DESTINATIONS

I've just eaten a poisonous leaf. 'Don't worry, once it's cooked the poisonous toxins dissipate,' says Adelaide-born chef Dennis Leslie. The leaf in question, a deep-fried saltbush (similar to sage), sits on my kangaroo steak, which in turn has been rubbed with ground pepperberries, finished off with a sticky slick of quandong and desert limes and served with bush tomatoes and warrigal greens.

My husband and I have just touched down in Adelaide and, too jet-lagged to make it to a restaurant in the city, we eat in our hotel, the Hilton, where Leslie is head chef. He tells me he loves using indigenous herbs and spices — bold Aboriginal flavourings that wake the palate. Each dish on his menu is paired with a local wine and a beer (though when Leslie says local, he means South Australia, which is bigger than Spain). Although micro-brewing is big around these parts, I choose a Barossa Valley Cabernet from Langmeil to partner my roo.

It's the wine (and the food to accompany it) I am here to taste. Although the industry in Australia has been having a bit of a tough time of late (partly because it planted too many vines and is producing too much wine; sources estimate some 600 million bottles are currently sitting unsold in warehouses), there's still a big buzz surrounding Australian wine and I'm keen to find out more.

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