Author: Philip

Lunch

We walked down to The Taste (as everyone seems to call it here) for a second lunch.  Instead of going for the broad tasting we did yesterday, we opted for two main dishes. We split both so we each a chance to taste each dish.

First was back to Mount Gnomon Farm for their Nom Nom Plate of slow cooked pork shoulder, Texas Beef Brisket, smoked Mount Gnomon Farm chorizo, and bacon with a Southern slaw and Alabama White Sauce.

Every item on the plate was perfectly cooked and really tender. The bacon had a subtle smoke, and was full of flavor. The brisket and pulled pork shoulder melted in the mouth and the chorizo had an excellent balance of spice. The slaw was not shy, and had a good touch of heat on its own. Excellent for Au$10.00 (US$7.00) each

Looking around we found the Cranston Lamb Baa stall and decided their cider braised lamb shoulder with a spelt, pickled vegetable and feta salad.

Having done similar, and planning braising lamb shoulder next week, we were curious about the lamb, and that spelt salad.  Spelt is a rather ancient grain regaining popularity.

We can only hope we do the lamb as well!  It was tender as expected, with quite definite lamb flavor. The salad was surprisingly good.  Foodie Greg particularly liked it. Great food for Au$8.50 (US$5.95) per serve.

We had some great food for Au$18.50 (US$12.95) per serve.

Dinner

Foodie Greg could not get the image of BBQ duck hanging in the shop window just over the hill in Sandy Bay, so we went back and picked up half a duck, some bok choy and rice and enjoyed it in the delightful courtyard of our AirBnb house.

It was absolutely worth it! The duck was great with crisp skin, perfectly rendered fat, and juicy flesh. The bok choy and rice were a good way to round out the meal.

The meal was Au$22.00 (US$15.40) per serve.

Lunch

We were fortunate to be in Hobart during the Taste of Tassie food festival, just a short walk from where we’re staying. Because it was the middle of the day, we steered clear of the many vineyard and spirit vendors, and focused on tasting some of the great variety of food on offer.

First up was Palawa Kipli who have interpreted traditional aboriginal food to make it more accessible. We chose two small bites: pulled wallaby with beetroot, wattleseed and walnut dip; and saltbush Peppered guacamole topped with crickets.

The wallaby was quite similar to pulled beef, and paired well with the beetroot. While the crickets looked intimidating, they were not strongly flavored, making a  nice guacamole bite.

We moved through the main hall to an outside area where we found  Vineyard Seafood Scallop Bar who were offering a ceviche Scallop. Given our enjoyment of fresh Tasmanian scallops, this was a no brainer to try.

The inclusion of the roe (coral) and ceviche preparation enhanced the Scallop flavor, which Foodie Philip really enjoyed, while Foodie Greg, who is not that keen on “fishy” flavors found it a little too much flavor!

We returned to the main hall and found the Mt Gnomon Farm stall. At the last family reunion In 2015 Foodie Philip had tried to book at the farm’s restaurant, but they had a private function on the only day he and his mother had available, so we were looking forward to this. We chose their Lao Laarb.

The Laarb has all the flavors we were expecting, and were really well executed. The young lady serving us suggested we try their sausages, which we will likely do tomorrow. The farm raises heritage pork, which has so much more flavor than modern pork.

Our final stop today was for a duck roll, as Foodie Greg was craving some, after missing the Peking Duck yesterday. Because it was from The Porky Duck, we added a side of pork crackling!

Both the duck roll and crackling were excellent, and we could have easily gone back for more.

All up we spent Au$25.00 (US$17.50) per person.

Dinner

Tonight was New Years Eve (on the wrong day in this blog because we didn’t skip a day after crossing the date line) and we did our traditional cheese, salami, grapes and champagne spread.

We had great views of both sets of fireworks, a good feed and some good bubbly!

In total we spent Au$37.43 (US$26.20) per serve and were full at midnight, with chorizo left over!

Lunch

The Foodies had planned on lunch at Masaaki’s Geeveston, but they won’t be back until Jan 11! Fortunately there was a bakery up the street and we had a Curried Lamb pie, a Pepper Steak Pie, and two small sausage rolls, which were pretty good for Au$9.30 (US$6.51) per serve.

Dinner

Near where we were shopping for tomorrow night’s celebration we found a Chinese BBQ place, that had duck in the window yesterday. Today no duck, but the BBQ Pork looked good, so we ordered that with garlic broccoli and rice.

Of course, as we came back to pick up our food, the duck came out of the kitchen! The BBQ Pork was really good, and we agreed that, if broccoli was normally this good, we would eat more of it.

Satisfying and tasty, with leftovers for Au$28.50 (US$19.95) per serve.

Lunch

Exploring the Tamar Valley area of Tasmania we turned to Yelp again and found excellent Fish and Chips in George Town, at the local fish processor.

We opted for the “gold” fish choice, which was flathead. The fish was perfectly battered and cooked, the fries well done and it was served with a simple side salad. We also chose some fried Tasmanian scallops, because they are fresh, and always served with the coral (roe) that is absent in the US, because it is perishable and has to be served fresh.

All up it was Au$16.90 (US$11.83) per serve, and well worth it.

Dinner

Our evening meal found us in Scamander on Tasmania’s East Coast, where Foodie Philip spent many holidays as a child.

We ate at the Scamander Resort, which was really an up market pub. We both chose the Scallop & Bacon Kebabs (got to eat those scallops while we can).

The bacon and scallops were really well cooked, and not over done. Interestingly the side salad was dressed with salad cream (sweetened condensed milk with vinegar), which was a staple in the Hodgetts family until Mother passed. Foodie Philip started life in Tasmania, so that’s probably not a co-incidence.

We both enjoyed the fairly generous serve for Au$24.50 (US$17.15) per serve.

You can see the orange coral on the side of the scallops.

Lunch

Today we traveled to Launceston via Sydney. Our friends met us at the train station and we went to their home for a lovely lunch of home made spaghetti marinara.

Dinner

After checking in to our hotel in Launceston we immediately went to work finding a place to eat that would be open when we got there. We found the Mud Bar & Restaurant and are glad we did.

We chose the two course option and had some excellent Sashimi, including seared beef, for the appetizer, which was accompanied by a ver good broth.

Given our recent flirtation with slow cooked lamb, the offer of Asian flavored braised lamb was irresistible. It was exceptionally tender and the Soy, ginger flavors worked surprisingly well. This was an excellent dish, and a most enjoyable meal for Au$60.00 (US$42.00) per serve. Our low light photo doesn’t do it justice.

I do know the calendar, but for simplicity’s sake I did not compensate when we skipped a day traveling to Australia, so we are celebrating a day ahead of the USA.

Lunch

We purchased some Blue Castillo, some cheddar, chorizo, crackers and cherries and snacked.

We only finished half of everything, so we’ll do it again tomorrow.

• The chorizo was Au$5.4o or $1.35 per serve
• Castello Blue is Au$6.12 or $1.53 per serve
• Cheddar was Au$6.79 or $1.70 per serve
• Cherries were Au$4.50 or $1.12 per serve
• Water crackers were Au$0.95 or 24c per serve

A pretty good range of food for Au$5.94 or US$4.16.

Dinner

With a shared meal we contributed a spinach, strawberry and feta salad.

• Spinach was Au$6.00 or 60c per serve
• Strawberries were Au$6.00 or 60c per serve
• Danish feta, which was very smooth, was aU$7.20 or 72c per serve.

We actually had a lot left over but it was good for Au$1.92 (US$1.35) per serve.