Garagistes

Its been sitting there quietly for about four months, according to our waiter. We are sitting in the former volkswagen garage in the centre of Hobart, now decked out in the ubaindustrial look that is so popular on the mainland.

Concrete floor, open kitchen, huge woodfired pizza oven, and refectory tables that seat about ten. No booking - just turn up, find a seat and meet the neighbours.

We are early and its not busy. Our food starts to come quickly. We open up with three snacks that arrive at the same time "the idea is to share your meal" says our excellent host. Soft boiled quail eggs on aioli, salfish fritters with lemon mayonnaise and fried port stuffed olives with almond and marjoram aioli. Beautiful food served on gorgeous ceramic "slides".

We try a carafe of house red - a pinot from Birchs Bay D'Meure winery, a small (one hectare) vineyard following organic and biodynamic practices. This is an unusual and lovely wine. And what a refeshing change to move away from "by the glass" to something a bit more practical - a half bottle carafe.

Waiting for our mains we find out from our host that the restaurant is owned by the former owners of flirties, another old favourite. Our mains are equally fantastic - grilled lambs tongue, mustard dressing, kale and hazelnut puree; whole jack mackeral, artichokes and stemperata salsa; and steamed vongole with tashiminori rice polenta, parsley adn almond.

"Any deserts?" we shake our head. "Just a heads up then - the goats camembert is just perfect at the moment, couldn't be better". We he has been 10/10 so far, so lets try it. We are not disappointed.

Garagistes - I enjoyed taking my VW there back in the eighties, but I am going to enjoy taking my tummy there even more now. Highly recommended.

Lazy Sunday

Bill and I had gone sailing that morning. A two handed race in which the conditions had gone from challenging because there was no wind, to challenging because there was so much wind. On top of that, we had not had the yacht out racing since summer so we were rusty. None the less, we came a respectable fourth.

At home I suggested going out for lunch ... not confident that the reply would be in the affirmative. She likes to lie around on a Sunday arvo with a good book, and when I got home that's just what she was doing. "yeah, sure, where shall we go?" Alright!

So, in keeping with the nautical theme, we dropped in on the Boathouse which was pleasantly busy and warm inside.

Now, I don't usually do oysters in a restaurant - I prefer them natural and begrudge paying more than double for half a dozen that I could do just as well at home. But this was different ... chef had two "flavoured" oysters on the menu - the flavours change by the day. One was natural with lemon and lime myrtle. Smashing. The other, which looked extremely dubious on the menu, was absolutely fantastic - oyster in potato chowder with fresh corn. The chowder had been frothed giving it a wonderful light texture, and the corn was a perfect accompanying flavour.

Moving on, she had blinis topped with smoked salmon, spiced beetroot pickle and sour cream. I went for the seared eye fillet of beef rolled in szechuan pepper. Both fantastic dishes, and listed as "smaller lunches", so really good value. Based on their size, the bigger lunches must be enormous.

So we enjoyed these great meals watching the tide come in, kids enjoying themselves on the shore, and the sea birds picking delicacies off their menu. Boathouse has a great outlook, and the food matches the view.

Clareville Kiosk

Just every now and then you find something special. On a recent visit to Sydney we decided to tour the Northern Beaches - "I read something about Clareville Kiosk" she said, "Lets try that for lunch!". So, after punching in the details to the iPhone, giving the restaurant a ring, and using the map to guide us there, we were soon sitting in the sunny front room of a delightful cottage restaurant in a tree filled bay at Pittwater.

This was always going to be something special. A lovely looking menu, great wine list, and lovely welcoming smile from our host gave it all away. The degustation menu looked fantastic - but hey, we were just here for a casual lunch!

So we ordered a bottle of rose and the tasting plates of cured and smoked fish, and antipasto featuring an Italian Blu di Moncenisio. First, a beautiful roll and amuse buche set our palletes tingling. Absolutely wonderful food.

Our mains were equally fantastic she had crisp skin pork belly with pinapple and ginger relish. She had that because it came with congo (blue) potatoes. That meant I had the dish she dropped to defect to the pork, seared scallops, butternut and mandarin pure, salsify, with porchini vinaigrette. Both dishes worthy of the highest praise. Harry had another great plate - roast duck, baby turnip, quince, quinoa, and king brown mushrooms.

We had to try dessert ... well, at least, Harry and I had to try dessert. I had vanilla bean creme brulee, roasted strawberries and basil ice cream - wonderful. The ice cream especially. Harry enjoyed his hazelnut praline, pear icecream and blood orange jelly.

Our sightseeing was over. After coffee and complimentary petit fours we spent the rest of the afternoon lying in the winter sun on Clareville beach congratulating ourselves on such a wonderful find.

Visiting the tourist trap

OK, we said, Mure's upper deck it is. Our interstate friend knew Hobart's reputation for seafood, and somehow Mures have long held the reputation for providing the best of it. Now, we long term residents of this beautiful city know that reputation was forged at Mures Battery point, that quaint restaurant in Knopwood street, not in the tourist trap now known as "Mures".

Anyway, off we went to upper deck with our friend. First impression is this is a high quality venue for visitors - the beautiful docks full of fishing boats and surrounded by the Bond stores of Salamanca and Hunter street made all the more attractive by the sparkle of street lights reflected on still seas. The service was pleasant - friendly and professional - and the restaurant is full (of tourists).

Unfortunately, that's about as good as it got. The chowder was workmanlike - most pubs would do a similar version, many would do better. The flavours were commercial, not fine. Her scallop linguine was gritty. My seafood platter was similar to the chowder - passable as pub food, but too reminiscent of dishes we all cut our teeth on in the seventies and eighties. Our friend had a prawn platter, which she ripped through with gusto. The conversation was great, and in the end, a good time was enjoyed by all.

But in the overall scheme of things, Hobart visitors can do a lot better when it comes to seafood ... try Catch, which has a FANTASTIC chowder and several great seafood dishes; or Flathead for a homely but extremely professional range of great seafood; or even Fish Frenzy, which still rightly claims the best fish and chips in Australia.

Jamming the night away

Having got back from the walk and freshened up with a sauna, I asked her if she wanted to do something for dinner. Lets go to Salamanca and see what the big sing is all about? So we did, meeting up with Angie along the way.

Well, it was a hoot. the bonfire was great, and there was some great singing. The orchestration of the crowd to provide massed voices was pretty spectacular, and all credit goes to the organisers for doing a fantastic job of something that one would assume would be pretty complicated - not to mention scary for those of us who are not used to singing.

Anyway, we went on to dinner to follow up the good times with a good meal. The Henry Jones. Haven't been there for a while, not since Iain Todd and Elysia Mannix did such a great job there, lets see what its like.

Unfortunately, can't tell you in detail what we ate because their menu is not on the Internet - which is curious. The menu is divided into two, one side classical standards and the other designed to show off fresh local produce and the chef's passion. I went for passion - fetta on beetroot and duck. She had a bit of classical and a bit of passion - salmon, and then pork.

The food was good - seriously good - well presented and equisite flavours. Unfortunately, the service did not match. Most glaring of all was the lack of space between courses - not even enough time to finish the glass of champagne that accompanied the entree. And then we were half way through the main before having to remind the table attendant that we had pre-ordered a glass of wine to accompany our plate. For a restaurant of this standard, that's not good enough.

The second most beautiful beach in Tasmania

"I think there is a tin of tuna in the back of the cupboard. Maybe we could have sandwiches" she said as we were preparing to do the Crescent Beach day walk with friends on Saturday. Now, I don't know about you, but eating cat food in between two pieces of bread is not my idea of lunch, no matter how pleasant the company and surroundings are.

So, having baked a gorgeous loaf, I soft boiled a few eggs and mashed them with home made mayonnaise and made sandwiches with lettuce and bean sprouts. A couple of Wursthaus sausages and some fruit made up the numbers.

Crescent beach is one of those half moon coves with a short radius, and plenty of golden sand lapped by waves direct from the Southern Ocean. One of our party said it was the second most beautiful beach in Tasmania. Lunch was fantastic, and so was the walk.

Vanidol, North Hobart

On a snap frozen evening, following an entertaining discussion by the author Sandy MacKinnon, we drop by Vanidol for a quick bite to eat on the way home. What a disappointment!

My Tom Yum Goong is full of hard pieces of ginger and lemongrass ... must have been the bottom of the pot. Her dumplings were great, but our shared duck curry was far too sweet and lacked any spiciness at all. The usual freshness of flavour that has been a trademark of Vanidol was gone, and in its place was a muddy smudge of unsatisfying curry.

Hopefully, this is just an off night for the standard in North Hobart cheap eats - but my suspicion is that Vanidol has had its day. Recently we took an old friend to Vanidol and Darjoh (Bellerive) on successive nights - the winner by a country mile was Darjoh.

bouillabaisse for two

I work near the docks, which makes it perfect for a bit of hunting and gathering at going home time. I mean, just a short stroll towards Salamanca we have the high quality Wursthaus butcher, cheese and small goods seller, and the Salamanca fruit market. In the other direction we have any number of punts selling "fresh as" seafood. And then there is the view!

So tonight I am hunting and gathering for bouillabaisse. This is not easy for two. The dish lends itself to big group cooking. Nevertheless, small handful of mussells, another of prawns, some baby octopus and a couple of fillets of flathead will do the trick.

While it is tasty, its a bit watery as well. And she announces that she doesn't like shell fish much. Hmm, not one of the great successful hunting and gathering expeditions!

I also made some improvised baked beans which will come in useful later in the week.

Vegetarian Fare

"We need to eat more vegetarian meals" she said, so I said lets commit to at least two a week, and two seafood meals, OK?

So last week it was dahl and falafel. This week we are a bit more adventurous - soy braised shiitake mushrooms with silken tofu, a recipe from cuisine. Its a simple dish of shiitake and oyster mushrooms, spring onions and tofu braised in stock with garlic and ginger, and finished with sesame oil. Great meal, but not enough, so a small snack of stir fried chicken with rice follows. Does that count as a vegetarian meal?

Salamanca in winter

There was a time when Tasmanian's cringed about winter. Even though Hobart is only a fraction colder than Melbourne, and has less rain, for some reason the State was forbidden territory to mainlanders, let alone in winter - I mean, who would want to come here!

Friday night in Salamanca, in winter, sets a new standard for Australian hospitality. We started with after dinner drinks at Grape. Surrounded by racks of yummie wines, the girls drank savignon blanc and I had a cabernet merlot. The perfect way to wind down after work, Grape (or Cargo, or any other of the fantastic bars that line Salamanca) is within five minutes of walking for the average city worker. You couldn't even get to the train station or the tram in that time in Sydney or Melbourne.

What do we fancy for dinner. Italian? Maldini's. Its virtually next door. We arrive and its pretty busy. Table for two? Not just yet - oh, wait a minute - yes, we have one if you don't mind sitting near the door. Thats fine. Try doing that in your next good mainland restaurant!

The restaurant is vibrant - tables full of people in energetic discussion, waiters gliding between them balancing straining trays on the tips of their fingers. Long white linen aprons, stone walls and heavy beams. It reminds us of the better restaurants we visited in Milan and Florence. The food doesn't disappoint. OK - we were in a romantic mood, which always helps.

As we leave, the winter trees are shining with glow worm lights and the cold night air kisses our cheeks like an old friend - winter in Tasmania. Beautiful!