Rita is back!

Once again, I apologize for my very distinct lack of posting over the past few months. It has been a time of frustration, and extremes of illness for me, which don’t rest easily with this little Aries black duck! Us Aries people are renown for just jumping in and doing things, so for me to have had to quietly and calmly sit in hospital beds, doctors waiting rooms and airports, as I have had to do over the past months, has not rested at all easily with a normally active, animated and social human being such as myself!

However, enough of the maudlin!

My main (and probably, only) topic of interest – food!

Firstly, I’d like to wholeheartedly congratulate Katrina from Garagistes, for winning the title of Australia’s Best New Young Restauranteur. A well deserved accolade. Also to Garagistes for their win with the Gourmet Traveller awards for Best Restaurant in the state. It would appear that everything you guys touch turns to gold!

Spring is in the air, and with it, I have noticed some new eateries opening up round town. I wish them luck, and hope the proprietors don’t make some of those mistakes many others have made in the past. A hint: look after your customers (and staff) first and foremost and you’re almost certainly on a winner.

A business that certainly didn’t tick those boxes for Rita recently was the Tas Coffee Roasters shop in Sandy Bay. I popped in there to take up their advertised offer of an egg and bacon roll and coffee, for the princely sum of $12.50. Being the only customer in the cafe, having made my order, I walked over to the open kitchen and in a friendly manner commented to the fair-haired, middle aged cooking guy that if he wanted to err on the side of crispy to burnt bacon I wouldn’t mind at all. I was totally ignored by him.

Having subsequently been handed my roll (with scrambled egg!!?? WTF?) and coffee, I pleasantly walked past him, (trying desparately to eyeball him) to thank him….but still absolutely no indication or acknowledgement of my existence on this planet! If that cafe is floundering, I can tell you why!

Travelling to Melbourne for yet another heart operation at the beginning of this month, I decided to arrive two days earlier and have a bit of down time, trying to relax before the upcoming ordeal. I had pre-booked a lunch at Maha (the middle eastern Shane Delia restaurant in the city), plus another wonderful lunch at St Katherines in Kew, which, as regular readers will recognize, is where we lunched last time I was in Melbourne for the same reason. St Kats is a Shane Delia/George Columbaris restaurant, and George himself was there during our lunch there this time.

Both lunches were excellent. I found the atmosphere at Maha a bit too stilted and formal, highlighted by the fact that the restaurant is situated in a basement area, so generally is a ‘darkish’ place to be. I prefer a lighter area to dine in, such as at St Kats.

We stayed in a Mantra hotel in Chinatown, so partook of the odd Yum Cha, which, it has to be said, tops every meal for me! Melbourne Yum Cha’s shit all over any other food offerings anywhere, I reckon! For $16.50 per person, for all you can eat of good quality, fresh, hot food being constantly bought to your table unsolicited, you simply can’t beat it.

We also had a beautiful meal in Chinatown with good friends, and ex-Tassie food blogger(s), Victor and Steven, who have relocated to Melbourne. We left the ordering of food to Victor, as he is Malaysian, and if HE doesn’t know his stuff, no one does! We most definitely weren’t disappointed, having had the opportunity to sample all manner of Chinese food which we wouldn’t have normally ordered through not having knowledge of the dish. A boring-sounding fried rice dish turned out to be THE best dish ever, and we will definitely be returning to that restaurant for that particular food next time we’re in Melbourne.

Feast Magazine, SBS’ foodie magazine, this month produced a little booklet enclosed within the magazine, naming each state’s best venues for various foods, like Best Laksa (Chatterbox, North Hobart; runner up: Suwan Thai in Salamanca), Best Baklava (ABC Foodstore, North Hobart; runner up:Anatolia, North Hobart), Best Pad Thai (Vanidols Macquarie St; runner up: Ivory Café, city), Best Fish & Chips (Fish Frenzy, Eliz St Pier; runner up:Manning Reef Café, Sandy Bay).

My nomination for Best Thai Beef Salad (which wasn’t a category of Feast’s, but should have been!) is Shoebox Café in Hobart. Ivory Café used to do one which was head and shoulders above any others in Hobart, but they’ve taken it off their menu now (and, yes, I HAVE expressed my horror and disappointment at that decision to them!!) so if you want to taste a true spicy Thai Beef Salad, get in to Sammi at Shoebox and take one back to work for lunch!

That will be enough catching up for today. I have darted round a fair bit in this post, but hopefully given you some proverbial ‘food for thought’!