Her daughter, the fifth generation of the Mennonite family to live in the area, runs the restaurant, where you'll find oyster pie on the menu in the fall.

Exhibit A is Hardy's sparkling shiraz, a big-bodied, deep-purple fizz-fest that might be more filling than the oyster pie.

RECOMMENDED DISHES: Seared kangaroo salad, oyster pie, striped bass with duck confit mashed potatoes, lemon myrtle chicken with dark-meat sausage, chocolate and macadamia praline tart, beggar's purse of roast fig and chestnut.

A steak, Guinness and oyster pie ($8.15) is among the pub fare; children's meals, like chicken fingers, are $7.40, including dessert and a drink.

From which, in the fullness of time, I eventually was able to diagnose an acute case of food poisoning, likely caused by a leftover slice of oyster pie, consumed-with quite a lot of other edibles-in a fit of pregnancy-induced greed the day before.

"Keep off the cream cakes and oyster pie in hot weather, don't eat anything larger than your head at one sitting, and you should be quite all right," I said, suppressing a yawn.

His beef and oyster pie was my dish of the year.

Ackroyd the baker came round that evening, as did the four linkmen, and all sat about before the fireplace gobbling down roast goose and oyster pie and cranberry jelly and pints of ale.

Shakespeare's frequent mention of them ("love may transform me to an oyster," says Benedict in "Much Ado About Nothing") makes it all but certain that he slurped on oysters or ate oyster pie during long days at the theater.

On a recent visit, the two most popular entrees were an oyster pie - plump, chervil-coated oysters inside a buttery short crust, served with a red pepper sauce - and warm goat cheese pudding of melting texture, accompanied by eggplant puree and strips of sun-dried tomato.