Farmers Market revisited

The food theme for those in the know these days seems to be an amazing new discovery - that ‘simple’ is best, thus validating a lifelong belief of mine  You don’t need to trick up food, and disguise its natural flavour, texture or taste whilst incorporating it in some complex dish which masks its natural fine flavour. Seafood is something that immediately springs to mind for me.

At Angassi a few years back, I pondered on the bastardisation of the naturally beautifully-flavoured abalone on their menu by pickling it, and serving it with lemongrass and chilli jam. To me that was heresy! Likewise those crazy Asians when they serve curried fish. If it was frozen fish I’d pop it in a curry with no qualms, but fresh fish, particularly flathead, I think is beautifully flavoured and needs absolutely no additions made to it, other than pan frying it in butter with a tad of lemon juice and seasonings maybe.

So you’ll appreciate my absolute delight to sample, at the Sunday Farmers Market a few weeks ago, a salmon sausage, containing 90% of salmon, and with the balance being fresh herbs.

I love the concept of sausages, but since childhood, when we called them ‘lips and snouts’ after a vet friend explained exactly what went into this convenience food, have rarely eaten one, and when I have, have felt extremely conscious of the fact that I was eating food there was no way I could sanction.

So – it was with great delight that I tasted the cooked sample of the salmon snag at the market. One mouthful and I was converted. They were absolutely stunning, and tasty. The frozen tray they sell at market contains 8 sausages, and costs out at approx $18 – a princely sum on the face of it, but costing it out at $2 per snag, and given that I approved 100% of the contents, made me feel way better about it.

At the Farmers Market, to complement our newly purchased snags, we bought some tiny new pink eye potatoes, and a bunch of baby carrots, and had the most delicious dinner ever.

Add to the satisfaction of the above purchases, the fact that Geeveston Japanese sushi master, Maasaki is in attendance, making sushi to order with your own selection of fillings (complete with freshly grated wasabi - a proud Tassie product), his own Inari, and THE most delicious miso soup ever eaten (last Sunday made with crayfish poaching stock, with the crayfish all ready to be added to your sushi if you so desired!).

The burger van at the Farmers Market also puts Burger got Soul to huge shame, with their ethically grown and farmed fillings being a marriage made in burger heaven, both meat and vegetarian.

I recommend you drag your lazy, Sunday-morning arses from that lovely warm bed, and get on down to the Sunday Farmers Market in the city (Melville St car park) between 9 am and 12, and eat a yummy brekky there, whilst observing life being lived by the purists amongst us who shop for their ethical and sustainable weekly food products. On second thoughts, DON’T come, as that means I will have way longer to stand in the queue for the sushi, and burgers!