Big Table, Adelaide Cental Markets

I feel like I'm better person when I order a salad at Big Table. Which is lucky - I'm actually a pretty awful person and need all the help I can get! Fresh veggies, legumes, seeds and nuts are a tonic for the body and supporting local business is a tonic for the soul.

Big Table make excellent coffee and fabulous rolls, sandwiches and wraps but the stand out for me are the salads. Masters of texture, Big Table seem to have the knack of devising salads that snap, crackle and pop.

I ordered a rainbow of salads including two of my favorites - soy bean and beetroot with lentil - and one I hadn't seen before - brown rice and pumpkin.



I ALWAYS order the soy bean salad. It's da bomb. Popping soy beans, broad beans and peas peppered with crunchy nuts and flecked with salty, creamy chunks of feta.

Beetroot and lentil is also a good 'un. Toothsome chunks of roast beetroot with the pop of lentils and the crunch of roast walnuts. Delish!



Almost like cold risotto the brown rice salad felt creamy with the pumpkin melted through it. Pumpkin seeds and fresh baby spinach provided crunch and a squeeze of lime gave a fresh finish.

Big Table are also justifiable famous for the breakfasts. Well priced and generous I'm a big fan of the BLT (with either house made pesto, mayo or both) and the green eggs (scrambled eggs with pesto) and ham.

After a weekend of sinning (or of you're just generally a bad person like me) Big Table is the place to go for a little slice of redemption.

Hungry Jacks, Chicken Mini

Hungry Jacks have launched a new addition to their mini burger range - the chicken mini. You might remember that I was reasonably impressed with the rodeo mini - the onion rings retained their crunch and the smokey BBQ sauce was applied with a deft hand. I wish I could say something equally nice about the chicken mini - but I can't...

Eating a chicken mini is like eating a savoury pillow - identically cloying the whole way through. The formed chicken patty had exactly the same texture as the bun. I presume the lettuce and breading on the chicken patty was supposed to add some crunch - it unfortunately didn't. And the rich kewpie-style mayo, though pretty decent on its own, simply added to the underwhelming monotony of the burger.



I swapped out my fries for onion rings. Although the Hungry Jacks website describes them as "delicious onion rings in breadcrumbs" I'm still to be convinced that they contain any actual onion. Though crumb was a bit sad the rings were crunchy and onion-y but there was this weird unidentifiable fake flavour in the background.




My recommendation - skip the chicken mini, order the rodeo mini and stick with the chips.