaroo Marina Apartments and Hotel has great views over the ocean, easy access to dining at the Coopers Alehouse and is only meters away to the ferry which links the Yorke and Eyre peninsulas.
The latest boutique accommodation on the southern end of the peninsula is the Marion Bay Motel. Situated right next door to the tavern, the motel has been beautifully done by Graham and Robyn Virgin, the original builders and managers of the Marion Bay Tavern.
The exterior is all beach-side charm, with corrugated iron cladding and pylons from the old Stansbury Jetty used as verandah posts.
Inside, each of the five ‘studio style’ rooms are full of character and personal touches including an LCD television and quality toiletries from the Claire Valley’s Sugar Shack soap.
Musgrave Manor at Stansbury offers executive accommodation, with five bedrooms, an 8-person spa on the deck, and 1.3 acres of landscaped gardens.
For something completely different, try Troubridge Island, off Edithburgh. This fragile sand island is an important breeding place for migratory birds and home to fairy penguins. This circa 1850 lighthouse keepers’ cottage is available for hire.
Published in Sumptuous Feb/Mar 2009 Magazine, Written By David Washingtonwww.sumptuous.com.au
Posted by justin
Sat, 21 February 2009