Adelaide Central Market

Like every major Aus­tralian city, Adelaide has a good selec­tion of cafes and res­taur­ants. In fact, locals will argue that given their size, the city punches above its weight in terms of great places to eat (and accol­ades for their best eat­er­ies). I can cer­tainly remem­ber one glor­i­ous meal, at the Bridge­wa­ter Mill, in 1998, that rivals any­thing I ever exper­i­enced else­where in Australia.

That said, Adelaide has one ace up its sleeve in terms of food — the charm­ing and his­toric Adelaide Cent­ral Market. The oldest part of the cur­rent com­plex was built in 1900, but, the market’s roots stretch back to Janu­ary 1869. The large, covered and com­fort­ably spaced cent­ral area has stalls with everything from fresh pro­duce (a lot of it organic and regional), sea­food, cold meats, cheeses, through to cakes, coffee and spe­ci­al­ity shops (includ­ing sev­eral Asian stores). My par­ents go there to buy their cold meats and Yerba Maté and I always make a pil­grim­age to the Smelly Cheese shop, which has the best selec­tion of European cheeses I have ever seen in Australia.

Unlike mar­kets in most other cities, Adelaide Cent­ral Market is, as the name implies, cent­rally loc­ated — a short walk from the busi­ness dis­trict and near the heart of the city. The market has ample park­ing as well as being ser­viced by the excel­lent Adelaide Tram system (free within the centre of the city, with a $2 park and ride option from the edges of the city).

“Get out of the Super­mar­ket whenever you can.” Michael Pollan, Food Rules

While nowhere in Adelaide ever feels crowded, the Market always has a vibrancy and buzz. Partly that is because local office and retail work­ers rely on it as a café and eating des­tin­a­tion. Also, Cent­ral Market is pop­u­lar with fam­il­ies and given the issues Aus­tralia is now facing with obesity (Obesity is now more deadly than smoking), it is reas­sur­ing to see young kids shop­ping with their par­ents among the fresh, regional and sea­sonal produce!