From picnics to easy home meals - dine quick, dine right
Unley Life
Autumn 2022
One recent huge food trend has been towards picnic-style fare, fresh food-on-the-go, and quality take-home rather than traditional takeaway.
There's growing demand for real, healthy ingredients that easily hit the plate or pack into lunchboxes, cool bags and picnic baskets.
This dovetails into Easter, Autumn picnics, festivals where you take food rather than rely on expensive takeaways. And there's the wonderful feeling of being able to entertain loads of people at home again!
Unley business owners say the evidence is clear, Flourishing businesses are either specialising - or diversifying - to meet the easy fresh-meal demand. And there is a noticeable push towards healthy options in takeaway outlets where display fridges contain salads of ancient grains, some with antioxidants and proteins, may being meals on their own.
Open-air food markets are drawing crowds keen to shop outdoors. The Adelaide Showground Farmer's Market is a prime source of local produce. You can even pre-order to 'click and collect' rather than mingle in a crowd.
Think picnic hampers with staples from stalls like Barossa Bagels, Alexandrina Cheese, San Jose and Sunshine Ice Blocks. There's everything from streusel and birthday cake to lasagne, pie and calzone at Just Gluten Free.
Paul Capobianco is part of the family behind the Tony & Mark's fresh food group, which has expanded across Adelaide. He says their store in the Unley Shopping Centre - while 'small' - is working at capacity to meet the higher demand for a fresher style of convenience foods. The gourmet greengrocery has a range of quick, portable meals.
"People want a mix of fresh options, time savers and foods that travel well" says Paul. "We're always looking to expand our range to meet demand. Ready-made meals go well with a quick salad pre-packed in tubs and ready to go". Examples include the Kitchenhand Eat Well range offering dishes like chicken meatballs, spicy beef or tofu, and pumpkin slice. There also are Enzo's pastas, Bowlsome meals, and party of the My Muscle Chef dietary range, which promotes balanced protein, carb and fat counts.
A mix of providore-style outlets are meeting the dine-quick-dine-right need. The latest in Malvern is by Sarsha Harvey who has taken her pre-made-meals business to the next level at Local Kitchen & Co. on Duthy Street. Sarsha's shiny new fridges and freezers are filled with her constantly changing meals to feed any number, from one to a crowd. She is seeing a big response to the convenience of picking up a 'proper meal', or components of one, on the way home, "where you know the food is made with quality ingredients." Popular dishes are baked lasagne and butter chicken. Other choices include lunchbox slices, soups, Vietnamese chicken, pasta, peach crumble, and shortbread.
"One very nice aspect is that a lot of people are buying the ready food for gifts" says Sarsha, "they're helping people who are having babies, or who are in isolation or having a tough time. I even have bosses who come and buy meals for their staff."
