autumnal square forking

At the end of November 2012, the first Fork on the Road was held in Victoria Square... and it was very enjoyable, even if it pretty much ended up with me being in a food coma for the remainder of the afternoon.

Not long after they broke ground on the Victoria Square renovations, so, fifteen Fork's later, this is the first Fork to return to the Square.

Rather than trying to find somewhere to park, I decided to take a stroll in, past the oval and up to the square.

This Fork was being held in conjunction with Tasting Australia 2014 which had taken up the majority of the north half of Victoria Square, leaving Fork to spread out on either side of the closed off Grote/Wakefield Street thoroughfare.

It was definitely a case of needing more shade and more seating though... it would have been okay if the sides of Victoria Square with all the shade and seating were open, but they were part of the Tasting Australia area and wasn't that easy to get to.

I'm also always intrigued by where the lines form, and when... although both Sneaky Pickle and Chimichurri Grill seemed fairly busy.

I started off with a Fruit Tingle juice from Juice Quest (formerly known as Juicy Juice) just to hydrate after the walk, then did a circuit to see who was in attendance.

Then I needed to decide what my first course was going to be... and given that I literally can't remember the last time that I visited Papa's Gourmet Hotdogs... so it was a pretty easy choice. They did only have three options for Fork as opposed to the usual "pick your sausage, pick your toppings, pick your sauce", but the American Beef dog was definitely worth it.

And those onion rings... HOLY MARY... they were fantastic.

The other thing that I love about Fork on the Road is the opportunity to try things you might not otherwise feel brave enough to try. Such was the case with La Chiva's Amazon Rice... Amazon style rice tossed with fresh green peas, corn, capsicum and coconut then finished off on the grill with their chocolate and chilli sauce and oven roasted chicken. And it tasted AMAZING!

Plus what never fails to make me smile about La Chiva is the way they call everyone Señor and Señorita... plus the big smile that the guy in the Pick Up window gives everyone when it calls out their name.

There were actually a number of dessert options, but I was wandering around wishing that one of the ice cream/gelati places were on-site, when I happened across the Barossa Valley Ice Cream stall.

I was definitely spoiled for choice with Belgian Chocolate, Balsamic Roasted Strawberry, Salty Caramel and Irish Coffee Ice Cream as well as Lemon, Blood Orange and Blackberry Sorbet flavours. I needed something refreshing though, so I went with my regular favourite, lemon. Very nice although, you know, it's lemon, so there isn't really much of a way to fuck it up.

My final stop, as is tradition, was to Four Seeds for some brownie action before calling it quits.

I did actually stop by the barricades near where I'd originally come in, just to fiddle around with my phone briefly... and while I was there this (I'm guessing) young Vietnamese couple came over and stood essentially right next to me. And the girl was having hysterics... we're talking full on toddler tantrum, complete with foot stamping, tears, faux forced childish dramatic breathing when she wasn't actually crying. I would have sworn she was about 2 from her behaviour, but she had to be at least 20.

Given that they were talking in Vietnamese I have no idea what the hell the problem was, but given how much she was carrying on, if it was anything less than somebody dying or him cheating on her, it was far too fucking dramatic for a Sunday afternoon. I was literally torn between saying something to her, since she was standing essentially within arms reach, and just walking away...

Finally walking away won out, but it was touch and go for a little while there.

And then I walked home, via Adelaide Oval and the growing crowd of football fans.

But all in all it was a good return to Victoria Square for Fork on the Road, and hopefully it won't be too much longer before it comes back as the main attraction and gets to take over the whole Square.

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