Hindley Street (Adelaide)

Who doesn't love Powderfinger? Hindley Street was from their 1998 album Internationalist and it is today's title because that's where we had breakfast at Café Bang Bang. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

The night was long and noisy. The city of churches also appears to masquerade as party central during the Fringe. The last of the doors slammed closed around 4am, but prior to that there was arguing, banging on doors and the usual sleep disruptions. The people, drinking late or swimming early, finally fell quiet about 5:30am. Did my door slam as we left for breakfast at 9am? Damn straight. And again when we returned because the 'do not disturb' sign was still on the door to the room next door. That'd be where the incessant 1:00am door knocking occurred. 

The bustling Rundle Mall

Not surprisingly Adelaide was very quiet on Sunday morning. Either everyone was sleeping off the excesses from the night before or they were all in church. Rundle Mall was bereft of life and nothing was open. We had ventured this way because that's where we thought we would find a café for breakfast. A mistake it appeared, although not my only one of the morning.

Hindley Street proved to be a tad more alive and we settled into breakfast with another comedian, Dave Thornton. When I say we had  breakfast with him, he was seated at the next table. No we didn't speak, nor did I acknowledge him - that would be unAustralian. My second mistake for the day was ordering the smoked ham and swiss cheese toasty. I have no excuse; I even put my glasses on to read the menu but still missed the first few crucial words "creamy scrambled egg". Yes dear reader, you know of my complete dislike of eggs and my breakfast was totally dominated by it; a bit like Labor dominating the Liberals in yesterday's state election. I'm not complaining, about the eggs that is - it was my own fault.

Don't argue with the big pigeon

Post breakfast we gathered our things and Jayne, in an attempt to provide Dave Thornton with more more material, tried to put on her magnetic sunglasses directly on to her face. Without having her other glasses on for them to connect to, she was unsuccessful. I asked if she'd had implants to allow the glasses to magnetise to her head. Apparently not. 

Time to wander around the wilds of Adelaide and we headed down the other end of Rundle Mall where we found the foodie area we probably should have explored for a breakfast venue. Curiously, at varying spots along our walk there are coins fixed into the pavement. What sort of perverse black humour is this? Are the good people of Adelaide laughing at the homeless who traverse this area. Very strange.

At one spot someone had freed some coin.

Street art

Not far from the hotel, the foodie area also boasts random street art. We walked down there to have a look around because we were meeting friends there later in the day for afternoon drinks and a bite to eat. East End Cellars was just setting up this morning, but I approve whole heartedly of the wines on display.

And they did not disappoint. We met Cath and Noel at 3pm after they travelled down from north of Adelaide, I worked with Cath almost 20 years ago. Since then she and Noel have moved here to South Australia and we've moved into Sydney. As with many people today, we keep up on FaceBook. It was a great afternoon, the venue is fantastic. A great selection of cheeses and meats as well as other small plates all matched with an amazing selection of wines from around the world. They also have a some very interesting local wines. It was a great way to spend the afternoon and the crowd outside obviously agreed too. The road was closed and there were not many tables unoccupied as we left.

Enjoying a charcuterie plate and a McLaren Vale shiraz

We won't be in Adelaide long enough to discover whether the road closures and the bars and restaurants spilling onto the streets are a Fringe thing or just something to encourage people out on the weekend post lockdown life. It is certainly effective. Aside from the extra table space, many venues also have live music tonight and we passed two jazz bands on our 5 minute walk back to the hotel.

A side street with seating and jazz band

Dinner tonight was at Osteria Oggi, a mere 15 minute stroll from the hotel. The walk to and from the restaurant was most interesting. There were DJs, jazz bands and musicians, but the most fascinating of all appeared to be a street tour that involved the participants, all wearing green neon earphones, singing Bohemian Rhapsody. At top volume. It attracted the attention of anyone in the vicinity, including Angry Anderson. Yes dear reader, it appears that everyone is in Adelaide this weekend.

Back to dinner. It was loud, but in a happy Italian restaurant kind of way. Not the, 'I'm yelling at you across the table' of yesterday. We were 5 minutes early and the waiter informed us that we were lucky because our 'table' was ready, which was apparently highly unusual. Our 'table' was a space across from each other on a very long bench - covid style spacing. There was no table linen or any other place setting aside from a couple of glasses and two plates. And there was plenty of space at the other 'table' on the other side of the room. So lucky. What a wanker.

Thankfully he was not serving us and Olivia soon arrived to save the day. We ordered a funky little viognier that was so different to last evening's wine. Skin contact changed the colour and it was fresh and spritzig, the perfect accompaniment to dinner. We shared a starter of char grilled zucchini with cauliflower puree, mint and almonds. Seriously good. So good in fact I could become a vegetarian.

The entrée

We were in the best pasta restaurant in Adelaide so what did we order? Fish. Joking - we ordered pasta. Jayne went for a traditional Carbonara and I had campanelle with smoked eel.

Oh, look, an egg ☹️

I win. No egg.

Dessert? You enquire dear reader. Well yes, we shared. It was a tough choice but the gelato, sponge and pistachio sandwich with blackberry jam proved difficult to pass by. An excellent finish to a great meal. 

As good as it looks.

And that, my patient reader, is the end of Day 2. Radelaide is well worth a visit for the food scene alone. The Fringe Festival just makes it that much more interesting, because you never know what, or who, is around the corner, literally.

Tomorrow is a travel day, we are heading for Paringa and The Frames. Therefore, the chances of a post are slim, but fear not, we shall return.

As an aside, much has changed in the world since I last blogged. There has been famine, plague, pandemic, floods and war. Not to mention the way photos are uploaded to blogger. Cheers Google for altering a perfectly serviceable, functional app and changing it for no reason, to make it impossible to load photos unless you load them into Google photos first. I spent two hours of my day working through this problem. You owe me.

And just as we were about to publish this post Adelaide had one more surprise in store. Fireworks. Comfortably viewed from our room. Nice. Cheers Adelaide.

Until next time.