Geez people - why didn't you smack me when I decided to trot along there to the Taste this afternoon?
My question is this - where the hell are all those people that congregate at the Taste (for food) to be found the rest of the year? What holes are they hiding in? Why aren't they all to be seen wandering down the main 'food drag' of Elizabeth St every Friday and Saturday night?
I have seen THE most remarkable and odd assortment of humans ever down there today! The array of clothes styles and levels of society has to be seen to be believed.
The food I sampled was foul. I won't name names. I have boycotted (quietly) the Taste over the last few years for the reasons why I told myself today that I needed to probably give it another chance to redeem itself for me.
Nope! Semi-cold food. Badly re-heated. Not at all different or tasty. Tables available but hard to find. Moan, moan.
Sorry, you Taste fans. I know thousands love it, and go every day. It's noisy, it's unpleasant.
Yes - I'm well aware of the solution. I promise NOT to go again next year!
BTW - anyone who reads GP's Sunday Tas article with the suggestions of where to send your interstate visitors - ignore his tip about the trip to Cygnet to sample the wares of Lotus Eaters, which he says he considers is the state's best regional cafe - it's closed, according to the sign on the door, till Cygnet Folk Festival time, and then some.
Sunday 30 December 2007
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29 comments:
I was planning to avoid the Taste this year for all the reasons you've described - and your post confirms my decision!
Welcome Elena - yes, I'm sorry to have to agree with you, but I DO! I honestly just can't see what every man and his dog seems to see in this supposed gastronomical event.
I think it's the most wonderful concept - a whole horde of different food outlets on the one site. It's brilliant.
But in practice, I continually find it awful. All the queueing and jostling, and wandering round with your plate of semi-congealed food, trying not to get it spilled, or coughed on by others, looking for somewhere acceptable to eat it.
Why not just go direct to the relevant restaurant, sit in comfort at your allocated table, have a waitperson come to you, take your order, the kitchen then cooking it there and then, and the lovely hot food then being bought back to you - all done while you've sat on your cute derriere waiting patiently, doing nothing but wait in comfort!
Oh - you shouldn't have got me started (again)!!
Taste=Food Hall, Food Halls=Crap.
Food Nazi!
ToT is simply an embarrassment. For all the fantastic stuff that this state has to offer, surely we can do better than ho-hum food in an asbestos-ridden concrete shed that outlived its usefulness when Tasmania stopped being the Apple Isle.
Knock the ugly shed down, reconnect Salamanca Place with the waterfront and create wonderful open space that could host a Taste of Something Truly Magnificent.
MB
Food Nazi - thank god you're still round! Yep - agreed.
Mr Bok - So we're all in agreement with this? Hand me the dynamite!
Oh...I always liked it. I freely admit to an uneducated and low-brow palate, though :)
The taste, give something enough publicity... the Emperors clothes story. You want to do a taste of Tasmania, start in the huon and then take it on tour around Australia, now there's a thought. Better still, insist on F**k all being deep fried, and there's a challenge.
Braved the taste the first day...EEK! I do like it, BUT the serving sizes and prices <> value for money most of the time.
Tables? WHAT tables? Took us 10 minutes to find 3 seats together and then we went and gathered food in relays to save the seats.
Had a annoying experience at one place (like you I wont name names), I suspect I ended up being rude to the serving girl, but my excuse was that I was hungry, had low blood sugar and I HATE crowds.
As to where the people come from? They are almost all tourists Rita. The number of cruise ship patrons there on the first day was phenomonal.
Mum (who is down from the mainland) wasnt that impressed. I tempted to go back Monday (am doing Picalilly tomorrow for dinner) just to see if the store in question can redeem themselves. But the crowds...EEW!
PS - Half the places selling food at taste dont HAVE store fronts as far as I know. The "entertainment" is annoying as well. IF I go back to taste its with industrial ear plugs as the ever present speakers drown out any attempts at conversations most of the time.
Zelda's Mother here. My first taste of the Taste. Not impressed. Oysters sold out and crowds coughing and sneezing all over the place. $5 for the plastic "glass" before they put some wine in it for another $5. Music was so loud one could not enjoy a conversation. Enjoyed my Persian meal but cannot say I have not tasted it before. Did notice a few of the stalls told one where their produce was grown in Tassie. Looked behind the stalls and my tummy turned - so many dirty boxes and unwashed staff. Cannot say I will be putting this experience down on my must do again list. Give me a nice meal in a decent eatery any day and please note all who read this restaurants down on this island beat any place on the Gold Coast or Brisbane where all venues appear to be a variation on a theme! Change the lettuce with rocket and pop the price up and you have S.E. Qld.
Maybe the organisers should just cut to the chase by:
Patrons given a tellow sou-wester on arrival to cover thme from head to toe
getting rid of all the food stalls & just having one kitchen doling out the gruel in buckets
Dispensing with the superferlous & hard to find tables & just have a series of communal troughs
The whole lot could be hosed down between hordes
The Trough of Tasmania?
Agree with all above. Glad you;red back too Gobbler - hope Xmas was a happy one.
I did the Huon loop on Saturday, in preference to going to Taste, then went to Taste yesterday.
What a contrast!
I had a wonderful trip to Cygnet and Woodbridge, was served in the most friendly and courteous manner by all, chatted to locals, had food that was faultless (and hot!!), purchased local produce and generally had the best of times.
If you read my yesterday's blog about Taste, you'll know my time there was not a duplication of the day before!
The plus in favour of Taste would be that it DOES bring many more inhabitants together in a social situation, which has to be a positive - doesn't it?
Other than that, I fail to see the benefit of this event, because it definitely doesn't do it for ME, taste-wise.
If those are the Tastes of Tas - beam me right up, Scotty!
Well!! I have always LOVED the Taste and continue to do so. Those wanting a restaurant experience are totally missing the point. Certainly if you dislike large numbers of people and want to be waited on, then forget it!
The Taste is essentially a huge party. I (and my mum) approach each visit with some strategies to mamimise enjoyment. We take our own cutlery and plenty of chilled water. We arrive at 11 am each day, select a spot either in the shade of an umbrella or initially in the Festival tent. If the music gets too loud we move on before the crowds materialise. I roam freely around te stalls and source the food I want, visiting most popular stalls early. If and when the crowds and heat get too much, I leave and return the following day. The event also allows me and my mum to catch up informally with many like minded friends in a more relaxed (for us) way than in all those traditional and hackneyed pre Xmas get togethers. Granted not all the food is great, but careful selection always reveals many very fine dishes and different tastes. I am also a wine lover, and the Taste also provides an opportunity to try some excellent Tasmanian wines and chat to the makers where normally the cost of risking a disappointing bottle of these sometimes expensive wines would be prohibitive.
I freely admit that I often complain of noisy restaurants. The bustle of the Taste, strangely , does not worry me. I just relax into the atmosphere and ENJOY!
Happy New Year
Anon2
Oh Anon2 - I KNEW I'd upset you saying those awful things about Taste, which I know is a favourite event of yours every year!
In fact, my eating partners and I yesterday discussed this very issue about you and food, and ToT, while we were there - remarking on your avid interest in and passion for food and wine.
I suppose all you can say at the end of the day is that we each get what we want, or not, out of life.
Another way of saying 'each to his own'.
I said it the way I experienced it on the day in the blog.
But - am really glad you and mum get so much out of, and long may you both continue to do so.
Happy New Year to you both.
Happy New Year to All.
After avoiding the Taste myself over the last couple of years, this year I find myself actually working there.
Hubby and I are helping out at our friends wine stall, and to my own surprise we are really enjoying it. I am thankful not to be working on one of the very busy food stalls though. We are situated right next to one and it looks to be bloody hard work. Their boss is a great guy though and rotates his staff onto different jobs whenever the need is felt. Still very hot, cramped conditions, not for me.
I love a chat so it's nice to be on the other side of the counter and have time to listen to a diverse cross section of people and hear their views on our Taste.
I must say everyone is very positive about it. One lovely girl from Chicago was just in awe of it all. She said they have The Taste of Chicago, but that our Taste was amazing. I'd say about 50% of the people I spoke to were tourists so for many this was something completely different.
Working there has also given us time to choose the places we'd like to eat with care. We have had a gorgeous rabbit rillette,tasty rosti with mushrooms, spinach and goats cheese, marinated calamari, half a fresh cray, wonderful wood fired pizza, delicious crumbed scallops, and last night a divine warm chocolate pudding with fresh raspberries and raspberry icecream.I know this sounds a lot but we've practically been living there for the last 3 days. Having said that, not much left I want to try. I know where to avoid especially after having now seen behind the scenes.
I think it comes down to, you either love it or hate it. As Rita says though, each to their own.
We all know what to expect and if crowds and loud noise etc, aren't your thing, maybe best to try somewhere else.
I know our hard earned money is going to finance my much anticipated tour of the Huon, so roll on Thursday.
'My question is this - where the hell are all those people that congregate at the Taste (for food) to be found the rest of the year?'
They are sitting at home! The Taste isn't for people who like food, it is for people who don't like food but like to tell all their friends what a 'foodie' they are. That's why you don't see a drop off in restaurant bookings whilst it is on.
Hi Christina and Forde
Both of you have valid points.
Forde - you echoed exactly what my Nellie said to me this morning.
Christina - it's great that you've chimed in with the stallholders point of view. I reckon your summation of it being more of a tourist place sounds pretty accurate.
And the point about crowds and loud noise is right too - I hate both, so naturally it really isn't my scene.
Others seem to revel in that, which I suppose goes back to the old caveman days when all our tribe liked to sit around the campfire and eat together, conversing noisily, grunting a lot and tossing bones over our shoulders!
Things haven't changed too much in my family!
The Taste is crap.
Place crap. Food crap. Tables crap.
Plastic glasses crap. Sticky, dirty tables crap. Entertainment crap.
Shed crap. Toilets crap. Queuing crap. Bins crap.
Oh, did I say it was crap?
We had a huge feed from Seafood DeMayne and sat on Snug Beach. That wasn't crap.
Poor old Sir grumpy seems to live in a world full of crap. Oh well, I suppose we all are. I prefer, to borrow from Oscar Wilde, to be looking at the stars!
Anon2
Oh yes, Oscar Wilde, he was into crap in a big way. Went to jail for it.
Didn't know his stars from his elbow.
I was just shorthanding the comments on the Taste to crap because I was too tired earlier to elucidate. Look out, I've woken up.
I think you meant 'elaborate' Sir G, not 'elucidate'?
No, with Oscar, it has to be eluciDATE.
Onya Sir G! And thanks to you, I now have an aptly named website - official announcement tomorrow!
What would you like for a prize?
BTW - Lord Mayor said on news tonight that they would average 30,000 visitors to the Taste daily!!
What does that tell us?
Oh rita, you're welcome, I think we're even.
The fun and info your site has offered put me in YOUR debt.
And also your patient respondents who rightly take me to task for being a grumpy old git.
PS. I have actually enjoyed one or two SMALL moments at past Tastes.
Okay, there I've said it Anon, are you happy?
Don't tell anyone else.
But it has to get a NEW shape. Well, for me, anyway. But if you love it, good on ya....that's what it's all about.
Geez Sir G - are you perchance mellowing?
It must be the time of year, Rita, or the stuff I wash it down with.
Mellowing....me....I'll shake it off soon, you'll see.....
Bloody Oscar Wilde,eh!
I won't tell a soul about those SMALL moments at the Taste, sir grumpy.
Just got back from my 5th TOT visit. Heaven! Lovely Bruny Is cheeses accompanied by a glass of Estate 05 Stefano Lubiana pinot.
But you've got to be choosey.Sliced roast meats at one stall which are fine B4 12 noon are to be avoided by 2pm. Certainly an event such as this favours produce which can be served fresh or prepared to order such as the Wursthaus stall is doing successfully. Party on. Happy New Year Rita (and sir grumpy)
Anon2
Cheers, Anon, sounds like you did it well. I'm less organised, so meandering crowds finish me off.
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