Central Markets, Adelaide

In the Central Markets there is a small shop called Little Tokyo and it is the best store in the whole markets!! They sell all different kinds of food and drink (including sake) imported from Japan along with cooking utensils, DVDs, sake battles and cup plus a few other small things.
The best part of the whole shop is the lollies section!! I made a hamper for a friend of mine that I went to Japan with and I spent close to $200 on the lollies alone, they are so good!

Here are their opening times:
Monday to Thursday 9am – 6pm
Friday 9am - 9pm
Saturday 9am - 3pm

What to pay: Everything in this shop is imported from Japan and is surprisingly cheap!

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A myriad of shopping spots

What to buy: Lots of food outlets as well as craft and general stores.
Try the samples of cheese available. Think about purchasing a few, a pack of water crackers or some bread and some fresh or dried fruit. Voila picnic in the park. Park? Take your pick!

I don't think that the central market needs a lot of introduction...

JUST VISIT IT! IF YOU DON'T YOU'VE MISSED THE POINT OF ADELAIDE: GOOD FOOD!

What to buy: EVERYTHING!

Note: There is even a HALAL Butcher there.

What to pay: Normal market rates. Best times to shop for bargains is Tuesday and Saturday afternoon (2pm) since they can no longer keep the fresh produce as they will be closed for a day or two after that.

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Established in 1915, Haigh's is Australia's oldest chocolate manufacturer. There are several shops and public presentations regarding Haigh's Chocolates throughout Adelaide, the company's home base. FWIW, there are also Haigh's outlets in Melbourne, if you head that direction.

We visited the small Haigh's chocolate shop (#17) at the Central Market in downtown Adelaide. The people running the store clearly LOVE their jobs, and are quite passionate about both chocolate in general and Haigh's in particular. And, they love to share samples. Personally, I don't know how anyone could visit Haigh's without buying a few boxes of their wonderful treat.

Haigh's is especially proud to be one of the only specialist chocolate retailers in the world whose chocolate making BEGINS with the raw cocoa bean. Haigh's insists on control of their product from start to finish. This intricate attention to detail shows in every luscious and tempting bite.

What to buy: Among the items offered by Haigh's are....

The 750g "Signature" presentation box. This is a LOTTA good chocolate, folks. You can get this presentation in "dark connoisseurs, milk AND dark chocolates, or truffles.

Another specialty is the 375g milk chocolate frog. This tasty "amphibian" is also available in dark chocolate and milk chocolate-peppermint.

How about the 225g "Australian Collection"? It features Aussie ingredients, such as wattle seed crunch, macadamia honey nougat, lemon myrtle cream and quandong.

And for folks who just want a chocolate bar, there are the 100g premium bars, available in premium dark, premium milk chocolate, milk chocolate-peppermint, mild chocolate-coffee and milk chocolate-orange.

What to pay: Finding a pricelist for Haighs, other than when you're IN the Haighs store, is tough. I tried to check the 'net for prices, but failed miserably.
To the best of my recollection, the chocolates went for something like A$70 for the 750g boxes. (Which is almost two pounds, right?)

The central Market is quite literally a huge market where nearly anything can be purchased. Its so big you could get lost. Come hungry, there's lots of good window food. You can get anything to eat, and there is a huge section devoted to asian cooking of one stripe or another.

What to buy: The stalls in the market sell everything from toys to food to freshly baked goods. You can get seafood with the tails twitching, meat that had breakfast that morning, and a lot of specialty mustards and jams. The market is loosely divided into categories, so in one section, you might find people selling clothes, in another, music, yet another row might sell collectibles.

What to pay: I don't think you'll save a whole lot of money here, but for food you will generally get a slightly higher quality for the same money. prices seemed more or less in line with other stores, but the merchandise was fresher, or hand crafted.

Offering not only fresh fruit and vegetables, most of which are grown within 1 hours drive of the Market, you will also find one of the largest ranges of meat and fish along with gourmet specialities introduced by the waves of immigrants and their families who call Adelaide home. Every stall has its own special story making your visit to the Adelaide Central Market a fantastic journey.

What to buy: Fresh fruit, veg, meat and fish

What to pay: Very cheap. Especially of you are there on Saturday just before closing time when everything remaining is sold off extremely cheap.