Pub crawl? More like GRUB crawl!
On the weekend just passed we embarked on a grand tour of Adelaide’s dumpling havens with local food tour group Feast on Foot. Every Saturday, Feast on Foot do one of their glorious tours from 2:30PM, showcasing the variety of edible goods our city has to offer with either The Adelaide Feast Sweet and Savoury tour or the Feast on Dumplings tour, which we were delighted to join on Saturday!
Feast on Foot have a strong focus on locality and authenticity, striving to exhibit only the freshest of dishes made from mostly local ingredients and using a traditional process of cooking. The venues that Feast choose to feature have been carefully hand-selected and are always either small business or family-owned as opposed to being of an international chain.
Feast on Foot does dumpling tours!
Not only do their tours offer an array of culinary deliciousness, but the tour guides wind you through the city down narrow alleyways and off the beaten track to reveal gorgeous street art on various buildings throughout the CBD. Your tour guide gives you a run down of Adelaide’s history along the way, covering old stories behind the beginnings of the Central Markets, China Town, the quaint little Leigh Street and so much more.
Our amazing tour guide Caitlin Hillson was fun and extremely knowledgeable; we learnt so many new things about the history of our own hometown! Caitlin took us to four of her favourite dumpling destinations: Piroshki, Fushun Dumpling and Noodle House, Mandoo and Sit Lo.
Feast on Foot guide Caitlin Hillson
Our first destination was rather unique; many people usually associate Asian cuisine when thinking about dumplings, however, Piroshki Cafe is a quaint little space located in the Adelaide Central Markets that offers dumplings of the Russian kind.
As the name so blatantly suggest, Piroshki serves delicious homemade piroshki, which are basically individual-sized fried buns stuffed with a variety of fillings such as beef and rice and spinach and ricotta. Piroshki’s dumplings are both rich in flavour and super filling, not to mention super reasonably priced at just $4 a piece!
Piroshki Cafe in the Adelaide Central Markets
Fushun Dumpling and Noodle House are a cute, family-owned business that specialise in quality, locally-grown ingredients. Here, we were spoiled with plates upon plates of Chinese steamed and fried northern pork dumplings, not to mention lovely service!
Fushun Dumpling and Noodle House
After indulging at Fushun, we definitely needed to give our stomachs a little break before eating anything more (and we were only halfway through the tour!), so Caitlin took us on a 20 minute walk through the streets of Adelaide.
We made our way from Gouger Street up to North Terrace, discovering eye-catching pieces of street art from the likes of street artists Vans Omega, The Rawhide Ankles, Eynesbury and Beastman (Brad Eastman). Majority of the group had never seen some of the pieces before; we were all truly astounded at the underrated beauty of our city’s urban landscape.
The group admiring a street art collaboration by Eynesbury and Splash Adelaide
We eventually reached our third destination, Mandoo, which is highly rated amongst the Adelaide community as one of the best dumpling places around! Mandoo is a Korean restaurant located on Bank Street that specialises in dumplings, yet also makes a mean bibimbab! Note: For those of you wondering, it’s pronounced exactly as the word looks: bi-bim-bab.
About to devour this amazing Korean specialty – Bi-Bi Bibimbab!
Along with the bibimbab, we were served mouthwatering steamed Kimchi dumplings, fried pork dumplings and a surprise dish called Jeon!
The Jeon was perhaps my favourite part of the entire meal; it was pretty much a Korean fried pancake dish made solely of mixed veggies. Other Jeon dishes can include meat such as shredded beef or beef liver, tofu and also seafood such as shrimp and octopus.
Mandoo Jeon
Our fourth and final destination of the day was the trendy Sit Lo joint, offering tasty Vietnamese street food at damn good prices. Being a Sit Lo regular myself (and a particular fiend for the chicken Phở), I was already well familiarised with the menu and couldn’t wait to grab myself a soft shell crab Bánh bao.
Other members of the group took to sipping on Sit Lo’s amazing iced coffee, a product in which the restaurant has often become seemingly renowned for.
Sit Lo shopfront
Soft shell crab Bánh bao to take away, please!
Feast on Foot do tours that are perfect for hens nights, bucks shows, birthdays and generally family bonding, but are also a great tourism prospect for the Adelaide community. If you have friends from overseas or interstate flying down, why not take them on a tour of Adelaide’s great foodie places? You can book online or read more through the Feast on Foot website here.
