Esca
If you don’t mind the universal $4/hour parking at Glenelg, the parking here is fairly convenient. You just have to guess in advance how many hours you’ll need.
However, as with all these places on the waterfront, there’s no easy way to find them.
Pan seared with confit leg, cavalo nero, & mustard fruits.
The big piece of duck leg atop this meal is a bit like a big piece of fried chicken. It has no seasoning, so I combine it with the various “mustard fruits”. These are pieces of apricot, pear and fig, with a mustard taste. They’re interesting on their own, but don’t add anything to a big hunk of duck meat. Silverbeet isn’t a common ingredient in restaurant dishes. Here, it’s only very slightly cooked, so it doesn’t have its normal sweet taste. It doesn’t have any raw taste either. It’s just a bit crunchy and nondescript. The four big chunks of duck breast are much the same. Just big, chewy chunks of cooked meat.
Duck can be tender and delicious if done right, or it can just be another piece of chicken.
With pistachio meringue.
Have just exhausted my one hour of pay-in-advance parking. What a great system.
This dessert is a giant cube of layers of ice cream and meringue. There are cherries, sultanas and bits of pistachio distributed through its strata.
Were I a group of small children, I’m sure I’d think highly of this dessert. As a slightly more discerning adult, however, I’m not particularly impressed. I make it almost half way through this cube, before abandoning it and going outside to play on the swings.