Text 9411, 120 rader
Skriven 2006-12-28 21:19:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
Ärende: adelaide hills 2 774
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Bird in Hand is a bit out of the way, down some country
roads outside the metropolis of Woodside, and we were
plenty hungry when we arrived, only to find that the
deviants at Deviation Road had led us completely astray,
and there was in fact no restaurant nor even a canteen
there. Glen did allow that he had been to a posh function
there some years back, and the food had been good.

Anyhow, it's one of these olive growers that decided to
branch out and make wines, some of which were quite decent.

Olives:

Green - less acrid than I am used to, but a bit salty; nice
nuttiness

Kalamata - excellent, like the Greeks they aspire to, only
gentler in flavor

Manzanilla - a bit bitter, lots of salt; would go well as
an appetizer.

Wines:

Sparkling Pinot Noir - very light color, open fruit, clean,
nice to drink, berries on the finish

Two in the Bush Semillon-Sauvignon Blanc 06 - a bit green,
off dry with tropical fruit on the palate, a touch of cat
pee

Sauvignon Blanc 06 - lots of the usual greenness and acid

Riesling 05 - interesting hydrocarbon nose; apple, pineapple
on the palate, a bit of a candied, apple Jolly Rancher on
the finish - all Clare grapes

Two in the Bush Shiraz 05 - quite light, attractive mint
and cherry flavors

Bird in Hand Shiraz 05 - bunches of slightly overripe plums,
some mint, quite attractive though more tannic than the
above.

Nothing really caught our fancy, so though I suppose we
could have stayed there and noshed on sample olives (and
olive oil, of which they had several kinds, all pretty
similar, offered with little cubes of bread) through the
gathering storm (today was a quite atypical day), our
rumbling tummies took precedence, and we asked the girl
behind the counter for a lunch recommendation. She suggested
the Woodside Providore on the main road downtown.

We found it in short order - there is only one road through
town - and to my dismay, it looked like an upscale deli
run by amateurs. But most of the ten or so tables were
full, so my original motion to just give up and eat at a
pub was overridden. We found a clean table and sat for a
while before a pleasant but amateur waitress came and took
our order. Then a short wait for drinks and a quite long one
for the food.

Panzanella Providore was a generous supply of flatbread
with a standard green salad, some Bird in Hand olives, and
a reddish bean dip. Carol appeared to enjoy it.

Glen's rabbit ragu over pappardelle was extremely meaty,
almost as though it had been made with beef as well as, or
even instead of, rabbit; it tasted like something I'd make
for myself, which is a sort of positive vote.

Farmhouse turkey and pork roll was just like any meat pie
that you might get at a stall for 1/4 the price, except
that it tasted quite strongly of turkey, which is not
altogether bad.

Sri Lankan lamb curry had quite good lamb and quite a
boring sauce that tasted as though it had been made with
supermarket Madras curry powder with a bit of fresh ginger
tossed in; I asked for a dish of chiles, which partially
redeemed the dish.

Carol had the Leland Estate sparkling white - another clean
and characterless wine with strong apple and yeast notes,
not unpleasant at all.

Being the driver and being overseen by Leonore, acting as
guardian angel, Glen made do with Cooper's Premium Light -
good hops but otherwise altogether too light, as it might
be expected to be, as it's only 2-something percent alcohol.

I did a comparison test of the two Pinot Noirs available by
the glass:

Fuse Pinot Noir - dried cherries, licorice, light body,
not much finish

Pike & Joyce Pinot Noir - mint, coffee, pineapple, light to
medium body, slightly more substantial.

Dropped Leonore off and then went off to return the violin.
Had another brief chat with Mrs. Walford, during which she
asked me if I couldn't find a good home for her Vuillaume
(anyone interested in a very nice fiddle for US$100000?)
and then it was time to scrounge something up for supper.
We headed back via the Lucky Asian Market, where I picked
up a big slab of leg pork and some chicken livers. So for
supper we had a liver and onions appetizer followed by the
perhaps oxymoronic pork matsaman and the more standard pork
basil. All received good reviews. With this we had that
also oxymoronic bottle of Chain of Ponds Red (as it's a
Semillon).

Penfold's Aged Tawny finished us off for the night, and
we retired to pack and get some rest before our journey
the next day.

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