Jim and I enjoyed a delicious, but too-slowly-served dinner with my parents at Charlick’s Restaurant, a haven for locals and tourists on Sunday night, when the dining options in Adelaide are less than any other night of the week. I’d read about the Maggie Beer (renowned chef in this part of the world) pate (a bit chunky), so we began with this. Jim, always eager to try novel dishes, opted for the warm salad of sugar cured kangaroo with bitter greens and pickled kumquat dressing, while I ate a simple, but divine, salad of pear, walnut and blue cheese on crunchy garlic toast. Dad ate the thick, but perfectly spiced pappa al pomodoro (tomato and bread soup with basil and parmigiano reggiano). Then as the main course, both Jim and Mom enjoyed the beautiful, small rack of lamb; Dad ate a hefty beef fillet and I picked at my roast duck, since I was nearly full when this arrived. The table shared small bowls of new potatoes with chives and green salad.

Since we are in South Australia, premiere wine country, we tried locally produced Tollana TR 16 Shiraz 1998 (Eden Valley, Adelaide Hills), which was quite nice, but not as spicy or robust as we’d expected.