The Restaurant: Ferment Asian specialises in Vietnamese cuisine with locally grown ingredients, many by the owner’s family.
The setting is superb. A magnificent old stone cottage faces a lush park, on the main street of Tanunda SA. The original rooms are kept at the front of house for intimate dining, whilst the back area has been replaced with a large dining room. As you walk through to the back you pass the very impressive, refrigerated wine cellar, with many hundreds of rare and classic wines on display. The back-room décor is plain.
There were four of us on the evening.
Entrée
Fresh betel leaves with sticky caramelised Barossa Hampshire pork. The menu indicated that these morsels contained “incendiary components”. They were very tasty and not too spicy in my view.
We had been recommended to try the spring rolls. These were classic Hanoi spring rolls with the usual Vietnamese dipping sauce. They were tasty but not exceptional.
I particularly enjoyed the Vietnamese pancake with prawns, coconut caramel, herbs.
Our last selection was the yellowfin with caramelised onions, blackcurrant, herbs, almonds. If you can’t get a decent tuna in SA then you are really not trying.
Main Course
Tanunda is a long way from Vietnam and a totally different climatic zone so there was no water buffalo on the menu (a blessing) and no mud crab (to be expected).
Our selections started with the grilled SA Squid, finger lime, tomatoes, capsicum, herbs salsa. You really can’t go past some of the SA seafood, especially the whiting, squid, mussels, and oysters.
Grilled Barossa Chicken, green papaya, peanut salad (x2). A plain dish but fine, maybe a little dry.
The Red curry of SA King fish, snake bean, Thai basil, kaffir lime was more to my liking, however, I think the heat was toned down a bit. Of course, you can always add chilli to you own liking.
Desserts
No desserts
Wine
The wine list you are provided with is enormous – it is over 100 pages long. It is one of the most impressive wine lists I have seen in Australia, with some exceptional wines – with exceptional prices. How well they pair with Vietnamese cuisine is a subjective matter.
There were many pages of fantastic French, Australian and other New World Wines. I was interested in a Montrachet, however, on the evening we attended there was no sommelier, in fact there was no one on staff who could assist in selecting a wine from the many fine choices available. Buying a good Premier Cru aged bottle of Montrachet is not a hit and miss decision. In the end we opted for an aged bottle of Rockford Semillon. It was a good choice to match the food – we had tried it earlier at the Rockford Cellar Door (a must visit). On the upside I saved a lot of money.
If ever a restaurant called out for a kitchen and wine appreciation course this is it. Vietnamese cooking is well within the reach of most amateur cooks and the wines available in this cellar, to either taste or at least learn about, are a
real asset.
The Review: 3 Stars
How lucky are the people of Tanunda to have such a good Asian restaurant in their midst. It’s not perfect, but the setting and ambience, matched with the quality of the local produce puts it on the local map. I suspect that the flavours may have been toned down a little bit for local consumption.
With COVID 19 ramifications I am hoping that the sommelier hasn’t left the restaurant (I did hear rumours). It was a very daunting experience trying to select of one of these very fine wines without the benefit of expert assistance.
PS. I noticed a little “hole in the wall” Malaysian restaurant in the Tanunda main street, I would love to have tried it. There was also a little Malaysian restaurant in the Adelaide Central Markets which I would also like to try – Malacca. That sounds like a Nonya restaurant to me. Next time.
FERMENT ASIAN
https://fermentasian.com.au/
90 Murray St, Tanunda SA 5352
(08) 8563 0765
