The next day, or the next day but one, I forget, dawned sunny and
golden blue, so we took off to Mt. Lofty (the gigantic perhaps 700m
peak overlooking the city) to collect our thoughts. This mountain
with its tribute to the Adelaide firefighters (there was a terrific
wildfire here in '83 or '84 which burned out the monastery and the
government retreat house near the summit) has a remote feel, despite
the carpark and summit house restaurant, owing to the impressive
openness and the high winds. We repaired to the gift shop (run by
the parks service, prices 10-15 percent below downtown), where we
loaded up on knickknacks and postcards and Kevin flirted with the
two delicious young (female) sales/information clerks. B used her
Diner's Club to earn miles not only on both of our purchases, but
also on my postage stamps. Notable merchandise there include tea
tree oil in 100% and 15% formulations and chocolate covered things,
including apricots (nice) and licorice bits (err, odd ... bought
on the recommendation of the cuter of the clerks). Also the usual
run of "ROO CROSSING" signs, didjeridoos, boomerangs, and stuffed
toys (I got a koala kit, less space to clutter up my carryon with).

Went to the summit area, which overlooks some of the takeoff and
approach paths of ADL (not amazing birdwatching there, as AN and
QF fly mostly 320s and the occasional 146, and the South Asian
carriers fly 762s and 763s in seldom and at odd hours). There was
one 4-engine job that went right overhead, and one of us claimed
that it had been a propellor plane (I couldn't really see that
far), so we speculated without success on what it might be: turned
out that in the local paper next day it was noted that a Super
Connie that had been rescued from the Tucson graveyard had come
to Adelaide for a visit: so we'd gotten a glimpse at a rare and
historic plane (this aircraft had some other interesting things
about it, such as that Elvis had ridden it to his military service
in Germany in nineteen ought whatever).

Then we walked don below the summit a bit and (finding a Cleland
Park 1 km sign) decided to walk down the road to the wildlife park:
en route we found some interesting gilled mushrooms and a large
pink Ramaria, of which I took a photo with Kevin lurking in the
background with bared teeth. About 2 km down the road, we saw
an arrow pointing left with a 1 km sign, followed by (almost
immediately) a park sign saying 1.6 km! Well, we dispatched Glen
up the hill to fetch the car and proceeded to the park, which is
impressive, with large free-roaming areas stocked with herbivores
(the dingo area is fenced off carefully! but apparently last year
one of the females managed to figure out how to climb between a
tree and a fence to get over, with the result that many waterfowl
were lost before overcurving additions were built onto the fence
and she was banished to another park). I chucked an albino red
kangaroo mother (with joey in pouch) under the chin and took
photos (I am not customarily a phototaker) of red and gray roos,
a large wombat, a Tasmanian devil eating a rat, and three pelicans.

Ended up spending all afternoon at the park, so we headed back up
to the restaurant on Mt. Lofty, where we snacked on

Cooper's Premium Lager, a German-style brew reminiscent of a
coastal beer and d'Arenberg's Olive Grove Chardonnay 1998 -
moderate oaking, gold color. Pleasant fruit but a bitter finish
which went interestingly with

Cowell (SA) oysters - large fat spawning rock oysters with a strong
cucumber flavor, creamy mouthfeel, sweet rich flavor, a bitter
aftertaste with the Pacific oyster (think smoked oysters) tang.
Served in an architectural construction with pickled rind of some
sort and a little stack of sour cream, cucumber, and brown bread
sandwiches.

The soup of the day smelled good, and two of us had this - a cumin-
green curry scented vegetable soup that was actually the staff meal,
but which they sold us as a snack.

Also, Maggie Beer's Pheasant Farm pate, a sweet-liqueured juniper-
scented charcuterie that B liked but I wasn't thrilled by.

Eating seems to have been the main theme of the meal, so we
shortly headed to dinner:

Charlick's Feed Store, Ebenezer Place, Adelaide. I was slightly
dismayed by the cosmopolitan wood-and-glass minimalist chichi
decor. Menu looked interesting, and we had a good and fairly
festive meal (came to US$35 a head with wine, not bad at all).

Appetizers
Duck "confit" in a dark cherry sorta-Montmorency sauce was very
tasty, a nicely braised leg of duck (but one that had not been
confit in any way I am familiar with, which I think means that
it had not been confit at all).

Sweetbreads (lamb) in lemon sauce with Brussels sprouts and toasted
almonds were excellent; the Brussels were a surprise (not in the menu
listing), and I wondered about them, although they went well. Next
day at the Adelaide Central Market I discovered that Brussels sprouts
are one of the most expensive vegetables for sale!

The very same Maggie Beer's Pheasant Farm pate - shouldn't have been
a surprise to us, as Ms Beer is the menu consultant and possibly an
owner of this place - this iteration served with numerous juniper
berries and butter-fatty grilled toasts.

Mains
Roast quail were fresh and good, although Kevin said that they were
undercooked to his taste (they were sort of medium-rare). I encouraged
him to return them for a trip through the nuke, but he refused.

Roast lamb in rosemary was a giant serving of medium lamb with a
sizable portion of fat. This is okay, as the fat served to moisten
the lamb, which was of sufficient size anyway, and which was one of
the better pieces of lamb we've encountered in a while.

Roast chicken in goat cream with wild rice was very tasty, although
I found a mess of flavors in the mouth and could do without the goat
cream. Excellent chicken, done just right.

I had the duck confit appetizer for my main course.

Along with all this came a dish of buttered fingerling potatoes (good)
and a wedges-of-iceberg salad with pea sprouts (weird).

No dessert.

The wine was Coriole's Diva Cabernet-Sangiovese blend 1996, a very
complex too-young wine with some power (but 7% or so merlot to
make it drinkable). It had that very forward tannin that I expect
from the Sangiovese and reminded me of a well aged Barolo on the
palate. The fruit although present was an undertone, and there were
green notes of olive and green pepper. Fruit came out, as usual, on
the finish. Kevin, the vintner, had balked at my suggestion that we
go out and visit this winery, but after tasting the wine decided
that this was not such a bad idea after all.

A slight contretemps in otherwise fine service: some young
busboy, when the bottle was almost finished, decided to finish
pouring, which set me off a bit, as he'd not appeared anywhere
near before, and it was a blatant effort either to put sediment
in our glasses or sell us another bottle of wine,
which we didn't need at $60 per. So I lit into him and he retorted
with a snide comment, so we finished our knockdown-dragout at
the bar: the denouement was his taking a snide retort of mine as
an apology, so I left it at that, encouraging him however to stay
clear of our table, which to his credit he did for the rest of the
meal). Our waitress was good, and the waterboy was good (I think
he was actually the bartender and had a few years' experience on
him). We closed the place down, and as I noted before, the bill was
A$200 for four, all inclusive.