Something Wild

It’s not hard to get lost in Adelaide’s Central Market, wandering between and admiring the rows of boundless, beguiling fresh produce. So take heed and chart your course for Something Wild, one of Australia’s premier purveyors of Aboriginal foods and beverages. While the company supplies this cuisine to restaurants and caters events, Something Wild also offers food directly to customers from its shop in the Central Market.

Some of the supplier’s specialty game meats include kangaroo, emu, and camel, though Something Wild also offers significantly smaller fare—in the form, for example, of green ants. You can order those dry or in a bottle of Green Ant Gin, if you prefer. Perhaps bugs aren’t your style, but you find yourself at Something Wild during happy hour, pining for a drink? Look no further than the Wattleseed Lager, made from seeds of Australian acacia plants.

In a video on Something Wild’s website, part-owner and general manager Daniel Motlop (himself Aboriginal) reminds us that “these ingredients have been harvested for thousands of years.” But the recipes concocted by the chefs at Something Wild reflect a variety of international and contemporary influences: The website gives instructions for making Wallaby Stroganoff, Kangaroo Chili con Carne, and even a Croatian-style casserole made with Australian wild boar, among many others.

Founded in 2016, Something Wild also makes a priority of hiring Aboriginal employees, in an effort to ensure that spreading Aboriginal cuisine will also deliver economic benefits to Australia’s indigenous community. Making these foods “the norm,” says Motlop in the video, is ultimately “better for everyone.”