Africola$47
$47
This is the only fancy African restaurant in Adelaide (excluding Moroccan and other North African) places.
The place does the African decor well. It's loaded with bric a brac, and the walls feature hand-painted murals.
The walls are lined with full glass bottles of Coca Cola.
Me "I'd like a Diet Coke, please."
Waiter: "Sorry, we don't have Diet Coke."
Me: "Okay I'll just have a regular coke then."
Waiter: "We don't have any kind of Coke."
Me: :|
Waiter: "Would you care for a lemon, lime and bitters?"
Pork belly.
The meat is in a giant disc, under some foliage. The foliage looks like bok choi, so I munch on it. It's so potent it sends me scampering for my glass of lemon, lime and bitters. It's some kind of a pickle, and it's not too far from pure vinegar. Also, it has a backup punch of cumin. I sit it aside, and eat the meat.
Update: the foliage was harmless cos lettuce. There was industrial-strength pickled plum underneath it.
The meat is infused with all kinds of potent herbs. There's fennel, and I can see bay leaves. Any more, and it would be too much. It has the light spiciness of jalapeño peppers.
The little cauldron contains pap ("pup"), a fine polenta, with a spicy tomato sauce on it. It's a very simple taste, but I add it to my meat, where it doesn't do any harm.
Cassis syrup, hibiscus sorbet.
Cassis is apparently a type of blackcurrant, and amarula is a fruit. The waiter tells me that the amarula fruit ferment on the ground, and the elephants come from miles around to eat them, and get drunk. Then they go on a rampage.
I drink the little cup of amarula. It's a lot like Baileys.
The thick, white amarula custard is very nutty and syrupy. It's quite pleasant, despite being goopy paste.
The hibiscus sorbet is surprising. It's a very light and fine sorbet, with a super cherry or rose flavour, but refreshing like orange.
I'm actually starting to feel the effects of that amarula liqueur. I don't drink, so it's slightly unusual. I feel the urge to wrap my trunk around a log, and hurl it at a giraffe.
The jammy cassis combines well with the amarula custard, and a circular shortbread that's hidden beneath everything else.