Fish and chips, pictured above, at Peppermint Bay today. A beautiful sunny winters day. Great food. A perfect eatery. But please, PB, can you cut the apple slices to be more bite-sized in the Apple and Blackberry Crumble ($9)? Apart from that small glitch (no joke when you burn the roof of your mouth whilst trying to chomp on a larger sized, boiling hot slice of apple!) it was delicious. The Grilled Tasmanian Beef Fillet (steak) with cauliflower mornay, sauteed spinach and roasted potatoes with rosemary and garlic ($28) was faultless. The lime and parmesan crusted fish served with mashed potato and dressed leaves (market price, which today was $25) was also great.
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22 comments:
Looks like great comfort food, Rita. Tssiegal's comfort food seems to include chocolate on Sunday!
Which makes me think....shouldn't all food be comfort food?
Pie and chips, beans, curry, cheese on toast, baked rice pud with sultanas, doughnuts, whatever.
I'm sick of choosing someone else's idea of ``the healthy option'' and longing for Dish B.
I reckon it makes us depressed to see food as the enemy and to choose boring shit such as raw veggies in the belief we are doing ourselves the ultimate good.
I love my veggies but I've decided food is going to be the most delicious I can make it and I will not listen to the health lobby!
Our food review pages are being turned into unqualified medical advice.
Food writers are telling us about omegas and antioxidants etc, when I want to read about FOOD.
Let our doctors take back the diet advice and give us food writers who talk about taste, freshness. quality, seasonal food and the pleasure of it all.
I reckon a good feed, and it doesn't have to be five star, is one of the best tonics we can have. Eat for joy.
So, dig in and keep your peckers up.
Or, your mojos, Gobbler.
Maybe it's our ages, Sir G, but I agree with you. Once you've passed that magic age of 40's (or even 50's), even though good health is to be prized and cherished, you tend to weary of the constant, lifelong echoes in your head of people always banging on about eating healthily, being physically active, keeping busy - all that stuff.
Geez - to be frank, you need a bloody medal for having just survived this long, let alone be healthy about it! And many people of this age simply have NOT eaten healthily, or been physically fit. I know because I've known them all my life.
It's the luck of the draw as to who survives or not, if you're looking at health. (Obviously an accident is a different kettle of fish).
So, yes, I'm of your mindset about enjoying your meals, whatever they are. My own personal preference is simple food that tastes great. My personal definition of 'tasting great' is my own.
I don't give a shit about antioxidants or anything else. They may well be in my food (in fact they are) but that's not my concern.
Being told I had 4-6 months to live (15 years ago) gave me the freedom and permission to say 'fuck it'! I'm here by the skin of my teeth; I don't take one second of it for granted. If I survived 15 years of pleasing myself what I ate (as I vowed that, if I survived the 6 months, I would) then that whole health story is for the birds, as far as I'm concerned!
Before I was given my life/death sentence, I was the heathiest eater out.
I don't bother with that now - and I'm still here - so explain that to me someone - if you can!
Hear, hear, Rita. I'm bloody glad your still kicking along and having a go!
Without being silly and eating say just marshmallows, I'm all for food as pleasure.
One day they tell us something is good for us, the next day it's ``bad''.
And I'm mindful of the world's strugglers who don't have my choices.
Apart from that...bon appetite!
Sir G, I've been making a delicious Guiness stew with colcannon lately. We just cant get enough of it. Whenever we have it I think of you. Must be the huge stout flavour. I got the recipe from Taste.com. If you come across it make as directed but as I cook in in the oven, and love lots of gravy I add an extra glass each of red wine and stout.
This is hearty and the epitomy of comfort food for us.
OOH yes, guinness stew. I used to love the beef and guinness pie at the Richmond pub.
I'll drink to that, Christina.
Cheers.
How much was the Fish & chios Rita?
Yes Sir G - chocolate is DEFINATELY a comfort food. Especially when stessed, tired, emotional (essentially anything other than sane). I'm only 30, and although I know I should eat better, I tend to go stuff it and eat what I want and what my body wnats (currently raw carrots and mandarins) when it wants (midnight snacks anyone?).
I'm still a healthy weight (though I want to be skinner) and personally dont aspire to a size 0.
Anon 7.48 - from memory it was the same as the other fish dish - $25.
rita, as much as i like your zest for life, i seriously lack faith in your palate. this is alright in the big scheme of life, so don't worry, i guess my point is that you don't have to be an expert to have a blog but if you fall into literary nepotism, as you do with the gobbler, your opinions will be negated.
Hey Anon 12.54 - I'm with you there! I too lack faith in my palate! Chemo has a lot to answer for! But I'm not on my own there. All of us have different palates. That's why restaurants offer a menu, as opposed to just having one thing on the menu with no choice.
I have never claimed to be a food expert, or any other specific talent like that. All I possess is enthusiasm, and passion - for food, for local industry, for life.
All I blog about are my eating-out experiences. That's it. I leave it to others to draw their own conclusions - about me, my tastes in food, the restaurant, whatever.
At the end of the day, I can look at myself in the mirror each night and know I've done the best I could that day, and tried as hard as I could.
Thanks for being honest enough to express here what you think.
Let me get this right. According to anon 12.54 am, anyone, in this case Rita, that enjoys the postings of Gobbler & says so, is being nepotistic?
12:54 is missing the point altogether. We're with you Rita.
You have a hjuge advantage on me though.
I can't bear to look at myself in the mirror...too scary and sad!
Anon 1.17 - I understand Anon 12.54 in seeing my complimenting Gobbler as being 'nepotistic' (if there IS such a word). Being someone looking from the outside at these blogs, I know that all you see is what is printed (in whatever hamfisted way it is on the day!) on a page on the net. In reality, Gobbler and I talk in person frequently. We chat about the industry; gossip; things people have said to either one of us or both of us on our respective blogs; and basically what we're doing in our work places. The blog-writing is additional to our conversations, and sometimes I can't remember if I know something from having read it on Gobbler's blog, or if we talked about it, or what.
When I started my blog, I didn't know Gobbler from a bar of soap. I had heard about him, and I had had a few professional dealings with him for work. His personal reputation wasn't great, as both he, and you probably know.
Since we have got to know each other through blogging, it's like being on a team - you look out for the other team members. You shepherd off opposers. You try to defend the other team members.
Can you see where I'm leading with this?
He's a fellow blogger. I really like and respect him a great deal, especially as I've got to know him better and better as time goes on. We bare our souls here on our blogs in public. When we are hurt, he and I speak to each other privately because we know the other will totally understand and empathise.
Gobbler has evolved a lot as a person just in the time that I've known him. He has looked back on himself, and his worklife, particularly at PB, and has been quite open and frank about things he said and did in the past. That is really hard to do, and not that many people in life actually look at their lives and analyse actions and thoughts, then amend the way they now act as a result.
Gobbler has. To me, that is one big person.
I'm sure if you got to know him now, you might have a different opinion.
Hear, hear, Rita.
Look, it could go the other way...like me.
I look back and realise how many arseholes have taken advantage of my good, sweet nature and wished I'd realised at the time and given them a serve.
I want to be an arrogant bastard and am working on it as we blog.
My missus says it's working and has been for ages.....isn't that sweet?
The bitch...there....
$25 for fish & chips! I'd want to be the best I've ever had for that price.
Chips about $1.00 serve
Fish at tops, $5 a serve,
tartare, .40
Lettuce & dressing .60
$7 cost
What do youse reckon?
Oh Anon 6.04 - what about staff wages, insurance, power costs, taxes, admin etc? And don't worry about making a profit - the very reason you're in business!
What do you want? You guys are SO hard to please!
If you wanted to get the full experience of dining at PB yourself, you'd have to buy the land, build the place, kit it out, find the staff, buy in the food, then pay all the associated costs! I figure we're getting off easily just having to pay a measly $25 for the plate full of food in a lovely environment.
So glad that you had a great meal at Peppermint Bay (Still have to sing the song as I write it)
On the Gold Coast you can easily have a fish and chips meal for less than $10 and I can tell you the boxes that they came from. To eat good local fish and proper chips will cost you well over $30 or you will be sitting at Chinderah, overlooking Mt Warning and the beautiful Tweed River on the picnic tables, out of a paperbag having paid nearly as much. (It is pretty good)
Those prices are a memory on the big island.
Good to hear Rita, I read somewhere that Peppermint Bay was doing breakfast and hopped along to check it out. That place really comes alive in the morning when the sun is drenching the terrace and the crisp morning air makes you feel alive.
There's a fairly simple menu for breakfast but it's delivered well. A good guy on the coffee machine and tasty hot breakfast of eggs (mine scrabbled) awesome beans (think funky big beans, not canned) and grilled bread. What could be better?
I'd be interested to hear your thoughts. I find it hard to get a good breakfast in Tasmania and finally I've got somewhere comfortable to go.
I'm not the same anonymous with concerns about the price of fish and chips... $25 for fish and chips is great value (where have you been anon??). Still cheaper than Fish Frenzy and Flathead but the view, the building and the service are so much better.
Interested to see they're doing brekky at PB, Anon. It's a fair trek for me to make it there for brekky but I'll aim for it when I can. You might have picked up that I'm a brekky fiend!
Sandy - good to hear from you, and glad you've got fond memories of your Tassie trip.
Click here for the breakkie menu
Many thanks Twiggy! Menu looks FAB! I'll definitely be down there for brekky!
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