Hobart Food for thought

Nom, nom...Nutpatch Nougat...here I come!

2012-01-24T13:21:00.000+11:00

You know how you go into a shop: to browse or maybe to buy something you want? You get served. The person serving you does their job. You walk out of the business and don’t give it another thought. You got what you wanted. End of transaction.

Then there’s the alternative…..you go into a shop, you’re not quite sure whether you’ll buy something or not but your reason tells you you’ll see how it goes and you’re going in with an open mind.

Rita, on Sunday, went into a sleazy-looking room tucked into the side of a service station in Kettering, which boasted, via a nondescript, hand-printed sign tied with string to the bottom of one of the petrol bowsers outside, in capital letters, proclaiming they sold the best chocolates, or words to that effect! “Probably they are selling out their cache of outdated Cadburys chokkies” Rita thought to herself, cynically!

Well, was SHE deserving of a slap in the face, or on the bottom, for such unkind thoughts!

Enter the true Kingdom of Chocolate Heaven, one and all!

In this remote little setting resides, finally, the outlet for John Zito’s Nutpatch Nougat products, which include THE most beautiful chocolates in the world! John has invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in this tiny outlet, and the results are there for all to see, hear, smell, taste and buy.

He has 3 chocolate tempering machines there, working their little automated butts off most of the time. He sells nougat, chocolates and his own hazelnut version (which is of WAY better quality) of Nutella, given that he grows the hazelnuts himself on his farm.

John Zito has been plying his Nutpatch trade for many years, but only opened the outlet at Kettering 7 weeks ago, just in time to get the local Christmas trade. He told me on Sunday that he had had three customers into the shop that day already who had received a box of his chocolates as Xmas presents, and had come to check out the shop for themselves! The minute you enter and see the huge selection of magnificent Belgian-style chocolates, you’ll never buy chocolates anywhere else again! They are absolute works of art, and capitalize on using as much local product as they can – for instance he has a Bruny Island strawberry chocolate range. Stunning to look at, and even better to taste!

And John is SO enthusiastic and keen about what he is doing, and how he does it, that he’ll take the time to demonstrate how his tempering machines work, and how he makes his truffles. He provides samples of the latest filling he is experimenting with in the kitchen there (I could taste a Baileys Irish Cream-flavour in one that I sampled). The experience of going to that shop will live with me forever, and I will always drive all the way from Hobart to Kettering to buy that special box of chocolates for those nearest and dearest to me, every time. Cadburys could well take a leaf out of his book and go back to their previous method of taking people round the factory to observe the chocolate-making process – but then again, when you have such a guy as John Zito at Kettering, don’t bother!

To shop there is an enlightened experience and I wholeheartedly recommend anyone who is remotely interested in a valuable and true experience of country-style generosity of spirit, and passionate enthusiasm for a product, and lifestyle, to head on down to Kettering. He opens all days except Wednesdays, at 10.00, but I would check that before I went. His mobile number is 0428 870 891.

A belter of a meal at Beltana

2012-01-20T07:12:00.001+11:00

Having had cause to be in Lindisfarne often over the past few months, I have observed with interest the renovations going on at the tired old (pub) Beltana so it was interesting that a friend wanted to meet me for lunch there this week.

I waitressed there for a short period in the 70’s and found it to be your usual suburban pub – full of esoteric locals with non-discerning palates! That was the last time I was in the place. You’ll imagine my delight in finding, on Wednesday at lunch there, a lovely, fresh-feeling, light and airy dining room, good food and with excellent staff to match.

FOH boss is a well-known face from Marque IV days: Leigh, who is a top operator. The kitchen staff is headed up by two ex-Jean Pascal chefs from the Bellerive shop, so a slight French bias is emerging on the menu with the addition of various duck ‘goodies’.

Whilst it has to be acknowledged this is merely a pub we’re talking about, not a trendy Salamance restaurant, the food was GOOD. As a pub in the Kalis-owned stable along with Cooleys, Margate Tavern, Beachfront Bicheno, Kingston Hotel, Mornington Inn (and the future Myer redevelopment which sounds huge and exciting for little old Hobart! A sky bar on top! See, Sydney – we too can do it!) etc, they obviously are all run under pretty similar lines, but with the difference in demographic in each pub, there is a certain amount of leeway for each pub to appeal to its punters. I think Lindisfarne’s Beltana is an accurate reflection of the desires of its locals.

The physical menu itself is a fabulous way to present a menu to clientele. It appears to be a folded piece of brown paper, with the Beltana insignia printed on the front, wrapped around the white paper serviette on the table setting – giving a neat, pleasing and hygienic appearance to the table setting. On closer examination, this bit of brown paper opens up to reveal the menu, which you can peruse then take home with you if you want – most handy for a food blogger! Apparently Alexia Kalis saw this idea in the US on a visit and has adopted it for here. Now if we could see this obvious result from some of those ‘educational’ visits around the world our politicians make, then I’m sure we, as taxpayers and financiers of these overseas visits, would feel way better about our tax dollars funding these ‘junkets’ – but that’s another story for another day!

So, with the excellent service and beautiful ambience boxes ticked, the food was next to anticipate. We ordered (to share between us) what I hoped would be a reasonable cross-section of food, and indeed it was.

*Beautiful Manna Bakehouse ciabatta with truffle butter ($8)

*Smoked free range chicken, roast pumpkin, pancetta and baby spinach salad with maple and yellow mustard dressing ($15.90)

*Togarashi squid, green mango, mint and chilli salad with lemon aioli ($15.90)

*Parfait, pasties and pies which included potted duck parfait (delicious), olive tapenade, beetroot and walnut pate (fabulous), game pastie and pork pie. You can order this as a small dish ($25) or large ($48). I found the small size combined with the other dishes we ordered was more than enough.

*Dessert was the most stunning dessert I have had for a while: Cherry Ripe in a glass ($10) – dark chocolate crumbs, cherry cheesecake and toasted coconut. Well, that’s the official description on the menu, but to me it tasted (and looked) like a large layer of what looked like whipped cream but was, in actual fact, coconut cream put in the cream gun (brilliant idea) with chocolate sprinkled over the top. On the bottom layer of the glass, you could see cherries in a cherry jelly, and you could taste shards of chocolate when you dug into the bottom and ate some cherry. Not sure where the cherry cheesecake was but it didn’t matter because it was so yummy!

The bread with the truffle butter was unexpected but lovely.

The smoked chicken salad was exactly what you’d want for lunch in the middle of the day. I’m a smoked chicken fan from way back so to be honest, they could have done whatever they liked with it and I’d have been happy!

The squid was nice but didn’t quite come up to the standard set for me by James Squires a few weeks ago.

The parfait, pastie and pie dish was a great taster platter and highly recommended for those that like to nibble and chat over a meal – which is what we were doing.

All in all, a lovely long lunch in great surroundings, with professional service. What more could you ask for?

Penalty rates and public holidays

2012-01-12T09:46:00.000+11:00

This is from one of my readers:

"For some time there have been rumblings within the hospitality industry on the effect that penalty rates are having on the profitability of many business ventures. Most recently Masterchef, George Colombaris, conveyed his thoughts on the matter which in turn set in motion some significant scrutiny from www.mattcowgill@wordpress.com on the factual content of his arguments as to why penalty rates are hobbling his businesses. I’m sure we haven’t read the last about this particular issue as many businesses are challenging the currant IR laws, most notably being Qantas and to a lesser degree the drama we witnessed at the Biaida Poultry processing plant.

What’s for certain is that if you’re a business owner, this issue is pretty close to your heart and I’m no exception.

The basic problem is that the Fair Work rules are bolting-on a Monday to Friday regimen onto an industry that operates nights and weekends as well as Monday to Friday.

I agree that there should be incentives in place to attract and retain people who seek employment in this field but I feel the penalty rates in particular are too severe. Personally I would prefer to offer the best candidates a better rate rather than all the candidates, irrespective of skill and qualifications, the same rates.

For the record we have paid our staff the new Fair Work rates since Jan 1 2010. We were advised that we could enter into an agreement with our staff effectively paying them a higher base rate to cover the costs of them working on weekends and public holidays. However, if they were disadvantaged in any way, then the agreement was non-binding. Whilst this might sound like a good idea, the reality of rostering many people covering a variety of shifts on a seven day a week roster, taking into account the obviously busy periods like summer, the needs of the mostly part time workers and the total unpredictability of the business makes it near impossible to forecast. This means the margins for error in underpaying someone loom large. This is why we decided just to bite the bullet and pay everyone according to their category of employment and their subsequent rates. At least doing this we are following the law.

The fines for inadvertently underpaying one of your staff are considerable. If say, I underpaid someone according to the information provided on the Fair Work website, we are liable to pay them back, with interest plus we attract a fine. Conversely should I get the rates wrong and over pay them, I have no recourse to retrieve the lost wages. This is where it gets curious: If I overpaid someone all year, yet failed to pay them the correct loading, then the Fair Work Ombudsman can pursue me to pay the staff member their outstanding loading and we run the risk of a hefty fine even though I have already overpaid them.

Opening on a public holiday used to be an opportunity to make up for quieter times. Now many businesses don’t bother opening as the penalty rates eat into the gains they make. Most often, you make zero profit, we are luckily enough not to go backwards, we break even but we certainly do not make any money. And before you say, ‘Greedy restaurant owner always trying to make money’ which is what I read the other day on a blog comment, what are we in business for? Yes to make money, to make a profit and sometime recently this fact has become shameful in the eyes of some people?

Why open then, I hear you ask? Well if we didn’t we’d then face the issue of not being there for our customers. Recently in Hobart several large passenger ships docked on what was a public holiday. Thousands of tourist mooched around the streets looking for places to eat and drink and many left unhappy, taking away a tarnished view of the city as a result. Inevitably, the letters to Mercury complaining about ‘lazy cafe owners’ started coming in and armchair experts tossing in their two bob on the sorry state of hospitality in Tasmania.

If I didn’t open nights or weekends my staff bill would be a third of what it is but my T/o would only be reduced by a quarter, maybe I should seriously consider this.

More importantly, when farmers and food producers stop picking and processing on weekends, nights and public holidays and our food supply suddenly reduces, then people might understand. We live in a seven days a week 24 hour a day world these days and ripe fruit needing to be picked don’t recognise penalty rates."

Italian Pantry, Fish Frenzy, Warung Indonesian, Maning Reef Cafe, James Squires

2012-01-06T07:58:00.002+11:00

Welcome 2012!

It’s a busy time of year, but I wanted to share a few brief summations of some places I have eaten at over the past month. No photos and no in-depth reviewing, but brief and to-the-point.

Italian Pantry, Federal St, North Hobart – excellent. Big tick

Fish Frenzy, Elizabeth St Pier, city – an oldie but a goodie, still great. Another big tick

Warung Indonesian, Harrington St – most disappointing

Maning Reef Café, Sandy Bay Road – fabulous little venue for a casual fish-orientated lunch (and, of course, their famous Huon Valley Tempura Mushrooms!). Best enjoyed on a sunny day so you can capitalize on the outside ambience!

Taste of Tasmania – excellent reno to a tired old building. Absolutely loved the centre itself but still had trouble sifting through the various foods on offer. Marinated octopus from Charlotte at Cable Station was easily my favourite.

James Squires in Salamanca – had heard their food was great but hadn’t expected it to be THAT great! Thoroughly enjoyed our meals there. Well done Scott Butler! Huge tick

Happy eating!

Thorpe Farm at this year's Taste again

2011-12-28T08:24:00.000+11:00

Will Bignell added the following comment yesterday, which I thought worthy of adding as a post here, and I hope everyone who goes along to this year's Taste pops into Will's stall and buys something.

"Well it has been a little while since I last slipped a note on here but I thought I would do it again and let people know we are back making cheese and at the Taste again. After giving up on food in 09/10 I have focused on our cheese and paired with another young legend Joe Bennett from Get Shucked fame and as always I have stuck with my mate of 6 Tastes, the audacious Kevin Redd serving Craigow Wines.

Thorpe Farm / Tas Highland Cheeses has not been making cheese this spring due to the increased pressure on us after the tragic loss of my dear brother George in May of this year. This is the first cheese Dad has made since we shut down for winter and I hope it is not the last as he is a great cheesemaker and people need his blue cheese! This year I am using Spelt grain that was first imported in 2006 for bulking and evaluation which is being baked into a sour dough roll at Jackman & McRoss and tastes sensational. Better than the soft wheat were persisting with before!

I hope to see you down at the Taste to check out the new stall, come buy some great cheese, oysters and wine and support some young guys of the Tassie Food and Wine scene! You can also check out the making of the cheese that you are buying as it is playing in the front window!

If nothing else at least hand over $8 and try a Highland Delight and Hot Root if nothing else whilst at the Taste, guaranteed satisfaction!

Fuel for Passion and Fuel for Love!

Regards,

Will "

A fellow food blogger....

2011-12-21T08:17:00.001+11:00

My friend Emily, who lives in Melbourne, has a lovely recipe blog, called Adeline and Lumiere. She regularly posts beautiful recipes, which I attempt to duplicate, sometimes spectacularly successfully and sometimes embarrassingly failing!

Her latest post is about a Pickle Club, which I found interesting and exciting, so have pasted here below. I’d love to join one here in Hobart, if such a thing exists.

“I love the lead up to Christmas. It’s always so manic and busy but I love it all the same. This week, to add to all the Christmas fanfare, we were invited to our very first Pickle Club. We had heard about this famous gathering of pickles before we moved up to Melbourne and were both looking forward to our first event.

So here’s the deal. You make 6 jars of delicious homemade pickles (or chutney, relish, jams, cordials, pesto…. anything that keeps) and then swap them for 6 other amazing jars of varied goodness. Pretty simple!

There were so many mouth watering flavours to choose from. It was so hard to choose only 6! After much deliberation we chose: Coriander, Kaffir Lime & Chili Pesto, Lemon Curd, Pickled Shallots, Apricot & Honey Jam, Mango & Strawberry Cordial & Roasted Tomato and Chilli Relish. Yuuu-um!”

If you like the sound of Em’s ramblings, here is the link to her blog.

Rita is taking a break

2011-12-06T23:15:00.000+11:00

Rita is having a rest from blogging for a while. If the mood strikes, I will post something but it will not be a regular occurrence.

Have a fabulous Christmas and New Year, and feel free to chat amongst yourselves if the need arises.

Your thoughts, readers, please.......

2011-11-29T12:35:00.002+11:00

The email below is one forwarded by a third party to a Rita-reader (who in turn sent it on to me, asking what I thought of it). It follows a holiday she had in Noosa in September. The email is about the lady (xxxx) who forwarded me the email, and her friend (zzzz) who lives in Noosa.

The email is to her, and relates to an evening in a local Noosa restaurant.

I am interested to see what others think about this email……………

“I am personally outraged at the behaviour of the zzzz booking ( blonde curly haired woman with glasses ) and xxxx at my workplace on sunday 18th of september !

reducing the waitress to tears by calling her disgusting was un called for !

disgusting was the behaviour of both parties mentioned above

20 minutes is not a long time to wait for food ! if fast food was wanted perhaps Mcdonalds should have been visited

xxxx is a serial restaurant pest and a complete pain in the ass ! ( after 3 of these scenes by the vile xxxx woman this year in her 6 months of being in town )

However more disturbing was the behaviour of including innocent patrons which where bothered with their food problems !

how would you like it if BAD reviews were placed on every accommodation web sight about your resort ? it is exactly the same scenario

Pass on to xxxx that i will give her picture ( published in september issue of the weekender noosa) to every chef / restaurant owner / manager in Noosa that i know so they will be warned just how savage

she is so they can be wary of xxxx or zzzz on there booking sheets

Regards (name of manager of restaurant)

attached

letter sent to all local news papers

"shame on you" to two of the diners who dined at my workplace in this last week one local and one from interstate , reducing the waitress to tears by calling her disgusting as well as bothering innocent diners with your so called food problems , the interstate diner is a serial restaurant pest -want to be food critic and i am sure nothing can keep her happy, We average 40 to 60 covers nightly all year round with loyal repeat customers weekly with no complaint , the interstate diner has upset staff at my workplace before so the cuisine obviously is not suited to her taste buds but still she books under different names to gain access to upset staff , show some respect just because we work in the hospitality industry weather it be a waitress/ waiter or part of a kitchen team we are no lesser of a person than you, we more than likely work harder than you -so we deserve some respect ! , I hope that one day you to are treated in the same way so you know how it feels to be humiliated in public “

No doctor needed for a meal at the Syntax

2011-11-26T11:47:00.005+11:00

Another meal out proved, once again, the old adage that you can’t judge a book by its cover!

Thursday night’s meal was at the Doctor Syntax, formerly the Doctor Syntax, and more recently known as the Bay Hotel, in Sandy Bay Road, Sandy Bay.

I reviewed this venue a few years ago in its incarnation, at the time, as the Bay Hotel Bar and Grill, and thoroughly enjoyed my meal.

So here we found ourselves, two years later, down the Bay at the Syntax again, in a renovation of the renovation! And you wonder why us old hospitality veterans are cynical?

We were given a warm welcome by mine host Tom, the thoroughly charismatic and hands-on Irish licensee at the Syntax. Tom is one of those rare hospitality breed who work and operate in hospitality the way (ideally) everyone should. That is to say he speaks to everyone present; he is constantly on the prowl dividing his time equally between the bar and the restaurant, ensuring all is going to (his) plan; he helps out clearing back tables as required; he is in the kitchen making sure all is going well there; he is chatting to acquaintances in the bar and restaurant; he is shoring up sponsorship deals with cricket clubs in the nicest possible way whilst chatting with cricket club customers; he is behind the bar serving drinks supporting the busy barperson; he is manning the till taking payments. In short, he’s everywhere, being helpful, courteous and efficient, in fact, every inch earning the title of the true ‘mine host’!

Tom was the guy who served our table last year when I reviewed the degustation meal at Cooleys, so I was already familiar with his work. He has since worked at the Black Buffalo then Waratah until his offer of licensee-ship at Syntax. His previous experiences have obviously benefitted him (and, indirectly, us as customers), rather than turn him into one of your usual managers who sit on their butts ordering staff around and not contributing a single thing to the procedure, or managing to look supremely efficient and hardworking whilst actually doing jack-shit!

Pork belly and scallops

And so, to the food……four of us were dining, and two were ravenous so ordered the duo of dips with olives, sundried tomatoes, fetta and warm crusty bread ($12.50). There were, as per menu description, two dips, one of which was reasonably unidentifiable (we think it might have been some kind of fishy dip, with its fawn colour not providing any specific clues) and a roasted capsicum dip which was actually quite good. It probably filled a gap for the starving ones, but as nibble platters go, it was pretty standard.

The groundbreaking, earth-shattering course was the mains. Never, in all my days of eating out (and, as this blog will testify, at all manner of restaurants, cafes and pubs), have I experienced as perfect and genuine a meal as all our meals at the Syntax.

Two of us had the Syntax chicken breast parmigiana ($22). It was, quite simply, stunning. How hard can it be for a pub to buy chicken breast, crumb it, add a slice of ham and cheese, and call it a parmy? Apparently way too hard, as this is the first time I have ever seen a genuine, house-made parmy such as this in a pub! I tasted it and was sorry I hadn’t ordered it.

Meanwhile I was stuck with the Pork belly and scallops with Vietnamese salad and zesty orange dressing ($26.50)! It was a sacrifice but I managed to finish it in record time! It was easily, head and shoulders, above ANY pub meal I have had, anywhere, any time. A big call, but I’m making it today! The pork was perfectly done, and matched mate Steve’s (Cumper) menu pork belly, which I have previously considered unbeatable. The salad was exactly what the doctor (!!) ordered, the day having been a gorgeous, summer-y, sunny day, resulting in a desire to eat something filling but light-ish for dinner. It had the requisite amount of chilli and sweet, and matched the meat/shellfish component perfectly.

The fourth main was a brie and garlic stuffed chicken breast ($26.50) wrapped in bacon, served with a lemon risotto cake and topped with a creamy white wine cheese sauce, served with a medley of perfectly roasted and seasoned fresh vegetables. The serving was way too big a serve, even for a hungry guy, but he loved it. Possibly the risotto cake could have been smaller and less thick so it was more like a biscuit than a cake! But the quality and standard of food was right up there, and I intend to make this my local from now on.

My chef niece was there earlier in the week and had the salt and pepper calamari ($17) with chips, salad and tartare, and attested to the fabulous-ness of their meals there as well.

We topped off a perfect meal with sticky date pudding (once again, a huge serving) with hot butterscotch sauce and ice cream at $9, plus an ice cream sundae ($7) and a chefs special kahlua parfait (approx $10). All the desserts were sweet, unctuous and appropriate to top off a meal which ended another perfect day in paradise! I wholeheartedly recommend the ‘new’ Syntax to anyone who wants to eat great food at a very reasonable price, and get great service with it as well.

To sum up, as I said at the beginning, if you think you’re going to get yet another pub meal at Syntax, think again!

Doctor Syntax Hotel
139 Sandy Bay Road
Sandy Bay 7005
Ph: 6223 6258

Ming Court

2011-11-20T10:23:00.002+11:00

Last night heralded, surprisingly, my first ever visit to Lower Sandy Bay’s Chinese restaurant, Ming Court. Discussion across the table about how long Ming Court has actually been trading agreed on around 30 years. Well, I'm not sure about that but I would estimate at least 20 years. That's a long time in anyone's books for a restaurant in Hobart to operate, you must admit.

My dining experience there wasn’t either bad or excellent. It was fine for what we wanted – a round table, shared food, reasonable prices, reasonable service and not too much background noise or interruption.

We shared:

Entrees

steamed dim sims

Chinese sausages

stuffed Chinese mushrooms

sesame prawns

Mains

honey chilli chicken

bbq pork with beanshoots

Cantonese beef

braised scallops with ginger sauce

tofu with braised veges

steamed rice

The entrees were all priced round the $7 - $10 mark, and the mains averaged $22 each.

I was interested to observe that whilst they weren’t full to brimming with customers, they had a restaurant which was about 2/3 full, which in today’s world of austerity, seemed to me like a good trade for a Saturday night in otherwise deserted Lower Sandy Bay.

The décor is firmly stuck in the 70’s, with the ornately patterned carpet continuing up the walls to waist height! Gotta love that look, eh?

I wouldn’t say I would be rushing back there, but if someone suggested a meal there to me I would be happy to eat there again.

636A Sandy Bay Road

Lower Sandy Bay

Ph: 6225 3107

Moonah Primary School Kitchen Garden fundraiser

2011-11-15T10:29:00.000+11:00

I received the following email from the principal of Moonah Primary School, which I think is reasonably self-explanatory:

"I am Principal at Moonah Primary which is the Tassie Demonstration school for the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Program. Soon, we are holding what we hope will be the first in a series of celebrity chef dinners to raise money to support our program. Here are the details:

Moonah Primary School’s
Kitchen Garden Fundraiser Dinner

Guest Chef Carl Knight
from The Raincheck Lounge is cooking

4 course set menu with matched wines
$50 per head

Wednesday 23rd November at 7pm
at Moonah Primary School

We apologise but we are unable to cater for individual dietary requirements.

Only 50 seats available. Get a table together and contact the school on 6272 9868 to buy your tickets.

Students will be assisting with preparing and serving the food. It should be a great night. I wondered if you would be interested in attending the dinner with some of your friends and/or if you would be able to promote it on your blog."

Unfortunately I can't attend this particular dinner, but encourage everyone else to form a table and support an extremely worthwhile cause.

Garagistes reprise

2011-11-11T07:46:00.001+11:00

OK, I’ll put my hand up and admit to being a Garagistes disciple. I had THE best meal ever at Garagistes on Wednesday night. True to form, Luke and his kitchen team produced food worthy of all the plaudits they have received to date. Katrina’s floor crew equally met the challenge of an ever-swelling number of customers as they arrived: meeting and greeting them at the door, directing them to seats at the long communal tables, and immediately plying them with tap water which was maintained throughout the evening.

Four of us dined, so each selected a dish they fancied off the menu, to which we added a single steamed oyster serving for each person to begin with.

I have pasted below a copy of the menu that Garagistes currently have on their website, complete with the detailed descriptions of what ingredients were in each dish. Our meal for Wednesday night was most similar, with a few variations. I didn’t write down any details, or take any photos, so transported into culinary heaven was I!

steamed bruny island oyster, apple cider emulsion, walnut oil, lemon balm 4
potato crostini, braised onion + tea smoked yogurt, herbs + flowers 4
grilled lamb ribs, barrel aged vinegar, black mustard seeds, chive flowers 12
piment d’espelette braised tripe, purple broccoli, cured duck breast, young garlic 13
garagistes’ salumi 16
salt roasted celeriac, celeriac sabayon, shaved raw mushrooms, watercress 17
roasted pink eyes, mussels, mussel + whey sauce, crisp onion + potato, bay oil 19
char-grilled octopus, poached calamari, wild olive emulsion, toasted quinoa 25
roast sweetbreads, white asparagus, pepita purée, bulrush, lettuce, buckwheat 23
charred berkshire pork neck + leeks, caper leaves, salted turnip, prunes + raisins 32
CHEESE
brie de meaux (cow’s milk, france) 14
ossau iraty (sheep’s milk, france) 13
livarot (cow’s milk, france) 13
belstone gouda (goat’s milk, tasmania) 12
SWEET
burnt cream, shortcake, citrus meringue, rhubarb granita + oxalis jelly 14

The plates in the middle of our table comprised:
garagistes salumi
char grilled octopus, poached calamari
steamed ling, resting on a bed of the most delicious onion sauce with the consistency of hollandaise (had to have been blended in the Thermomix!)
chawan mushi – a Japanese style savoury steamed egg custard dish. I think this one was my most favourite, although that is a tough call. The custard was the smoothest and creamiest you could ever imagine. Probably to the layman, it sounds like it would be a horrible dish and you wouldn’t even want it in your mouth, but let me hasten to assure you that if you were adventurous enough to sample it (with an open mind), you would be hard pressed to find fault with it!

We then moved onto one of each of the 4 cheeses (approx $14 each) on offer for the evening, and topped the faultless meal off with a serving of the burnt cream, shortcake, citrus meringue, rhubarb granita and oxalis jelly ($14) which to me seemed like Luke's sophisticated version of an Eton Mess dessert. It was gorgeous.

Luke’s technique and instinctive flair for taste combination and flavours, combined with the physical appearance of the food on the plate provided this restaurant with the well deserved award of Australia’s best new restaurant.

The bill for the four of us to eat and drink freely, without looking at costs, came out at approximately $300, which, all things considered, was damn cheap for what we got. At the beginning of the evening when our elected wine selector was perusing the most extensive wine list, her comment was “Where is Roger McShane when you need him!” When it came time to select the third carafe for the evening, and she was poring over the wine list yet again, I asked her to repeat what she had said as she tried to decide on her original selection. I then drew her attention to the fact that aforementioned Roger McShane had just arrived with Sue Dyson, and was sitting behind her! So – she did the obvious and went over to get Roger’s opinion on what wine to order next – as you would!

I thoroughly enjoyed my meal at Garagistes, and found Luke’s latent culinary skills, which obviously didn’t get a true workout whilst he was cooking at Grandvewe when they first arrived in Tasmania, have emerged to ensure he goes down in the annals of Tasmanian cooking.

Lunch at Drysdale 2011

2011-11-05T09:23:00.000+11:00

Pork vindaloo, above

Trout and oysters

Salmon

Chicken breast (btw, that was me who was responsible for the gravy spot on the side of the plate!)

Dessert (flourless choc syrup cake)

Other dessert, can't remember what, but chocolate anyway!

A spur of the moment decision to lunch at Polytechnic’s Drysdale Café 59 proved interesting. They had space for the two of us, so we sat down and ordered pretty well one of everything on the menu – all in the interests of research for this blog, you understand!

We had:

dozen natural oysters ($10)

cured ocean trout and gratinated oysters with pickled beetroot salad ($14)

Indian pork vindaloo with rice and portha ($14)

chicken breast with mushroom jus and potato mash ($14)

pan fried salmon with pinkeye potatoes and asparagus ($14)

We were served by one of the international students, who, I was reliably informed, is excellent in the kitchen, however his FOH skills could be worked on. If his future is in kitchen work (ie cheffing or whatever) I think he will prove an excellent employee. The language barrier is difficult in these situations, as he quite plainly asked us if we wanted the oysters as an entrée, which we did, but they all ended up coming out together. It would obviously be preferable to nibble on the oysters before all the other hot dishes came out. However he was a willing and courteous student and I think at this stage, that’s great for a training school.

But – given that it IS a training school which opens to the public, presumably in order for the students to get real-life experience dealing with real-life customers, I don’t understand why there is no obvious way for the students to be provided, by the customers, with feedback on their expertise. I asked about this as we paid the bill, and was told there was a feedback form if I wanted to fill it out. They said I could mail it back or drop it in at a later date. I made a point of filling it out there and then, and returned it immediately, pondering as to why it was so obvious they couldn’t really give the proverbial…..I would also love the chance to rewrite some of the non-probing questions on this “feedback” form!

The trout was easily the best presented dish, and Bec’s favourite. I loved the chicken, as it ticked all the boxes for me.

We desserted on one of each of the two offered desserts, and left with a bill of $80, which was excellent given what we had eaten and drunk.

All in all, a lovely lunch venue, and a shame they aren’t open more frequently over the course of the year, especially given my previous post about future skills shortages in the hospitality industry.

I was also most disturbed to hear, on my enquiring, that the annual Christmas Shop has been cut this year. I have based a new family tradition around this shop, which we have patronized enthusiastically for the past (at least) 6 years. I would buy the gingerbread house kit, then all my grandchildren and their parents and grandmother (me!) would spend a lovely afternoon supervising the children assembling and decorating the gingerbread house. It has become a much anticipated pre-Christmas family activity, not unlike the council’s Christmas Pageant and Sandy Bay’s Carols by Candlelight! Now we’ll have to actually make the gingerbread walls etc ourselves!

Ah well – change is always occurring, and I suppose this was due to happen sometime – but I don’t have to like it!

Skills shortage in hospitality

2011-11-04T15:35:00.000+11:00

Skills shortage in spotlight with Deloitte warning of crisis ahead

3 November 2011

Hospitality Magazine Newsletter

The critical skills shortage already facing the hospitality industry is in the spotlight again with a new discussion paper from Deloitte reinforcing the crisis ahead across a number of industries and urging Australian businesses and government to act now to deal with the challenge.

The discussion paper Where is Your Next Worker warns that action is needed in the "war for talent" ahead as businesses across the board compete for employees as the skill shortage continues to grow.

Deloitte said the paper is part of a long term initiative to drive debate and action on the issue.

Deloitte Access Economics' Chris Richardson said that at a time when demand is high for Australian resources the Government has adopted policies that are restricting the numbers of available workers.

"At the same time Australia has adopted policies that have seen migration fall, doing so just ahead of the biggest surge in retiree numbers this nation has ever seen," he said.

"This means the next few years will see skill shortages proliferate."

Restaurant and Catering Australia chief executive officer John Hart said the outlook for the hospitality industry was "just terrible" in regards to meeting the demand for workers.

He said recent predictions in research undertaken by Deloitte found that the industry was 7.8 per cent unemployed.

"Which just confirms that things are pretty desperate," Mr Hart said.

"And in the examination of Australia's tourism potential to 2020 that was undertaken by Tourism Australia it was found that 100,000 staff would required by 2020 to meet demand.

"In addition over this period hospitality will need an additional 116,000 staff."

Deloitte's discussion paper offered 12 "levers" businesses and government can use to address the skills problem including:

· Working with education providers to access future skills, and shaping courses to suit business needs;

· Using one of Australia's "biggest untapped sources of competitive talent" - women;

· Growing labour pools through skilled migration;

· Tempting retirees back to work - or encouraging them to stay on in the first place;

· Lifting the participation rate of groups such as indigenous workers, migrants, and people with disabilities;

· Increasing 'engagement' with workers - making existing employees the most productive workers

Environs

2011-10-29T21:21:00.002+11:00

Lunch at Environs, the freshly renovated, light and airy, former Bosso and Boo, in Waterloo Crescent, Battery Point, proved to be a most pleasant interlude from life as we know it, the other day. Served by Jarrod, an exemplary example of a customer service exponent (who took the piss mercilessly, and I wouldn't have it any other way!), the food was excellent, and a true credit to owner/chef Warren Glover, ex Macquarie Foodstore, and most recently, ex Henry Jones.

The breakfast and lunch menu is modern, comprehensive and reasonable, with most everything being made in the kitchens there, including the chutney and pastry for my mains Cottage Pie. They do dinner some nights, but not all.

We feasted on:

a shared antipasta platter ($14 from memory), a predominantly meaty platter which came accompanied by some sourdough bread, then Pete had the

Cottage Green – almond coated sardines, poached egg and dressed rocket on a house made hash brown $11.50, while I had the

Shepherds Pie $8.

All the food was beautiful, and we couldn’t fault it at all. The atmosphere was light and easy, and the surroundings ditto.

This is a great little place for lunch, with the all day breakfasts going till 3.00. Responding to a request for a recommendation for lunch, I sent youngest daughter and her cousin there the next day, so impressed was I with it. They came back saying exactly the same as I had – plus they had the added bonus of having been served by the wonderful Jarrod too – they agreed with my summation of his value to the business too!

It’s a strange name for a café, but that’s the only strange aspect of eating at Environs. Go and check it out. I am taking another foodie friend there this week, so will be interested in her summation.

Restaurant Tasman revisited

2011-10-21T18:21:00.000+11:00

Another perfect meal at Restaurant Tasman, Hotel Grand Chancellor. A single oyster with chilli and lemon to whet our appetites was followed by gorgeous poached rainbow trout with a crab remoulade and gazpacho sauce.

My extreme favourite followed – the crayfish cannelloni with a burnt orange sauce, which has to be THE best dish there, then pork belly topped with pan fried duck breast and served with baby peas.

Organic clover country lamb with a besan fritter, baby beets and cucumber served on a minted yoghurt sauce finished the savoury dishes. A quenelle of rich dark chocolate mousse combined with a quenelle of with beautifully citrus-y mandarin sorbet on aniseed soil completed what was, for us, a splendid 5 course degustation.

The 5 course tasting menu costs $70, and is excellent value. Once again, I was desolated to observe that we were the only locals in a restaurant with three tables occupied. The Atrium Bar was buzzing, as was the Concert Hall. I would have loved some of those punters to join us in the restaurant.

This restaurant joins other top class places in Hobart for quality food. It’s a pity more people don’t eat there, unless they’re at a function.

Poached trout, above

Crayfish canneloni

Pork, topped with duck breast

Lamb

The Stackings restaurant at Peppermint Bay, Woodbridge

2011-10-18T09:54:00.002+11:00

The clam first course (above)

Second course of cray, occy etc above

Third course: the confit lamb belly and anchovy

The fish

The wagyu

Wild bolivian chokky

Pistachio cake, being equally as wild!

The boys gossiping.....

Well – it’s Rita here, eating the proverbial humble pie as I admit to being reasonably tentative about lunching at The Stackings, at Peppermint Bay (Woodbridge), yesterday.

I was basing my judgement on my last meal at PB, when I took some foreign visitors down there for lunch, heaping much praise on the place as we drove to Woodbridge. Imagine my embarrassment when the meal turned out to be very ordinary, and the service ditto. My visitors loved the place itself (who wouldn’t?) but as for the meal…..nope!

But that was over a year ago, and we had eaten in the bar, so today boded well with excellent friend and fellow blogger Steve Cumper volunteering to accompany me to lunch in The Stackings, which is only open (for lunches, no dinners) Friday to Monday.

Prior to going there yesterday, I hadn’t met chef David Moyle before, plus I knew that David was one of three southern Tasmanian finalists in Country Style magazine’s Country Chef of the year (which mate Steve won last year), the other two being Wayne Smith from Meadowbank, and John T Bailey from the Banc restaurant in Swansea.

I was curious – about both the food, and this mythical David Moyle that I had heard so much about. Steve has often spoken to me about him. Respected restaurant critics have raved about his food. So here I found myself – at the font of Moyle hero-worship, dying to know exactly what all the fuss was about.

There were two choices for lunch: a 3 course set menu ($65) or a 5 course set menu ($85). Naturally the two biggest pigs in Tassie opted for the 5 courses!

The meal started with clams, nettle custard and wild garlic. This plate set the standard for the rest of the meal, and left us eagerly anticipating the next course. It was simply perfect. The clams – not too salty or gritty; the nettle custard (I can’t believe I’m going to say this!) was out-of-this-world; the wild garlic topped it off perfectly.

Next came my absolute favourite course (in hindsight): octopus, crayfish, charred eggplant, pickles and wood sorrel. This plate was a veritable work of art, and, as pointed out by the three lovely ladies at the table next to us, appealed to those major vital senses – seeing and tasting. The occy was beautifully smokey so blended in well, taste-wise, with the charred eggplant flavor. It was definitely one of those dishes you need to savour each single thing on the plate individually, not load up your fork with a bit of everything.

Could he top this? Hmmm….maybe. The confit lamb belly, with anchovy and raddichio fought for top place in our tummies. The anchovy went SO well with the lamb, which was tender (on the inside) where it needed to be, and crisp (on the outside) where it needed to be.

Can this meal get any better? We had reached what could loosely be termed the ‘mains’ now. There were two options, so we decided to order one of each, so we could sample both. The Hammond farm wagyu, smoked onion, horseradish and mustard leaf was good, but the poached striped trumpeter, broccoli, dried olive and miners lettuce was superb. I had forgotten, till I sampled the fish, exactly what fish used to taste like “when I was a girl”! Both Steve and I agreed this was a standout dish.

To finish off, there was a pistachio cake, lemon jelly and goat curd for me, and a wild bolivian chocolate with prune and lavender for Steve. We wanted a big sugar hit at the end, but neither of these two desserts provided it, unfortunately. It didn’t matter. The meal was absolutely fabulous, and it was blindingly obvious why David Moyle’s food is so revered.

David came out of the kitchen into the restaurant after we had finished, and sat down to chat. An hour later, we were still chatting, and thoroughly enjoying ourselves. Our 12.30 booking ended at 4.45, with all of us dispersing to rejoin the world of normality.

It’s an extremely tough call to try and work out who will win the Country Style Tassie chef award this year. I for one will be watching out for the results most eagerly.

Meanwhile on my list of top Tassie restaurants, The Stackings is right up there. For anyone interested in locally sourced and foraged food, as well as fine flavours, get down there as a matter of priority. The closest you’ll come to when comparing David’s food, is Luke Burgess’ food at Garagistes. If you’re a Luke fan, you’ll love David’s food. As Steve says, it’s good when the food doesn’t reflect the fiscal jackboot on the chefs throat!

This weeks dining out roundup (RVL and Tassal Shop)

2011-10-15T10:27:00.000+11:00

Above: Simon Cordwell, with Antony of the Tassal Shop

This week has been a bit quiet, dining-out wise, but Rita, along with her intrepid apprentice, youngest daughter Bec, have had a few standout meals outside the house.

Rita had a beautiful lunch on Tuesday at old favourite, Red Velvet Lounge in Cygnet. It was Steve’s day off (which I knew beforehand), so it was interesting to go there with someone who was way better known to staff than I and not be recognised or acknowledged. None of the floor staff were faces I knew, so while they chatted amiably with my companion, they politely ignored me, which is exactly the way I prefer it.

We both had the Clover Farm Lamb Navarin with winter vegetables ($26.50), and shared a flourless orange cake slice for dessert, complete with cream and ice cream. The lamb was absolutely outstanding, with a heavily-laden flavour of red wine, which complemented the lamb perfectly. The cake, surprisingly, was also beautiful and moist, with the appropriate amount of orange contained in it as to be instantly recognised, had I been blindfolded, as orange cake! I said ‘surprisingly’ because it looked so boring and average in the cake display fridge, but my first mouthful told me it definitely wasn’t boring and average!

Miss Bec went to Launceston for work this week, and ate dinner at The Terrace Restaurant, at the Country Club. She partook of some beautiful meals at The Terrace and Joseph Chromy vineyard, and being accustomed to her mother photographing every plate of food put in front of her whilst dining out, proceeded to do the same! Pictured on the right here is her Seafood Taste entrée at Terrace ($24), which comprised local wasabi tempura prawns with lime-dressed fennel and celery salad, anchovy crumbed flash fried calamari, seafood arancini and east coast oyster with crème fraiche and black caviar, crisp pork grits and granny smith apple. She said it was exactly what she felt like, and perfectly done with all flavours marrying well.

A cooking class at the Tassal Shop in Salamanca Quarry was the final eating out experience of the week for Rita, who has been suffering with a version of this accursed flu which everyone I know seems to have been demonstrating symptoms of. Despite feeling like crap, Rita trekked to the Tassal Shop and sat in with cooking teacher Simon Cordwell, Exec Chef at Hadleys (soon to be Peppers on Collins St) and his willing helpers and students, while he cooked up a feast for us.

Tasmanian oysters with soy, lime and mirin pearls (pictured above at the top) started the evening’s meal. These little ‘pearls’ also adorned one of the courses which Colette (Ut Si Café) and I shared at Hadleys last year, and found amazing. Simon explained, and demonstrated, exactly how he makes them – an intriguing process which requires a certain understanding of chemistry (and physics?) to begin with! They are a stunning addition to foodstuffs, like an oyster.

Following hot on the heels of the oyster starters came:

Baked parmesan custard with grilled new season asparagus

Korean BBQ salmon with kimchi and dipping sauce

Sesame seared salmon, wakame, shima wasabi and light soy sauce

Miso glazed salmon, asian salad and chilli lime dressing

Avocado and yoghurt panna cotta with strawberry and avocado salad, palm sugar and lime syrup, served with a glass biscuit.

The dessert reads as if it would be weird, but in actual fact was glorious, and a perfect way to finish the meal.

We went home, sated, and clutching our menu and recipes of every dish we ate. It’s Tassal’s birthday, so this seemed a fitting celebration (one of many over this week) to end the week with.

Next week looks very interesting……watch this space!

Rita reminisces

2011-10-07T07:58:00.002+11:00

14^th February 1966 heralded the start of decimal currency in Australia – a most confusing time for all of us, given that we had only ever used the ₤ (pound), shilling and pence (sterling) system. It was extremely difficult to get your head around the fact that everything was priced from then onwards in dollars and cents. In the new decimal currency system, ₤1 (one pound) became $2, and 10/- (shillings), which was half a pound, became $1. The new coins also confused the hell out of me.

On 14/2/66 I was in Year 11 at Hobart Matriculation College in Letitia Street, North Hobart (where Turnbulls Funeral Home is now). Going to school that first decimal currency morning, all was as normal (ie as it had been the day before), but coming home after school was a different matter. I got on the trolley bus outside school, handed the driver my student pass and money, but he wouldn’t accept my 6d (sixpence, which physically was the size, and had the appearance, of a 5c piece)! He told me we now had decimal currency, and I needed that currency in order to travel on the trolley bus! I walked into town, then home to Dynnyrne, because I didn’t have any new currency, but rapidly made sure I bought something at the corner shop on my way home, so I could obtain some of the new coins in change, and ensure I got to school the next day via trolley bus!

Fast forward to the end of that year, and I was working (and earning $42 per fortnight) at the Hydro, and living in a share house in Bathurst Street with six other girls. We all worked at different places: one girl was a beauty consultant at Myers (which meant free sample makeup for all of us). Another girl was an usherette at the Odeon movie theatre in Liverpool Street, which was great because she let any of us in free to see the movies!

Three of us pooled resources, and took turns shopping and cooking the meals.

Whilst sorting through lots of old papers today, I found my (priced) shopping list, and meal plan, for a three day period (Friday night dinner, lunch and dinner on Saturday, and lunch and dinner on Sunday) in late 1966, and was most amused at how much things have changed.

Friday nights menu was chops, peas, potatoes, cabbage and carrots. Saturday lunch was casserole, potatoes, pumpkin and cauliflower. Saturday night dinner was steak and onions, potatoes (usually mashed), peas, cabbage and carrots. Sunday lunch was a corned roll (corned beef), white sauce, potatoes, peas, carrots, pumpkin and cabbage, with (tinned) fruit and custard for dessert. Sunday night tea was whatever was left over.

Random prices for the above ingredients were:

potatoes, 20c per pound (lb) (metric weights like kg and gm hadn’t come in at that stage, so 2 lbs =roughly 1 kg; 1 lb was approximately 500 gm)

onions, 20c per pound

tomatoes, 24c per pound

carrots, 12c per lb

pumpkin, 12c per lb

1 capsicum, 6c

1 lb bananas, 18c

1 lb (approx 500 gm) butter, 56c

½ lb tea, 36c

custard powder, packet, 20c

packet assorted biscuits, 28c

tin apricots, 25c

1 lb plain flour, 10c

packet sultanas, 26c

Obviously the prices of food items have risen slightly since 1966, but also the customs we now take for granted: grabbing some fast food on the way home at night after work, dining out, and the popularity of convenience food.

It’s hard to recognize today’s eating habits when comparing them to 1966.

(By the way, three years later when my boyfriend, who subsequently became my husband, and I looked for a flat to rent, we looked at two: one in Davey Street which was $17 per week, and the other in Patrick Street which was $14 per week. I really wanted the Davey Street one, but as we were mega-poor, we went for the Patrick Street cheaper option).

Junior Masterchef party 2011

2011-09-27T09:41:00.001+10:00

Above - the calm before the storm! Some of the pizza toppings waiting for the kids arrival.....

Assembling the pizzas

The finished pizzas awaiting cooking

Whipping the cream for the butterfly cakes

Doing the honey joys

Fruit kebab making

It's always handy having a family pet to clean up spillages!

Chowing down on sushi and butterfly cakes

Taste testing time

Food quiz time (above)

My daughter Nellie had a brilliant idea a few weeks back, when faced with the prospect of entertaining Miss Eliza’s 7^th birthday party guests. Eliza (she of previous Maccas poo fame here on Rita’s blog, in 2007!) had previously been sucked into the general hype surrounding Masterchef, and daily watched taped episodes of the previous night’s events over the duration of the series. She has also, since then, demonstrated a marked interest in helping/cooking with mum for meals, so it was an inspired idea to hold a Junior Masterchef party, guaranteed to provide the party guests with the maximum enjoyment and fun; give them some subliminal health messages; get them to cook their own party food and take-home treats, and entertain both parents and kids.

The invitations were sent out, tied rustically to a wooden spoon – hint number one for the excited kids! Nellie found sets of five kids chef aprons and hats, in assorted fluoro colours, at Habitat, and bought two sets.

The party was scheduled for 4 – 6 pm, which successfully covers the dinner period for kids. The menu was:

Individual mini pizzas, made up by each child onto the bases provided, with their choice of toppings.

Butterfly cakes

Honey joys

Fruit skewers

Sushi

Hummus dip, with celery and/or biscuits

Nellie’s preparation for the party was elementary……she chopped, sliced or grated all the toppings for the pizzas, and popped them in separate bowls. Toppings included pineapple (the most favoured), olives, salami, ham, tomatoes, spring onions, capsicum, cheddar cheese and mini bocconcini cheese, plus the usual tomato pizza base in the squeeze pack.

She cooked up a dozen cupcakes (to be subsequently converted into butterfly cakes by the chefs of the day) and assembled all ingredients for the three separate activities of butterfly cake making, honey joy making and fruit skewer chopping (with a blunt bread and butter knife) and threading.

The first party activity, Invention Test Number 1, was everyone decorating their pizzas. When they had finished, Nellie placed each completed pizza on a sheet of baking paper, with each childs name on it, so they could eat their own pizza later.

The kids then were separated into three groups/teams with three children in each, for Invention Test Number 2. Team 1 decorated the butterfly cakes, Team 2 made the honey joys and Team 3 cut and threaded the fruit skewers.

Team 1 quickly established a production line. One person had to carefully cut a round bit from the top of the cupcake, and separate the butterfly ‘wings’. The second person popped a teaspoon of raspberry jam into the bottom of the dent/hole they had just cut into the top of the cupcake, then the third team member finished it off with some whipped cream (which one of the team members had previously whipped in the Kitchen Aid). They then dusted the finished product with some icing sugar. Ideally each butterfly cake would have had ‘wings’ added to the top of the whipped cream on each cupcake, but due to a general lack of dexterity, the ‘wings’ were more crumbs of cake than wing-shaped bits of cake, so after a few vain attempts to add the token ‘wings’, that particular aspect of the creation was abandoned.

Team 2 made up their honey joys, under adult supervision, which were then cooked.

Team 3 looked like the fun team to be in, because their jobs weren’t very onerous, you could eat what you cut up or threaded badly and wouldn’t stay on the skewer, and you produced very colourful and healthy looking party food!

All finished products were placed on the table for general nibbling and grazing whenever anyone felt like it. Two large platters of sushi were also on the table for adults and children alike, along with the hummus.

The teams then stayed in their groups for a Taste Test. One child in each team was blindfolded, and that child had to guess what it was they were tasting. They had three different tastes to guess at. Each team member had a go at this, and they all loved it! Some of the tastes were tomato sauce, honey, vegemite (which one of the children swore was blue vein cheese!!), maple syrup and orange juice.

Lastly was a general food quiz, which was conducted by one of the mums present who coincidentally happens to be their teacher! She managed to get them under control (they obviously were, at this stage, heavily ‘sugared up’ with honey joys, and very excited!) using means only available to a teacher (ie she didn’t have the emotional ties that parents tend to have). They sat in an orderly fashion on the floor in a circle around her, and put up their hands when they knew the answers to such questions as What goes into a banana smoothie? Is a tomato a vegetable or a fruit? What different animals can you get milk from? What are two things you can make with eggs?

The party was SO successful that Nellie only remembered after everyone had departed what, to some, is the most important part of a birthday party – the cake! Singing Happy Birthday, blowing out the candles and cutting the cake went by the wayside, with no one even noticing the distinct lack thereof!

The Point, at Wrest Point

2011-09-25T08:14:00.002+10:00

Tasmania is a beautiful place in which to live. Hobart, as its capital city, is equally as beautiful, especially at night, and especially when viewed from the top (17^th) floor of Wrest Point’s revolving The Point restaurant.

When eating at The Point, one must acknowledge that the high price of menu items is most certainly due to the fact that you are eating in what could arguably be classed as a top restaurant, and destination. Hence, for a customer to emerge from the restaurant hours later feeling slightly let down is ideally not the way management intended your experience to end.

I have eaten countless meals in countless restaurants, as the reviews on this blog will attest. The standards and prices have varied tremendously, and I think you could generally say that price bears little resemblance to enjoyment level, standard of food served and service, however it does affect your feelings about a place. Comparing our dinner last night at The Point to, for instance, my lunch on Tuesday at Meadowbank, I found Meadowbank winning hands down for food quality and value for money. As restaurants, they are of a similar standard, both having fabulous views of the surrounding areas, with the menus in both restaurants containing dishes which are reasonably similar. But the food, and imagination of the menu, at The Point certainly did not justify the final bill amount, which was twice the amount paid at Meadowbank.

I was given an Entertainment Card for my birthday in April, and this was the first time I have used it. The bill came to $288.50 (from memory) but my card discount pared it back to $238.50. Bec had three glasses of wine, then a cocktail afterwards, and I had three mocktails, which I might add were absolutely stunning – the best part of the night for me really!

When I called to book our meal, I was asked to provide my full name, which I did. The receptionist then asked me if I would like to utilise their valet parking service, free of charge. She told me all I would need to do was drive to the front door of Wrest Point, then the porter would take my keys and park the car for me. Most impressed, I immediately agreed to this proposal. I decided this generous offer was going straight to the blog – till I realized later, having questioned one of the waitstaff on the subject of the valet parking, that Federal, being such a large organization as they are, obviously have online profiles of customers and their past dealings with Federal, so if the receptionist bought up my profile on the computer whilst talking to me, it would have been notated that Federal had arranged my trip to the Country Club, and meal at The Terrace, hence naming me as notorious food blogger Rita! I would guess that the offer of the valet parking wouldn’t be made to everyone who called to book dinner at The Point – but would love that to be the case, as I believe that is a fantastic drawcard for a restaurant these days. If any of the restaurants in the North Hobart or Salamanca strip offered me that, I would dine there every time. To be able to evade having to cruise the area for 20 minutes looking for a car parking spot would be the best incentive to dine somewhere, I reckon!

The menu describes the food as “French inspired cuisine”, with the website proclaiming that Chef de Cuisine Kent Sullivan says “When I speak French, it always sounds delicious! Perhaps it’s because our menu is an innovative mixture of traditional French cuisine, complemented by our own Tasmanian twist”.

We ate:
Entree

Slow cooked pork belly, with pumpkin puree, dates, pumpkin seeds and coriander ($23)

Seared Tasmanian salmon, with leek crepe, caviar cream sauce and chives ($27.50)
Main

Roasted white clover lamb rack served with spiced lamb sausage, white bean puree, baby carrots, leeks, rosemary oil and garlic sauce ($46)

Market fish (blue eye) pan fried, with garlic risotto, scallop beignets, snow pea tendrils and chorizo ($39)

Sides
Pommes frites (chips) ($10)

Wild baby rocket leaves, crisp pear, shaved parmesan and French dressing ($10)

Dessert
Lemon and gin brulee, with sloe gin gel, pepperberry shortbread, elderberry parfait and mint sherbet ($18)

The courses were all satisfactory. Not bad, but not fabulous either. They sounded fine on first reading the menu, but the letdown was the presentation, and flavours when eating.

We want to come along on the culinary journey with you, chef, so it’s up to you to establish the link between the food, and the various flavours you have dictated we eat. Engage us in that culinary conversation, please. I found it impossible to work out exactly what benefit the mint sherbet added to the dessert, or how we were meant to eat it. It was served as a thin line of white sherbet down one side of the plate, opposite the brulee. Was it intended to have the brulee spoonful dipped into in en route to the mouth? We just licked our fingers, dipped them into the sherbet and tasted it. It was OK, on its own, but I couldn’t see the point of it, given that the dessert contained so many other fine flavours – ie the gin, the pepperberry and the elderberry. I have never taken drugs, so am not sure which drug it is being taken when you see people on TV going into toilets, arranging white powder with their credit cards then inhaling it through their noses, but that’s the mental picture which instantly came to my mind when I observed the sherbet on the plate! I really don’t think chef would have been impressed with my reaction!

The service was flawless. We were so well attended that we had three separate waitstaff independently checking as to whether we’d had our drink order taken yet, and if not, would we care for one/another. In this laissez faire era, where the general service attitude seems to be “take us or leave us”, I found that example of over-service-ing refreshing.

However, as we have discussed many times on this blog in the past, the enjoyment of a meal means that the full package must be addressed – so the food, as well as the service must be fabulous, and unfortunately the food simply did not match the service at The Point.

Recipe for perfection

2011-09-21T14:14:00.002+10:00

Take one fine, under-the-radar chef, combine that with faultless floor staff, add a pinch of fabulous venue, and what do you have? Why naturally you have Meadowbank.

Chacuterie platter (above)

Duck pie (above)

Oxtail main (above)

Slow cooked lamb (above)

Lunch yesterday at this old favourite (restaurant) was perfect. The menu of chef Wayne Smith (pictured above) was not too long and wordy, or too short that many would be hard pressed to find something they liked. It was, as Goldilocks would have it, just right. It contained the following:

Entrée

Half dozen bruny island oysters, three ways $19

Spring bay mussels, white wine, herbs, cream sauce $19

Sauté local calamari, green tomato, aubergine chutney $19

Twice baked Richmond brie and tamar valley truffle soufflé $19

Goats cheese tortellini, currants, pine nuts, olives $18

Chacuterie plate, chicken terrine, pork rillette, polish sausage, duck liver pate $19

Duck and mushroom pie, port jus $19

Main

Slow cooked shoulder of pork, olives, preserved lemon, raisins, honey mustard jus $32

Farmed white rabbit, loin, leg, crispy belly, hazelnut sauce $34

Pan roasted fillet of blue eye, mussels, champagne cream $34

Pan roasted duck breast, celeriac puree, cassis sauce $34

Slow cooked clover valley lamb shoulder and rump, onion puree, garlic and rosemary jus $34

Braised oxtail, celeriac puree, mushrooms, red wine jus $34

Sides

Additional bread (first serving is complimentary) $2.50

Olive oil $2.50

Olive tapenade $3.50

Olives $5

Seasonal salad leaves, walnuts, pear, walnut dressing $8

Duck fat roasted potatoes, rosemary, sea salt $6

Green beans, buttered almonds $8

Cheese

Richmond brie (cows milk), muscatels $14

Ricjmond cheddar (cows milk), oatmeal biscuits $14

Roaring 40’s blue (cows milk), fruit brioche $14

Cheese board $34

Truffles $3.50

Dessert

Millefeuille, rhubarb, rosewater mousse, passionfruit sorbet $16

Raspberry soufflé, vanilla bean ice cream $16

Vanilla and honey panna cotta, almond sponge, nougat tuille $16

White chocolate parfait, salt caramel mousse $16

We had the chacuterie plate, and duck and mushroom pie for entrees, and the lamb and braised oxtail for mains, with sides of the potatoes and beans. All were exemplary dishes, extremely well executed. I mistakenly assumed the duck pie would be of the pot pie variety, but when it arrived, as you can see from the pic, it was a true pie, topped and bottomed by a delicious pastry.

My lamb main was absolutely melt-in-your-mouth, with that sous vide tenderness I love. The accompanying jus was stunning, as were the potatoes and beans sides. The whole flavour package of the meal was flawless.

I tasted Pete's chacuterie plate, and loved the duck pate, polish sausage and the winter pickles, but not so much the rest of the goodies. His oxtail was to die for. He hoovered it up, groaning at the end about how full he was!

I felt a huge French influence in most of the menu items, which was explained later when chatting with chef Wayne by the fact that he is married to a French woman, and consequently has spent some time in France. He has just returned from his most recent visit. His passion for food is obvious on every plate. I spoke with the couple on the next table after their mains had arrived, and they waxed lyrical about their food (rabbit, and oxtail).

The floor staff (headed up by Stephen Free, ex Gondwana) fulfilled their duties in the best and most unobtrusive way. Drinks were offered whenever you realized you needed or wanted one, the water was topped up and the menu explanations offered enthusiastically and intelligently, not assuming we were all au fait with menu items.

Last time I was at Meadowbank was when Simon West ruled the kitchens, and the menu consisted of mostly tapas-style plates. Wayne’s menu is obviously totally different to Simon’s, and I loved that difference. Meadowbank is heading towards being another of those fine restaurants who try to provide/grow much of their menu ingredients themselves. I applaud this ethic, and am in admiration of anyone who does this. Colette at Ut Si Café in Perth (Tas) is one who immediately springs to mind, with her herb and vege garden producing some fine products out the back of the café. My mate Steve at RVL also has just acquired some bees, so could now be technically called an apiarist!

For those who have left it a few years since they last ate at this peaceful haven of food heaven, like bad Rita, I recommend a leisurely drive to Richmond, finishing up with an equally leisurely lunch at Meadowbank.

Bits and pieces

2011-09-15T12:44:00.006+10:00

Yes – you’re right – we DO need some new posts! I will rectify this soon, I promise. Meanwhile, I have eaten out but only at places I have previously reviewed, and whose standards haven’t changed from last time I ate there. Or at places in Melbourne, where, realistically, no one from here, is likely to go in the foreseeable future.

Dinner at Orizuru Sushi Bar (at Mures) was, once again, fine. We shared a Bento Box, small maki platter and a mains tempura.

Lunch with Christina at Taste Café at Bahai Centre the other day, again, was fabulous. This little treasure of a place quietly ticks along, producing fine food at a reasonable price. It is my most highly recommended lunch spot in Hobart, by the way. Christina had the wallaby pie, and I had the scallops. Both were to-die-for in gorgeousness.

Drinks at the Atrium Bar were perfect, in a relaxing and picturesque environment, prior to eating at Orizuru.

Lunched last week in Melbourne at a Thai restaurant in Lygon Street, called Lemongrass. We had eaten dinner there the week before, but I had bowed to peer group pressure and let others order the food, so when the food arrived with the dishes ranging in taste and flavour from ordinary to very disappointing, I was inclined not to return there.

We did, however, luckily, and had a gorgeous lunch, with food selected which we knew well couldn’t be screwed up! Their flame grilled chicken satay with accompanying sauce was gorgeous; their roti (?? – on a Thai menu? Go figure!) and peanut sauce (totally different to the satay sauce) was mouthwatering; the prawn and holy basil dish outstanding, and the green papaya salad ditto.

The evening meal at a middle eastern restaurant was pretty average, with the service being nearly non-existent. We selected a banquet menu, for ease of ordering and serving, but found the flavours and cooking expertise way too boring and predictable, and quite frankly, not all that tasty. I make a lot of hummus, baba ganoush, tabbouleh etc at home (especially since I have had my Thermomix). I love that style of food and have always patronized restaurants who offer it. So I recognized a halfhearted attempt at middle eastern food when I saw and tasted it! Staff were way too busy servicing the outside tables of youngsters who all were smoking hookahs as prepared and started off by restaurant staff. Thought to myself, “That would NEVER happen in Hobart”!

Meanwhile I am lining up some new places to eat out at while I save up my money. This frequent dining out is costly, you know!

New hospitality training app

2011-08-22T08:10:00.001+10:00

(From Hospitality Magazine Newsletter)

New app provides on-hand training for drinks staff

17 August 2011

Training for bar staff and baristas just got easier, with the launch of a new iPhone app, Formula, which allows hospitality workers to source practical information and training across the beer, coffee, spirits and soft drinks beverage categories.

The app contains more than 50 videos and 200 images, was created by Coca-Cola Amatil (CCA) and is available for download for 99 cents.

John Murphy, managing director of the Licensed Division at CCA said, "We spent a lot of time and invested significantly in this application because of the strong feedback we received from our customers, who told us that they wanted 'zero brand paraphernalia', practical training information delivered in a mobile in an easy to understand format".

The app can help hospitality staff to:

· Change a keg and provides solutions to common beer pouring problems

· Make coffee professionally from start to finish, from tamping and dosing to putting the finishing touches on a macchiato

· Understand the major spirit categories, how to describe them and how to sell them

· Make consistent drinks every time by providing step by step instructions

· Understand the fundamentals of beer – how to talk about it, serve it correctly, what it tastes like and what food goes with it

· Show off your bar tricks to entertain your guests

· Fix tricky situations - when things go wrong with your coffee, beer or post-mix equipment

· Clean and maintain the important beverage serving equipment in your venue

The application will be released for Android later in the year.

Valueless qualification?

2011-08-21T19:30:00.000+10:00

What the hell drugs are the hierarchy at Tasmanian Polytechnic at Drysdale on? It has been decreed that the previously three year Certificate 3 in Commercial Cookery course will now be delivered in an accelerated form within 12 months.

What kind of mockery does that make of every single chef who has trained there in the past?

What kind of “chef” would graduate as a fully trained chef after only 12 months training?

What about starting them on a Certificate 1, then if they manage to stick it out and successfully complete that, upgrade them to a Certificate 2, then a Certificate 3 if appropriate. But there is absolutely no way anyone could ever be called a chef after only one years training.

I do not want to eat at a restaurant where the chef has only undergone 12 months of training in order to gain his/her qualification, then waltzed in to claim top dollar as the qualified chef!

Ethos Eat Drink

2011-08-20T19:03:00.005+10:00

Rita’s much anticipated virgin visit to Ethos happened yesterday lunchtime.

We partook of the following:

Chilli almonds (complimentary) – gorgeous snack

Flathead fish fingers ($3 each)

Crispy skinned lamb with yoghurt and beans ($15/20)

Pickled sardines and crostini ($10)

Braised octopus, mussels, chickpeas and hummus ($15)

Pan fried flathead tail and roasted garlic, lemon ($20)

Beef cheek and quinoa, chim churri ($20)

Winter fruit trifle ($15)

All the dishes were spot-on, and exactly what we envisaged them to be, except maybe the lamb, which didn’t grab me at all really. My favourites were the fish fingers and the braised octopus. The fish fingers contained one per serving, so it was lucky we ordered one serving per person! They were the traditional fish finger shape, complete with course breadcrumbs, but the winning flavour of the flathead was absolutely perfect. They were a gourmet fish finger.

The octopus was tender and beautifully flavoured, as were the accompanying mussels, but the highlight was the hummus – which wasn’t your usual dip-type hummus, but rather more runny and saucey, and provided an ideal “gravy” for this Mediterranean dish. I should have ordered more bread to mop up the remaining hummus sauce with after I’d eaten all the octopus, mussels and chickpeas!

The service (although when it happened was very good) was spasmodic. We had to ask for drinks on three separate occasions. But, on the plus side, at the start, the waitress was diligent in explaining what the place was about and how the food ordering worked – which really helped with understanding how to get maximum enjoyment out of eating there.

The wine list was good, and provided my dining companions with a variety of glasses of different wines they wanted to sample. To them, the drinking was of equal (if not more) importance than the eating, which is obviously MY priority, given that I can’t/don’t generally drink. And I think that therein lies the secret of Ethos’ success.

It’s no more, or no less, than what they advertise it to be - tapas style food, with a more diverse selection than Spanish food, as tapas is traditionally based on. If you match your wines to your nibbles, I can see you’d have a fabulous time there. As it was, for drinks I stuck with aerated water and was more than happy with that, constantly topped up as it was.

It’s not a place I’d think to go to if I were starving hungry, or wanted to celebrate a special, intimate occasion. It’s a place I’d instantly think of to meet friends for a chat, a drink and a nibble. The renovation is stunning, and adds to the general atmosphere. I was extremely interested to check out Ethos, and see what all the hullabaloo was about. If they knew what I looked like, and gave me special attention knowing I was there to blog about it, then I’d be disappointed. As it was, I don’t think we received any more or less service or attention than any other table – which is how it should be.

Piccolo 2011

2011-08-19T22:57:00.002+10:00

Following extremely high recommendations by a few much respected food friends, I suggested Piccolo might be the ideal venue for our upcoming girls catch-up session last night, and so it proved to be.

Since they opened in 2008 (3 years ago), they seem to have gone from strength to strength, and now appear to have finally found their own comfortable niche in Hobart’s dining out scene. I wouldn’t put them physically in Hobart’s top 4 restaurants – they’re not your starched linen tablecloths-type place, but I’d place them (arguably) as Hobart’s top venue for food quality and enjoyment. Add the excellent service to the mix and you’ll find, pretty well, a faultless restaurant, with the exception of the most uncomfortable restaurant chairs in Hobart!

I realize fellow reviewers have worshipped the ground Piccolo stood on, but on the three previous occasions I have eaten at Piccolo, I have to admit to not having been bowled over by the food. It was good, but not outstanding – till now.

Last night I had the Bass Strait scallops oven baked with garlic, pancetta, parsley pangrattato as an entrée ($20) and for mains, an entrée sized spanner crab and saffron ravioli, garlic, chilli, tomato, basil and brocoletti ($23/$32). One word sums up my feelings about this dish – orgasmic.

The scallop dish comprised 6 scallops with no roe, served individually in the shell. The heavy garlic flavour combined perfectly with the textural contrast of the pangrattato, and made me glad I didn’t have to sleep with someone who probably would complain about my garlic breath!

The spanner crab ravioli appeared more like a pasta lolly-log, and had I been starving, the entrée size would definitely not have filled me, but I was hanging out for a dessert as well, so stuck with the entrée size, and was glad I did. It was melt-in-your-mouth, mind-blowingly good. All flavours went exceedingly well together. I never wanted my dish to be finished, and was disappointed when I ate my last ravioli, kicking myself for not having ordered it as a main size……but……

On the specials board was a pear and armangac brulee with hazelnut icecream ($15) which most definitely had my name on it. It was all I had envisaged, and more. It topped off the most enjoyable meal I have had since I can’t remember when.

I consider Piccolo to be right up there in the Hobart eating scene, and suggest if you haven’t been there recently, you go along and try their food, then report back here and tell us about it.

Home Hill 2011

2011-08-18T11:34:00.000+10:00

Lunched at Home Hill yesterday, and once again couldn’t fault it. They currently have a Lunch Special going, which is a $35 meal deal, Monday to Saturday. You get a choice of two entrees, and two mains, plus a glass of either their chardonnay or pinot.

The offerings vary from day to day, but yesterday’s entree choices were a Marinated Quail Salad, or Slow Roasted Pork Belly with apple tart tartin, with mains being either pan seared Huon Aquaculture salmon with potato croquettes and seasonal vegetables, or Longford Eye Fillet with jus, potato terrine and vegetables.

I had the quail salad for entrée, and eye fillet for mains. Although simple and straightforward, both dishes proved to be hugely tasty, with the technical expertise evident. The whole quail for the salad had been marinated in garlic and thyme, then dissected and pan fried. The salad mix was from those dedicated growers at Saltwater River, George and Hilary of Grown for Taste. Topped with a sweetish dressing of orange oil and cherry vinegar along with the Simon Johnson balsamic glaze, it was perfection on a stick. Light but tasty and satisfying.

The Longford eye fillet – well, what on earth could you do wrong to that? It was cooked perfectly to my specifications; the jus was full-bodied and flavoursome, and the vegetables complemented the dish well. They were baby purple carrots, asparagus, baby turnips and baby radish, along with the potato terrine, or potato tortilla as I have seen other places call it.

It was exactly what I felt like, and both dishes were ones I simply couldn’t be bothered making for myself at home at the moment.

I wholeheartedly recommend a drive to the country, climaxing with lunch at Home Hill. What are you waiting for? Book it now!

Mures Marinade

2011-08-05T23:25:00.000+10:00

“our own special recipe”

Snack $12.90

Meal $16.90

I don’t know what the sales of the menu item Mures Marinade (available in Lower Deck restaurant) are, but to countless in-the-know locals, this dish reigns supreme as THE fish dish to eat when you patronize the Lower Deck. I have had a nearly-lifelong romance with this dish and it never fails to please.

A craving for it last Sunday afternoon caused two friends and I to drive down to the docks, order two snack sized servings of it (to be shared between the three of us – it was heaps), and enjoy the built-in entertainment, which involved much hilarious people-watching. We gossiped, slowly worked our way through the marinade and chip meal, then finished up with an ice cream.

It was the most relaxed and pleasant meal I have had for ages, and made all the more so because there was no guesswork involved in any of it. We all love the dish and have had it many times before. We know the food standard, service level and price at Mures Lower Deck. We picked our time to go there, cleverly missing the peak hour meal time, so the wait for food wasn’t too long, and tables were available.

I would kill to know the recipe for their marinade, but whatever it is, I am more than happy to go there and eat it in situ. You can buy jars of the marinade in selected outlets, so ask at your local shop and see if they can get it in from Mures.

The Mure family have been operating a seafood restaurant in Hobart since 1973, when the original Mures Restaurant opened in the Mures Cottage in Battery Point. It was THE place to eat at in those good old days, with George and Jill Mure being large presences in the restaurant, and in the hospitality scene generally.

When they got permission to establish their new (dockside) restaurant in 1986, we, the general Hobart populace, were all delighted, except for some owners of similar businesses in the area, who quietly wondered what had caused the Mures to get this much-desired permission to continue their business in such a highly-prized position!

I have to admit though, that when they opened, I questioned the rationale behind building a restaurant in such a magnificent position, splat bang on the waterfront – with no view at all of the harbour, and no window looking out at the harbour! All views were looking at the mountain, and the dock area. Go figure!

Anyway – much as I have been disappointed, and even embarrassed, by past meals in the Upper Deck restaurant, Lower Deck has never failed me with their marinade.

Upper Deck is run as a separate business by Mures daughter Sarah and her husband Rick McMahon. Downstairs, Lower Deck is the domain of son Will Mure. Next year will see celebrations of their 25th year dockside. They intend it to be a celebration of all things seafood in Tassie. I can’t wait for that one, being an avid seafood lover.

So if you have seen the Mures Marinade on the menu at Lower Deck, and never been curious enough to order it, do yourself a favour and give it a go. I’m sure you too will become a convertee.

Masterchef 2011

2011-07-19T09:36:00.002+10:00

Would you call Masterchef a reality TV program, or a cooking show? Subconsciously I have classified it as a cooking program, but a discussion with Nellie recently caused me to rethink my assessment, and admit to the fact that it really is a reality program, with food and cooking being incidental to the actual reality show outcomes.

Last weeks New York spectacular was to blame. The whole weeks activities for contestants was farcical. There was absolutely no attempt to disguise the fact that it was not a level playing field for the luckless top eight.

The couples challenge on Wednesday, which consisted of 6 of the contestants pairing up, then locating – in Times Square, arguably the biggest and most highly populated of all public spaces in the world! – one of three New Yorkers wandering aimlessly round Times Square carrying a sandwich board with the Masterchef logo on it. The sandwich board gave whichever pair discovered it, the name of the restaurant they should travel to in order to discover their dish, plus obtain the ingredients for it. The sandwich board person gave them a recipe too, I think.

They hightailed it to wherever their restaurant was, by whichever method they thought appropriate (taxi, subway, running etc), given they only had 3 hours in which to: locate the sandwich board holder, travel (in peak hour NY traffic) to the relevant restaurant; wait for the restaurant owner to have the time to explain the dish to them; sample a serving of said dish; collect ingredients, then rush to the pre-appointed Four Seasons restaurant kitchen to prepare, cook and serve the dish they had been allocated, to the judges, who, coincidentally, happened to be the original creators/restaurant owner of the dish, along with our MC judges.

We watched Hayden and Dani, the first arrivals at Four Seasons, making the entrée, with Dani (being entrusted with the more lightweight preparation of the dish) having enough time after she’d done her prep to clean up the bench area, then go round to the other couples chatting aimlessly whilst she distracted them!

We sweated it with Kate and Michael as they struggled to get the many elements of their complex main course prepped, cooked and onto the plates. They really did have heaps to do, and I think they did well to present what they did.

The final arrivals, Ellie and Alana, spent eons in Times Square trying to locate their sandwich board guy, then taking the wrong subway train, having to change trains, then taxi-ing and getting let off at the wrong Four Seasons, so having to taxi again to the correct Four Seasons. When they ultimately arrived at their correct destination, they only had an hour to prep their reasonably complex dessert – which they not only succeeded in, but ultimately won the challenge.

To cut to the chase after such a long introduction……it obviously was not a contest about how good an amateur cook you are, a statement of which we seem to hear regularly from each of the 3 judges as they urge their fledgling chefs to higher accomplishments in the contest.

Whatever your opinion of Alana and Ellie and their cooking talents (or not), they were obviously behind the eight-ball, having spent so much time getting to the Four Seasons. They obviously made a bad travel choice, which has nothing to do with cooking, but provided them with a severe disadvantage in the cooking contest.

The midweek elimination pin challenge which involved Ellie cooking an elementary pasta dish (ie make the pasta, cook the matriciana-like sauce) was insulting to previous elimination pin cook-offs which involved, for instance, emulating Adriana Zumbo concotions, and similar extremely complicated dishes. Plus I swear to god Ellie’s opponent, introduced as one of NY’s top pasta chef/restaurant owners, threw the challenge, as his dish was so sloppily plated and presented as to throw off the judges as to who had cooked which dish.

At the UN catering function, each contestant was allocated one hors d’oevre dish to prepare 300 servings of. Poor Billy unfortunately drew the extremely short straw of a sherry glassful of a leek and potato soup – the vichysoisse variety – and not a popular choice in the overall scheme of things universally. Naturally he received the least amount of votes from the 300-odd guests at the function, so he too was eliminated and locked down at their NY hotel till return to Oz time, along with Sun. Once again, nothing to do with his cooking skills, or lack thereof.

I was interested to read a harsh critique of the show in yesterday’s Sydney Morning Herald by Paul Sheehan. Paul rightly questions the underlying cynicism of the show, and calls on the ethical aspects of the show to be examined by producers. He claims the contestants are coming off looking more honourable than the people running the show. He cites Adam and Tom’s eliminations as examples of the high moral codes of some of the contestants.

I think Masterchef heirachy will be lucky if this brand of reality show juggernaut continues after one more season. As viewers, we aren’t stupid, plus we’re Australian – we respect fairness. This show, much as I am addicted in a perverse way, is unfair to its players. Yes, they are seeking the notoriety and fame associated with participation but does that mean they need to tolerate some of the patently unfair practices inflicted on them in the show? I don’t think so.

Tues 2nd August - POSTSCRIPT - Yay! I have never been more happy than tonight to see that airhead, lightweight cook Dani leave the show! Thank god sanity prevailed!

Oils ain't oils, Sol.... or are they?

2011-07-15T09:36:00.000+10:00

What the hell is the deal with just about every TV chef adding a ‘glug’ or a ‘dash’ of olive oil to every single thing they cook?

I understand the flavours of olive oils; the olive oil tastings (like wine tastings), and the reasoning behind the use of olive oil. But the gay abandon with which they douse a perfectly fine dish with a finishing glug of oil astonishes me, and is starting to piss me off severely!

Justine Schofield (ex-Master Chef contestant), on her Everyday Gourmet cooking show seems to be the main offender at the moment. I guarantee whatever she cooks is finished off with that drizzle of olive oil – whether it’s a sweet or savoury dish! And in most cases, it simply isn’t necessary or warranted. It doesn’t harm the dish but it just isn’t necessary. I equate it to that ghastly old habit 20-odd years ago of adding a sprig of parsley to everything you served up in a restaurant – a sackable offence if you omitted the parsley garnish!

Yeah, I’ll admit I’m old, but in my day, you bought olive oil at the chemist. It was popped onto a cotton ball after baby’s bath time, before you dressed the little darling, and you oiled the folds in baby’s naked body, like between the buttocks, under its cute little arms, and under its chin.

In my pantry I have numerous oils, each with their various different uses in different scenarios. I use them all, and spend a lot of shopping time checking out different oils, especially ones I haven’t seen or used before. So I’m definitely not putting my hand up to being an oil philistine or luddite. But honestly…!!

My favourite addition to my cooking is a small ‘tip’ of truffle oil added to a cream of mushroom soup. That flavour is a marriage made in heaven, in my humble opinion (or, just to prove I am not a total dinosaur, IMHO!).

So TV chefs – keep it real please!

Burger King

2011-07-10T08:34:00.002+10:00

Huge congratulations to our new Burger King - Steve Cumper. Steve has won the local competition to find Hobart's best burger, as nominated by customers. The 4 top nominees, along with Steve at RVL, were POP Cafe (Collins St), Devils Kitchen (Sandy Bay Rd) and Budgie Smugglers (cnr Collins and Market Sts), but Steve's proved the champion with the judges - probably helped by the fact that Steve goes the extra mile by baking the burger bun himself, sourcing his special beef and using his own aioli recipe, which is smeared liberally on both the top and bottom portions of the halved burger bun.

Steve has on his burger: the beef pattie, lettuce, tomato, fried egg, bacon, caramelised onions, aioli, cheese and a squirt of tomato sauce. He cannily secures the whole thing with a satay stick, poked through the middle of the upper bun layer, which penetrates through the filling, ending up in the bottom layer of the bun. This ensures the burger presents beautifully and perfectly, and is well-balanced. His burgers stand very tall, and would be totally inedible if you tried to eat them holding the burger with two hands and chowing down into one, like you usually do with a burger. You need a knife and fork to tackle this baby!

So - let us sing, to the tune of Gilbert and Sullivan's operatic song from Pirates of Penzance, Pirate King, "for he is a burger king, he is, hurrah for the burger king, and it is, it is a glorious thing to be a burger king".....

Muse Espresso

2011-07-03T09:23:00.002+10:00

Chris Quinn is the brains behind the operation at Muse Espresso, a small café and takeaway at

98 Patrick Street

on the outskirts of the city. I popped in there earlier this week following a few months of wondering about the business, and how they survived, and who their clientele was.

It’s a small space easily managed by a sole staff member all week, but come the traditional Hobart-brekky-eating-out days of Saturday and Sunday mornings, requires one person solely in the kitchen, and another to man (or woman) the coffee machine out front, and care for the customers.

Chris is a refugee from working at such well-known brekky spots as Macquarie Food Store, Lansdowne Café, and Zum Café, so now is fulfilling his dream of working hard for himself and producing food to be proud of. He keeps a watchful eye on what the trends are interstate, and blends suggestions of what is happening there with what our own locals prefer to eat. For instance, he says you rarely find an Eggs Benedict on a menu in Melbourne, but here in Hobart there would be a revolution if that particular menu item was not to be found.

Everything on Chris’ menu is of top quality, featuring Villino coffee, Jackman and McRoss sourdough bread, free range eggs etc. He does his own beans which are elegantly served too, by the way. I very much enjoyed what I ate there, as well as the general buzz of the place. His chief clientele are staff from nearby schools, businesses and the RACT, which is down the block further. While I was there, the cafe was continually turning over customers at most tables, which was good to see.

Chris started up his business having bought most of his required equipment outright, so not owing anyone anything - which is a huge advantage for a small business. Only having to pay a rent payment out of your weekly profits is the most sensible and responsible way to trade, after you've paid your food and staffing costs. With negligible staffing required for this small business, Chris' costs are indeed minimal.

The average prices for breakfast range from $5 - $14, with lunches ranging from $10 - $13.50.

The hours of operation are:

Mon – Fri, 7.30 – 4.00

Sat, 8 – 3

Sun, 9 - 2

Pictured above, Poached eggs with smashed peas and basil ($11)

Farmers Market revisited

2011-06-30T09:33:00.003+10:00

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!

Garagistes

2011-06-20T13:51:00.001+10:00

After many months of feeling like I was the only person in town who hadn’t crossed the Garagistes threshold, I finally managed a virgin visit there yesterday for their set menu 4 course ($65 per person) Sunday lunch.

There have been a few publicized aspects of the Garagistes modus operandi which have troubled me slightly over the months since they first opened – the main one being that you can’t book. There are those of us in life who are spontaneous, and I feel the world would be a very drab and cheerless place without their spontaneity. I personally wouldn’t like to live in a world that didn’t contain these spontaneous people. Then there are those of us (like me) who like to plan things! Shopping lists, life decisions etc. We like to know stuff in advance, if it is humanly possible!

Being able to book a restaurant on a night that is convenient to you (and your friends, if you are going to eat out as a group), with the certain knowledge that it is all locked away, a done deal, done and dusted, provides people like me with that certain satisfaction of planning and fulfilling something definite, which aligns with our raison d’etre.

It also seems logical to me that from the restaurant’s perspective it is a smart move to prefer that customers booked. Purchasing food items, rostering staff, preparing menu items before the busy service period all seem, to the planner in me, like you’re doing as much as you can to provide both you and your customer with the optimum chance for an excellent dining out experience, with less stress on both parties as well.

We were originally planning on fronting up to Garagistes on Thursday night (four of us), but due to illness, decided at the last minute to move the feast to the Sunday lunch which was the only time you can make a firm booking there.

And so it was that we entered the realms of the world according to Luke (= a literary reference for those not acquainted with the book “The World According to Garp”!)

Three of us had never eaten there before. Had we not been avid food lovers, and paid a lot of attention to the media hype at the time of Garagistes’ opening many months ago, a lot of yesterday would have gone right over our heads. The ethos behind Luke’s food is the thread. It’s organic, simple and straightforward, relying on the various seasonal tastes and flavours to work their own magic in your mouth, and on your palate.

The fact that I am passionate about trying to ensure my food has been tampered with as little as humanly possible (en route to my mouth), and is as local as I can get it, means that I am an ideal candidate for Luke’s food.

The menu yesterday comprised of the following 4 courses, with the addition of a small nibble platter of radishes and baby turnips and some bread.

*glazed and pickled heirloom turnips, cavolo nero, garagistes ricotta salata, pork crackling

*poached striped (sic) trumpeter, jerusalem artichoke puree, crisp potato, dried wild olives, flowers and herbs

*roast wessex saddleback suckling pig, apple aiolioli (sic), salt baked beetroot, pickled walnuts and mustard

*sour cherry and molasses parfait, buttermilk mousse, puffed buckwheat, almond nougatine

The heirloom turnips were slightly bitter, and the pork crackling was slightly spongy, but that is nit-picking, and I enjoyed the overall plate.

The trumpeter dish standout for me was the artichoke puree, and we wondered if Luke had a Thermomix, and had used it to get the puree as creamy as it was. The dried wild olives came in a crumbled form, resembling coarsely ground black pepper on the plate, so you actually had to lick your finger and sample them to realize it wasn’t black pepper, but the olives.

The pork (one of Lee Christmas’ babies) was a beautiful dish too, but my medication has meant that I now notice every bit of seasoning added to food, so the baked beetroot (which I usually adore), being salted, left me craving glasses of water for the rest of the day! The apple aioli was superb and complemented the pork perfectly. The pickled walnuts came in that same crumbled form as our wild olives had come in the previous course.

The dessert parfait was something you needed to try and incorporate a bit of everything on the plate into each mouthful, so you could eat the overall tastes together, instead of eating the different elements separately. I wasn’t blown away with this one, and feel it was trying too hard.

I realize many will find this review as confirmation of the fact that I am a bogan, or possess an unsophisticated palate, or that I simply didn’t ‘get it’. They may well be right. Do you want to get full physical pleasure out of every single morsel you eat in your life, or just the occasional meal? I certainly would like everything I eat to provide me with the best in nutrition, along with warm fuzzies at having eaten something which gave me great pleasure. I enjoyed my meal at Garagistes but I definitely didn’t come away feeling like that was the best and most unique meal I ever ate in my life. It wasn’t.

I respect all Luke is trying to convey and achieve. I respect his talent and expertise. I have been told that the evening menu is preferable to the set menu lunch, so feel that another visit is warranted.

Heirloom turnips, above

Trumpeter, above

Pork, above

Sour cherry parfait, above

Restaurant Tasman, Hotel Grand Chancellor

2011-06-15T04:10:00.018+10:00

Having been 'out of it' for the past seven months, and despite attempts to regain my former physical and mental self, normal standards have slipped slightly, and I have found myself more than once praying for the return of the one who used to be Rita!

Well - as of last week, she HAS returned!

Food and beverages are at long last entering this body, and staying there. Much needed sustenance has been fed into my much wasted body (went from a Size 16 to a Size 10 over this period), so it was with much excitement that I ventured out last night for my first post-heart-failure foray back into the world of restaurant reviewing, with a vengeance!

Bec and Aimie accompanied me, to ensure I didn't get over-excited, and also to verify my opinions!
You may well ask, why the hell did she pick HGC as a dining destination - which was the reaction of three friends, when I mentioned it to them, and which I assume would be the reaction of most people in Hobart! Well, I receive, weekly, many emails from restaurant and cafe owners requesting I come and review their restaurants, and this was one of them. My interest was aroused, and I hadn't eaten at HGC socially (and voluntarily) for many years so I decided to check them out.

I have never, in all my Rita life, announced at the outset that I was there to write a review about them, but this time, maybe due to the medication, I did! This turned out to be an extremely wise thing to have done, because as we perused the menu initially, we found ourselves in a 'selection quandry', as you often do when you eat out. So when our personable waitress Tia returned (having obviously used her initiative and discussed this with chef) offering us the option of a degustation, we pounced on this suggestion - and LOVED it. The dego option was not on the menu anywhere, but Tia told us she offers it to guests whenever she feels it might be utilised, so I was overjoyed it wasn't just a special for us.

We ended up having an excellent cross section of most dishes on the menu - which pleased my piggy pair of companions, especially as they opted for the matched wine option as well!

Aimie has a seafood allergy, so she had different options to Bec and I, which gave me even more opportunity to sample the menu., as she generously offered us tastes of all her courses too.

At the end of the evening we workshopped each plate, giving it an average rating out of 10, and found that all our separate opinions were pretty well in synch, and with the variation of maybe a half mark here and there, we were pretty congruent in our evaluations.

So.......what we ate:

Course 1

house baked foccacia with extra virgin olive oil and balsamic, and wild olives (5/10 - bit too salty)
smoked salmon pate, with crostini, creme fraiche and chives (7/10 - beautiful, but needed more crostini or bread for the amount of pate)

Course 2

sashimi grade tuna with avocado and wasabi mayo, saffron pickled ginger and light soy (8/10)tasman taste plate from land which contained pork terrine with piccalilly, duck sausage and pear chutney, and the most gorgeous coffee cured wagyu I have ever tasted (the wagyu rated 8/10 on its own, but overall the plate only earned six and a half out of ten, as some of the flavours seemed a bit confused)

Course 3

crayfish canneloni with roast king prawn, steamed baby leeks, chives and citrus burnt butter (9/10 - this was voted top dish of the night)

roast pumpkin ravioli, with peas, rocket, brussel sprouts and sage butter (8/10 for its beautiful combination of fine flavours)

Course 4

line caught oven roasted hapuka with chorizo and scallops, and brussel sprouts (7/10 - fish was moist, flavoursome and well cooked)

slow cooked lamb with a solid square of mint jelly and rosemary jus (six and a half out of ten - Amie not so keen on this one, but Bec and I raved about it)

Course 5

two beef portions on the one plate: a beef cheek on beetroot puree, plus a cape grim scotch fillet on a spinach puree, with speck, potato gratin, baby leeks and mushroom slices (this was a huge serving for a dego, and I was stonkered by this stage, so sampled a small amount of meat but honestly could not do justice to such a generous serving. The girls finally settled on 6/10, as they too admitted to being overwhelmed at this stage too! Amie was disenchanted by the beef cheeks, and to be honest they weren't as tender as many I have had in the past)

Course 6

grilled rannoch farm quail with persian spices and a salad of shaved zucchini, mint currants and pine nuts (8/10 - a dish of lovely fine flavours, especially the spices on the quail)

Course 7

was a small selection of shared desserts which included a scoop of salted caramel and peanut ice cream, HGC's version of cheesecake, a choc truffle, a choc ball filled with a heavenly runny filling which could have been salted caramel (which I accidentally ate all of, so the girls didn't get to sample that one! Sorry girls!), a choc/nut spider and a white choc triangle (this one we voted as the most unimpressive dish of the night, so it only earned five and a half out of ten.

To sum up:

Service was excellent, thanks to Tia and all staff
Wine was a bit mismatched but mostly good
The food overall we rated as 7/10

It is a shame that locals wouldn't immediately think of Restaurant Tasman as a dining out venue, as I feel that with the addition of a few more locally-occupied tables each night, it could become one of our options for fine dining.

Might I humbly suggest that if you have a special event to celebrate, you consider HGC as a very viable option, and a welcome addition to the spectrum of excellently produced local food.

The dego price was extremely reasonable at $120 per person with the matched wines, and between $75-80 with no wine. Our total bill was $330.50. Excellent value for a wonderful meal.

Augusto Cafe

2011-05-24T17:26:00.000+10:00

If you feel like trying a new, bright, light and easy café slightly off the beaten North Hobart track, get your cute arses along Augusta Road to the small Lenah Valley shop strip, and either breakfast or lunch at Augustos Café – the renovated former Sri Lankan place, right in the heart of the shopping area.

It is the baby of ex-Republic owner (well, OK, he still has a small interest in Repub) Tony Heath and his wife Swish, and they have done a marvelous job with the renovation. It has an under-stated feeling of comfortability and provides you with confidence in a sound menu using free range products. The café has been open two months, and judging, by my visit there yesterday, has already managed to secure a legion of local fans who are overjoyed that a café of the calibre such as this is so close.

The menu is not particularly startling, but provides ample choice for everyone. It contains the expected Benedicts and their ilk, with relevant sides if desired, as well as the usual breakfast and lunch fare.

The prices are good, and the food is well cooked under the eagle eye of sole kitchen person, chef Will Harrod, who has previously had stints at many local restaurants including Marque IV.

As I am still a long way from recovery from illness, I got two of my friends to accompany me, hoping that through them, I would get a fairly good idea of the food standard. Unfortunately, one wasn’t feeling too crash-hot either yesterday (some pathetic excuse about her chemo!), so that left only one person to order up big, and let me check out the food. But she loved it so all was good. Also I poked my head into the kitchen to apologise to chef for my shameful order of 2 rashers of crispy bacon, then watched as he made breakfast for another table, so felt I could honestly testify as to the standard of food.

The service was excellent, and I am reliably told is consistently good with all floor staff who work there, so obviously Tony’s past experience in hospitality hiring is paying off.

So – my recommendation to you is a visit to Augustos. I promise you a great breakfast or lunch, or snack in-between.

Down the track they will probably apply for a liquor licence then open at night but I would say that’s a way away yet. Meanwhile they’re doing a great little bit of business somewhere that’s easy, and free, to park at, and not too far from the seething hub of North Hobart and the city.

FOH dilemmas

2011-05-02T13:01:00.000+10:00

Chefs are renowned for moving round from kitchen to kitchen, working at so many different venues it becomes impossible to keep track of them. In days gone by, my job was to sign, or arrange transfers, off all apprentice’s apprenticeships, in order that at the end of their 4 years of working/training in the trade, combined with regular stints at TAFE, they were legally entitled to call themselves a qualified cook/chef.

Keeping track of all those boys, and some girls, was a full time job then, especially with the inordinate amount of paperwork required to create the paper trail to keep track of them, but it also fostered my mother-like pride in seeing some of them having progressed from that cocky little skateboarding 17 year old that I signed up on Day 1 of his new Apprentice Chef job at, let’s say, Moorilla, many years ago, graduating to seeing them being mentioned in dispatches from well-known Melbourne restaurants as producing fabulous food (yes, I’m talking about Klaa!).

But – what about the FOH staff who do exactly the same?

It gets quite confusing, especially as I age and my memory is starting to dissolve into that jelly-like state of uncertainty, when I enter a new restaurant or café, see a familiar face serving there, greet it, then think back to myself, “Hey, isn’t that the waitress from Raincheck?”. It happened to me the first time I went to Pigeon Hole. Thought to myself, “Geez I know that guy so well….where from?”

So what is it that prompts FOH staff to move around so often?

I know with certainty that the following probably sums up the main reason (but am happy to have other reasons added)…..work conditions.

Remember we’re talking FOH here. Not employer. I’m sure all employers can tell you at least ONE story of a FOH employee who didn’t adhere to the ideal, but that’s a different post for the blog.

Working at different levels, and establishments, provides a FOH worker with either the worst job they have ever had in their lives, or the cushiest. With the same, or similar, job description, you could be serving food in a fast, sleek café (like Oomph); a garden centre (like New Town Station Nursery); an old-style, traditional restaurant (like Lenna); a silver-service, sedately-paced restaurant (like Wrest Point Revolving afternoon tea); a hotel or motel restaurant (like Hobart Midcity, or Mercure); a casual restaurant or café (like Piccolo or Taste Café); an ethic restaurant (Italian, Chinese, Thai, whatever); a private hospital; or a tourism outlet (like Tahune Airwalk or Anvers).

Working in the city brings out the ‘meanness’ in people, I reckon. If they’re going to be shitty, or complain, that’s where you cop most of the flak from. Ideally, you’d want to work somewhere that attracts customers who are relaxed. Where they don’t have to be back at work at 2 pm, or home by 11 pm. Where they’ve made the choice to amble there, under their own steam, with their own agenda and timetable, and voluntarily choose to stop at YOUR venue to eat. It’s probably their holiday. They’re in chill-out mode. Somewhere like cobber Steve’s Red Velvet Lounge.

My son claims working FOH at Ebb Restaurant at Swansea (before they closed down) was a pleasure, and much more like being on holiday yourself. He says by the time people had driven 2 hours from Hobart to Swansea, they had managed to unwind enough to arrive at Ebb and sit down with relief, appreciating the fabulous water views and bush landscape while sipping on a beautiful bottle of wine and relaxing with Darren’s top food. Being one of those people, I heartily concur!

What do YOU think?

It all comes down to that discretionary dollar

2011-04-17T12:05:00.004+10:00

Despite being incarcerated in my deathbed for the past month, unable to walk, eat or drink, my mind still ticked over as to the state of dining and hospitality in Hobart.

Lying in bed watching daily news broadcasts and cookery programs combined with all manner of current affair programs provides you with a surreal second-hand skew on life as we currently know it. Filter this through 60+ years of first-hand knowledge and experience in the world, and I came up with the following.

For a starter, I don’t know that the impact of daily news headlines about, for instance, a local building company like Scenport being handed to the receivers (as it was last week), elicits any response, or provokes any thoughts by a café owner in the Mall. It should. It impacts hugely, albeit indirectly.

Times are tough, and getting tougher. I doubt that there is anyone not affected by this fact. Even if your personal income is the same as always, the effects of the tightening of belts will be felt by you, as you shop for something your shop now doesn’t have (they’re not restocking quite as regularly now. You can’t have stock just sitting on shelves generating no income for long periods of time), or as you ask a friend to join you at the pub and they can’t come (they might say they have something else on, but chances are they are saving face and simply can’t afford a meal and drinks out). So you have larger companies laying off many, public sector not replacing staff who leave, and small businesses laying off one of their two employees, or letting go their cleaner, or accountant. You have people foregoing the weekly trip to the hairdressers, making it fortnightly instead. So, logically, what happens to the eating out part of the equation? They mostly go cheaper, or get takeaway and eat at home.

As pointed out by commenters on this blog recently, there are indeed many cafes and restaurants currently on the market. There always have been though, so what makes this time any different? Blame it on the domino affect of the GFC, or whatever, but as one Anon commenter put it, the cream will indeed rise to the top, and those eating establishments who offer that little bit extra, or different, will be fine, but the remainder should be on notice.

Series 3 My Kitchen Rules

2011-03-31T16:09:00.002+11:00

I received an email from Katie at My Kitchen Rules HQ, asking for help in putting out the word for Tassie contestants in the next MKR series, so guys - if you feel like you can take the heat in the kitchen, why not give it a go? Here is the body of Katie's email: I was wondering if you might be able to help me? We are currently casting for the next series of Channel 7's My Kitchen Rules and would love to spread the word around all of Tasmania that we are now looking for contestants! I thought your subsribers might be the perfect food and drink lovers, who'd like to apply and be the next Tassie representatives on the show! I would really appreciate you to help me spread the word to as many 'foody' people and enthusiastic cooks as possible. It would be fantastic to spread the word as far and wide as we can. The information we'd like people to know is: Channel 7 are now casting for the 3rd series of My Kitchen Rules. We are searching all states and territories for passionate home cooks, who in teams of two will show off their culinary skills to impress Australia's favourite chef judges Pete Evans and Manu Feildel. If you have a love of food, a partner in crime, and an appetite for adventure, get in touch NOW!TO APPLY ONLINE go to www.mykitchenrules.com.au If you have any more questions please do let me know!

Raincheck Lounge

2011-03-18T12:26:00.003+11:00

Ate out again last night with more friends - this time at Raincheck Lounge in North Hobart - and interestingly, had the opposite experience to the night before at Brunswick. Quite a few people have spoken reasonably negatively recently to me about both the food and service at Raincheck (someone described the waitstaff there to me as being very hoity toity!), so it was with tremendous surprise to find our table, on a busy Thursday night, being very attentively serviced, with a fair amount of humour and good fun attached.

The food was tapas style, and the menu, so we were informed, changes regularly. The other three girls shared a Chef's Platter, which comprised 3 savoury tapas dishes and a dessert to share, plus bread and a salad, and which was priced at $30 per head, and which they usually do for two people, but three shared it last night, with an additional plate ordered just in case it didn't satisfy those hungry girls! (So the total cost for them was the $60, plus the additional cost of the extra plate they ordered).

They loved all their nibbles, with the bread being used to mop up all plates at the end of the meal! (So uncouth!). They had a pork dish, and a chilli prawn dish, as well as a gorgonzola souffle.

Rita grazed on a Salmon Pate with toast ($10, from memory), which was more the texture of flakes of smoked salmon than the usual creamy, blended, spread-it-on-your-toast style pate which you get at somewhere like Nosebag, so not easily spreadable per se. I really enjoyed it, and combined with the amiable good humour of all staff who serviced our table, it made for an extremely pleasant night out.

So - for two separate eating out experiences, an interesting comparison, and one which restaurant owners would do well to take note of. Yes - we eat out to meet people, and chat, and eat, and drink, all at the same time, but the situation is way more memorable and enjoyable when the restaurant provides the other vital part of the eating-out equation - the good food and service.

Brunswick Hotel

2011-03-17T22:10:00.003+11:00

Mussels and hand cut chips (above)

Fish of day with pearl couscous (above)

Pasta with mushrooms (above)

Battered fish (sorry about Andrew's thumb on the side)

‘Disappointing’ is the word I would use to describe our meal at the new Brunswick Hotel last night. This is a place I have heard so much great food feedback about over the last few months, and I was dying to get there and sample their food for myself.

I saw their menu a few weeks ago, and got even more excited, so was truly anticipating a great night (food-wise, and socially) last night there. Unfortunately (in the case of the food) this proved to not be so.

I met up with a few other industry specialists and friends, so we had heaps to talk about, and catch up with, and it wasn’t till we were leaving that we all agreed we’d waited an inordinate amount of time for both service and food the whole evening. Being either in the hospitality industry, or having been in it recently, we are all people who appreciate things going wrong, stuff-ups, staff issues and the like, so we definitely weren’t being picky or overly condemning when I make this point. So when I say communication from our waitperson would have gone a long way towards assuaging our long waits, you’ll understand that I’m not having a hissy fit, or saying I’ll never return – merely stating a fact.

The food for the four of us, when it arrived, was luke-warm. My hand cut chips: luke-warm and soggy with grease/oil. My luke-warm mussel broth (entrée size $15) way too salty, in fact I thought it was the fault of my taste buds, so got the others to check and see if I was being overly precious about the perceived saltiness, but they all verified my thoughts.

The others had fish of the day, I think – one in batter, and the other on pearl couscous with currants – both could have tasted better had they been hotter. They averaged around $23 per meal. The vegetarian pasta with mushrooms, and, I think, hazelnuts, and a few other goodies was voted the best tasting dish of the night, if a bit on the dry side.

Look – I’m really sorry I didn’t enjoy my food at the Brunswick last night, but to me, and the others present, we felt they need to sharpen their collective pencils at the Brunswick, to coin a saying. We need a great place to eat in the city, and the Brunswick certainly qualifies as great – but we need consistency, and great service (well, satisfactory service at the very least!) to take it across the line from average to fabulous.

PS – I did enquire if Justin was working in the kitchen but was told he had the night off. I wanted to speak directly to him about what I planned to say here. In the end I mentioned my food issues to the waitress as she cleared back. She said she would pass it on to the kitchen, so I assume she did. No one approached me subsequently about it.

It was a lovely night. I love the renovation, and am sure I would love the food too, under different circumstances.

White Sands Estate

2011-03-14T19:05:00.002+11:00

Mike - a reader of Rita's Bite - sent in his review (below) of White Sands Estate at Four Mile Creek (up the East Coast, past Swansea). I am very grateful when someone sends in a productive offering like this, as one of the aims of this blog is to inform those who might be interested about an experience at any given eatery. Given that I haven't been up the East Coast for around 2 years now, and not likely to get there till later this year, I thank Mike most sincerely for his review.

"White Sands Estate, Four Mile Creek

Eating off the beaten track in Tasmania is almost always likely to lead to some disappointment – often poor service, disappointing food, slip-ups that mar what should otherwise be a pleasant and seamless experience are the norm. And you grow to expect that in every instance not everything will work as planned. So you become wary about ordering anything other than standard and predictable fare – steak, parmigiana, fish and chips, anything bolognaise are usually safe. Avoid at all cost anything that sounds remotely exotic because it will be sure to disappoint.

So it comes as an extraordinarily pleasant surprise when you chance upon a restaurant out of the way that does things very well. Such was the case with the Brewhaus Bar and Café, part of the food and accommodation set up at White Sands Estate at Four Mile Creek south of St Helens.

White Sands has transformed the previous Cray Drop Inn into a spacious, modern, well designed resort hosting a couple of restaurants, brewery, 3-4 star accommodation units and conference facilities on a stunning site right on the coast. Light and space dominate the restaurant areas with capacity to effortlessly absorb people.

On the Sunday of a long weekend the Brewhaus was comfortably filled with travellers, family groups, locals and in-house guests. Staff were immaculately presented in smart uniforms, the welcome mat was clearly out and from the outset you got the impression that this was a place serious about its hospitality.

A glass of the in-house brewery’s IronHouse Pale Ale was perfect, a full-bodied ale with plenty of malt and citrus overtones, enjoyed sitting on the expansive sun deck looking out to the Tasman Sea. A glass of their Monteith’s Crushed Apple Cider was also perfect.

The lunch menu was limited but appealing. The lager battered flathead just as you would expect in a location known for its fish catch – fresh, flavoursome, perfectly battered; the tossed mescalin salad also fresh, the chips hand cut and not overfilling the dish. The baby squid stuffed with chorizo, capers and parsley exquisite.

The wine list was interesting, well thought out and well-priced and included wines that were affordable enough to try. Thus the 07 Domaine Merlin Sancerre from the Loire Valley, France at $44 was in that league, a beautiful dry sauvignon blanc totally alien to the New Zealand sav blancs that now dominate the market.

The arrival of a downpour caused a mass evacuation from the deck dining area, but the size and spaciousness of the venue allowed diners to be easily absorbed inside. In fact we relocated to a nook looking out over the deck allowing us to watch the downpour and continue what was a thoroughly enjoyable meal.

It was hard to fault this place. The food flavoursome, generous, and well-priced, the service pleasant and professional, the venue modern, bright, sparkling and conducive to a wonderful dining experience. And the fact that it was delivered in a part of the state where well-trained hospitality staff are a rarity as are inspired chefs is a considerable achievement. A pretty full restaurant seems to suggest that we were not alone in our assessment.

Website at http://www.white-sands.com.au/homepage

Mike"

Shoebox Cafe

2011-03-11T12:29:00.003+11:00

Thai beef pide (above)

Triangular sushi (above and below)

Smiling Sammi (above)

Huddle closer girls and boys, and let me tell you about another of those little gems of eating venues I have discovered.

It’s a fabulous little lunch place, called, appropriately, Shoebox Café, and it’s squeezed exactly in between Kuzina, and Tas Vac in Elizabeth Street. Luckily they have some tables and chairs out on the pavement so they don’t disappear into the streetscape completely!

They are open between 7 am and 5 pm, Monday to Fridays.

It is the brainchild of a gorgeous former-South Korean (now a self-proclaimed Tasmanian) art school graduate named Sammi, and her artistic leanings are obvious when you regard the array of sandwiches, pides, sushi and the like laid out in her display fridge. They appear as works of art, before you even make your selection! Sammi is ably abetted and assisted by the lovely Beth, a fellow art school graduate who has named herself the Sandwich Artist, which I love!

The cafe features food which combines Asian and Western flavours, high quality coffee and teas and a groovy fitout done by a local furniture designer, Nick Randall

The possible fillings you can have in your pide sandwiches include the following:
Vietnamese chicken $9.50
Peking duck $10.50
Korean style spicy chicken $9.50
Thai beef $9.50
Wasabi mayo leg ham $9.50
Teriyaki chicken $9.50
Turkey and cranberry $9
Leg ham $8
Total veggie $8

The novelty triangular shaped sushi comes in the following fabulous flavours:
Teriyaki chicken and cucumber $4
Soy beef and spring onion $4
Silk tofu and cream cheese $4
Smoked salmon and avocado $4.30

She also makes mini pide buns, with the following fillings:
Toasted pesto and brie $4.30
Smoked salmon and aioli $4.90
Ham and relish $4.50

Being a Thai Beef Salad afficionado, I predictably selected the Thai Beef pide, and let me tell you, it was stunning. Next time I will get them to leave it out of the pide and just give me the filling in a takeaway container. All the predominant flavours you would expect to find in a Thai Beef Salad were there. In fact it was so beautiful, that my daughter Bec, to whom I had dropped off the uneaten second half of it which I couldn’t tackle, phoned me to exclaim how fabulous it was! She’s pretty blasé about lunches, so when she takes time out of her busy work day to call me and rave about her lunch, it really is noteworthy!

I also had a refreshing pot of Myrtle Bush tea ($4.30) whilst at Shoebox, out of Sammi’s specially commissioned jade green teapots, lovingly made for her by local ceramicist Alex Gouldthorpe. The coffees average $3.80 for a cup, or $4.30 for a mug, and the coffee is Sammi’s own blend.

They also feature waffles made onsite (with whipped cream and icing sugar $6, or maple syrup, or berry coulis) and various sweet delights, like slices and banana cake ($4.30) and both savoury ($4.30) and sweet ($3.50) muffins.

Sammi is up, and in the café working hard, well before the opening time of 7 am in order that she can make everything herself, and the result is obvious when you taste anything there.

I found it extremely interesting to listen to Sammi and Beth whilst they spoke about their plans and ideals for the café, and what inspires them. I mentioned to them about two other females who instantly come to my mind, who were art school graduates, then went on to work in the hospitality industry, producing top notch and artistic-looking food, designed for both the eye and taste buds. One is Nina, who, I believe is now catering at Technopark, and who formerly had that tiny, weeny café on the Main Road, New Town/Argyle St intersection. The food she produced and served there was, like Sammi’s, visually spectacular, and SO tasty that I regularly drove from my workplace on the eastern shore to her tiny café in New Town for lunch.

The other person I thought of was Nicole Pappas, an ex-employee of mine at my café in the early 90’s, who was, at that time, at art school, but then went on to work for Chris Jackman at Mit Zitrone, making all his fabulous sweet after dinner dessert delights. She is a fabulous cook, and even now produces inspired food, even though most of it goes reasonably unappreciated by her two young sons!

These people are poster people for visually attractive food, and who treat food as an artwork, and have fun with it at the same time. I myself think it’s a form of creative expression for them, and cooking seems to go hand-in-hand with artistic expression for some.

Anyway – whatever the analysis is, it all comes down to the fact that Rita wholeheartedly endorses Shoebox Café, and urges everyone to pop in there and get some beautiful lunch next time you’re in town. The parking spots directly outside are always available so there’s no excuse NOT to stop and get your lunch!

Shoebox Café
211a Elizabeth St
Hobart
Ph 6231 5994

Burger has indeed got soul.

2011-02-21T16:38:00.006+11:00

For a burger joint, the new Burger got Soul in Sandy Bay Road (opposite Mykonos) is providing a welcome, and, in my opinion, lasting alternative to the already established burger/fast food outlets in that area.

Popped in there today with a hungry garrulous gourmet (also known as Steve from RVL) mate to check out their burgers. Having just escaped (again) from the seedier side of life within the bowels of the RHH, I myself didn't have the intestinal fortitude to front up to one of the delicious-looking, huge burgers coming out of the kitchen, but naturally GG fronted up, and dispensed with a smokey-flavoured one in double quick time, which I scored a tiny mouthful of, just to sample the flavour. We both had a side serve of their spicy, salty chips, which GG also polished off, and Rita managed to nibble maybe 8 of - they were pretty standard, if a bit salty.

The place was abuzz with, mostly, young people, but a few old farts like us did pop in for their lunch. A couple of young mums were there too, with prams, and toddlers.

The prices were average (you're probably looking at around $12-$14) for a burger depending on what you have on it, and they have an amount of additional items you can add to your burger too.

The burger was fine, so GG said, and my sample proved him totally correct. When I feel better, I will whip down there again and get one for myself, but was more than happy with what I observed today.

For Steve's burger, the 2 bowls of chips, and Steve's coke, the bill was $25. Is that too much for a burger, chips and drink for lunch? I'd say in today's world it's pretty standard. I noticed they had free range eggs if you wanted them, and a variety of vegetarian options, so they're covering all bases there.

The reno to the former Bay Leaf Restaurant is vibrant, and patently obviously geared to a totally different market.

I congratulate them and wish them well with starting up a new business in the current economic climate. When all else fails, we normally all love a burger - and that's exactly why Burger got Soul should succeed!

A rose by any other name.......Sapa Rose

2011-02-14T08:33:00.008+11:00

Green papaya salad with herbed beef, above

Spring rolls, above

Duck stuffed prawns, above

Beef curry on vermicelli noodles, above

Good luck with trying to read your bill, above! It's written in Vietnamese, but don't worry, you get the English printed out version as well, with everything professionally itemised!

***********************************************************************************

You will all know how hard it is to find somewhere decent to eat in Hobart on a Sunday night. I feel constantly sorry for visitors to our fair state when they stupidly assume they’re in a state of Australia, where one could reasonably expect to be able to forage for a reasonable choice of food in the capital city on a Sunday night! Wrong! It’s slim pickings generally in Hobart on a Sunday night

Thanks to the fabulous Sapa Rose, not only are we now supplied with more than decent food on a Sunday night, but also every other day of the week as well! God knows where owner/chef /FOH supervisor Huang thinks he’s going to get the time to spend with his wife and new baby (due next week) but the opening hours of this new eatery are Mon – Sun, 11.00 am till 9 or 10 pm.

Mind you, we (= Victor, Reb and Rita) didn’t go there because we had nowhere else to go. We’re food lovers, for heavens sake! We’re also food bloggers – and what better way to spend an evening than in the company of people who share a passion!

So there we were: chopsticks in hand, banging on the table, ‘Bring it on’ Huang!

And so he did – a beautiful cross section of some Vietnamese dishes fit for kings and queens, such as we are!

Bought out and shared by all of us were:
*Green papaya salad with herbed beef $18 - fabulous
*Vietnamese spring rolls (6), we had the selection: chicken, prawn, pork, vegetarian ($9) served with lettuce leaves and dipping sauce as per pancake below. Cigar sized.
*Vietnamese crispy pancake ($15) with prawns, pork, onion and bean shoots inside, served with lettuce leaves and fish dipping sauce. You’re meant to get a portion of the pancake (or spring roll, see above), pop it into a lettuce leaf, roll it up and dip into the fish sauce. This was a generous serve, similar (both in colour and size) to a plate-sized omelette folded in half. The pancake itself has a lovely crunchy, BBQ-y flavour which added to the enjoyment for me.
*Beef in coconut cream ($16) served on vermicelli noodles (or glass noodles)
*Prawn stuffed with duck served on sizzle platter with hot and sour sauce ($28). You’d think it would be the other way round, but no!
*Sapa Rose salted prawns ($22) – similar to a salt and pepper squid, or prawn, dish, with the prawns lightly battered, and served dry.

I loved every dish for different reasons. I will most definitely return there frequently, for both takeaways, and in-house dining.

Huang only reduces the takeaway prices by $1 for each dish, so it’s no big deal to eat in or out. Also his wines (it’s not BYO), according to my dining companions, are extremely cheap.

The renovation of the restaurant from its recent bakery and cafe history to Vietnamese eatery is striking and manages to convey the Asian feeling effectively. The new waitstaff need more experience in the art of restaurant work and customer service, but in the scheme of things, that’s a mere annoyance in the midst of highly enjoyable food, and will be rectified with more experience.

Well done Huang, and a big warm welcome to the city food scene.

SAPA ROSE

Traditional Vietnamese food, fully licensed

77-81 Harrington Street (next door to Khaow Thai, opposite Little Bali)

Hobart

6234 3806

**See Victor's excellent pics and review here, and Reb's here......

SIR GRUMPY - PLEASE NOTE

You can check this one out safely - it's not anywhere near the Granada, it's close to Liverpool St, and the food should provide you with some light relief from Dom's!

Mona food

2011-02-12T06:26:00.002+11:00

Visited the infamous Mona yesterday – and came away with some varying feelings about the place.

The museum:

As many have said before me, and will say again in the future, the collection itself is varied, huge and different to what you would normally see if you entered the place (or museum) of someone else, who might coincidentally be a collector of something. Having been bought up in a home where art, in its many forms and subjects, was ‘de rigeur’ (and therefore normal), nothing at Mona shocked me, or caused me anything to ponder on. I definitely wasn’t underwhelmed, but emerged unmoved. I think D Walsh has a ‘thing’ for body parts – any body parts – which some may call unnatural, and others may welcome as being a normal acknowledgement of the fact that we all have them, and use them!

What DID shock me was the number of (have they been?) closet artlovers in the community present there yesterday. The place was a seething mass of humans! All manner of people ranging from local mullet-toting bogans (well, it IS situated opposite the Granada, in bogan heartland!) ambling up the driveway toward Mona in their singlets and low-slung jeans with flannies tied round their waists, smoking and sipping from stubbies, to upper-class Sandy Bay bejewelled matrons viewing the exhibits through their lorgnettes!

Is there an underground art-loving movement in Hobart, hitherto undiscovered by Rita, or are we just a group of sticky-beaking wankers who want to be seen at the current ‘in’ place?

I have been out to Moorilla quite a few times over the past years for meals and at various functions, and have always felt sad to observe the property being very much under-appreciated, and way under-utilised, when you consider its beauty and situation. I wished more people would put aside whatever bias they had against dining there (cos that’s basically the sum total of what you could do there at that time, generally) and actually USE this gorgeous place.

Well, David Walsh has now enabled anyone who so desires, to visit and spend hundreds if they want – on food, wine, books, gifts etc. And they are – in their thousands!

Whilst I didn’t have to fork out on an entrance fee, I DID eat some food at the cafeteria at the entrance to the museum. I ordered a Beef Massaman ($15). I took a punt that it might be good, sheerly on my knowledge of the people involved at Moorilla with the food side of things and crossed my fingers that a modicum of their passion for good food would have trickled down – and I am delighted to announce that it had! That was the best massaman I have had for ages, and was well up there with Ivory Café’s massaman.

So – arise Sir David – you built a bigger house for your artwork collection, and allowed us check it out as well. We thank you for your generosity of spirit. But to be frank, whilst I couldn’t give a rat’s arse about the artwork, I love the fact that it gives this array of oddly-assorted people, teeming around the venue like ants in an antnest, exposure to some great food, coffee and wine!

Moonah Taste of the World Festival 27th March 2011

2011-02-07T10:52:00.004+11:00

WELL DONE MOONAH........Rita received this email this morning, and I hope all my readers can make it out there and check it out on the day:

Moonah Taste of the World Festival Update 27th March 2011, Moonah Car park

Promotion has began for the Moonah Taste of the World Festival. Check out the website and facebook at http://www.tasteoftheworld.gcc.tas.gov.au/ and Facebook/ Moonah Taste of the World.

We are about to ramp up our promotion so soon you will see:
A banner along Main Road Moonah
Posters in businesses and prominent centres
A Festival liftout in the March edition of the Glenorchy Gazette
Radio and TV Community Services advertising
Advertisements and Editorials in the Mercury Newspaper
Lots of entries in events websites
Emails to networks
Fliers being distributed
Media interviews on local radio
And a Media launch at Nystar date to be confirmed.

Please help us spread the word “word of mouth” is the most effective means of promotion.

Important Dates:

· Saturday the 19th of February Festival information session and site tour for stall holders, performers, volunteers, sponsors etc at the Moonah Arts Centre from 10 am to 11am. Everyone is welcome if you want to hear more and ask questions
· Wednesday 16th of March 9.30 to 11 Food Stall Holders meeting with the Food Coordinator and Glenorchy City Council Environmental Health Officer at the Moonah Arts Centre
· Saturday the 26th March Festival set-up begins
Sunday the 27th March - the “Taste of the World’ Festival
All enquiries to Rebecca Essex on 6216 6361 or ressex@gcc.tas.gov.au

Thanks, and sorry........

2011-02-02T12:04:00.004+11:00

My most sincere apologies to all for the lack of any movement on this blog over the last few weeks. I have been unbelievably ill, and unable to either eat or drink anything for 2 weeks, so was getting progressively weaker and dehydrated, and turning into a 90 year old crone in front of my family's eyes!

Thanks to family and friends, I have managed to turn the corner, and feel I am now on the road to recovery.

There's still a long way to go (with a Pacemaker possibly being the ultimate end to the story), but actually being able to eat (and keep down) the finest free-range chicken stock ever (lovingly and carefully made by my Nellie), complete with chicken wontons with a hint of coriander, last night marked the turning point for me, and it felt like I had been one of those dried flowers in Varuni's tea at Chado, which, on having boiling water added to them, slowly open out to reveal the most delicate and beautifully fragranced flower, and tea.

Thanks to those of you who have emailed me via the Email Rita direct facility, offering your thoughts and love for my recovery.

Maldinis and Tas Coffee Roasters

2011-01-14T13:14:00.004+11:00

'Another thread please Rita' was the request, so here's a hasty but much less controversial post.....

Breakfasted with some friends on Sunday at Maldinis. Service was relaxed but excellent, food was straightforward but equally as good. (Pics above)

Grabbed an egg and bacon roll this morning from Tas Coffee Roasters in Sandy Bay, a place I hadn't entered for maybe 20 years. It was exactly what I needed to counteract the extremely strong drugs I am currently forced to take. I'm an egg and bacon roll afficionado from years ago, but todays topped them all - maybe it was the drugs, but I'll swear it was delicious! The guys working there were great examples of friendly yet efficient waitstaff. The joint has changed a lot in 20 years, and were I a coffee geek, I would definitely frequent the place.

Hospitality workers employment work conditions

2011-01-12T09:28:00.001+11:00

The below was added as a comment on this blog last night. It would be interesting to hear people's opinions on it..........

"Hi Rita, here's a sticky situation for you.

I have been advised by a staff member that they are unhappy with their rate of pay over The Taste event and seeing that they didn't receive any breaks over their two consecutive eight hour shifts they are seeking recompense.

As they were employed as perm part time under the new Fair Work awards, the hourly rate they are paid is different for Sat and Sun. I am aware that for the 1/2 hr break that they were entitled to but missed out on I will have to pay 175% their hourly rate to recompensate them for missing out on said breaks. I dont begrudge paying this.

What is troubling me though is that for the whole year I have employed this person ( we run a business all year round and try to make some money during The Taste to compensate for the rest of the year when it is very quiet) and all the other staff is the fact that I dont charge the staff for any meals, drinks, coffee or even knock off alcoholic drinks after a shift.

I also paid a cash bonus for my staff who worked over The Taste. In short I absorb these costs. I feel that though this person is legally entitled to get their award I am now less likely to offer them the free drinks and meals that I currently do to all the staff, which I am legally not bound to do. This is not what I want to do as I know it will change the ambience of our workplace. Do you or your readers thinks this is fair or equatable?"

Farewell Piccalilly, but a big welcome to BP Steakhouse and Ethos Eat Drink

2011-01-08T07:55:00.004+11:00

Looks like life as we currently know it at Piccalilly restaurant in Battery Point is about to change. An email I received yesterday from Iain Todd, talented chef/owner there, tells me of the following exciting plans for their future:

"Hi Rita. I have news for you. You may have heard rumours of a few changes at Piccalilly.
I don't know what you have heard because there are a lot of different stories going around so here it is!

Piccalilly is closing on the 18th of February 2011.

On the Piccalilly site there will be an up-market steakhouse called The Battery Point Steakhouse specialising in beef. Dry aged, small producer stuff, cooked to perfection.

We also have a new site in the city. 100 Elizabeth Street.

It's a carriageway, stable-yard and stable constructed around 1820. It's very special and has been nothing but a dump for the last 80 or so years.

The new site will be called Ethos Eat Drink and will be more-or-less tapas. Not Spanish/Mediterranean tapas but modern tapas where we can take influence from anywhere we like, much like Piccalilly's food.

Expect to see the same sorts of flavours and techniques as Piccalilly but in a much more relaxed setting with no linen, lots of food friendly wine and fun service.

We are having plates made by young potter Tom Welch so it should be pretty exciting!

Construction is due to finish late in Feb so we should get in there and open by early March if all goes to plan.

I have hired two head chefs so that I can split my time, and both have serious pedigrees, however I will have to announce who they are at a later date to keep you guessing!

Ethos will also have a very strong ethical standpoint (hence the name). We have some land for our own garden, which should get going ASAP. We are using all low emission, low consumption equipment and focusing on ethical meat etc."

Well Iain - it all sounds very exciting, and I can't wait to eat at both venues.

1001 and still going strong!

2011-01-05T06:04:00.002+11:00

It totally passed me by without my noticing it, but my web guru pointed out to me yesterday that my last post about Lucky Ducks Cafe was my post number 1001 on this blog!

Can you believe that? Over 1000 posts written!

I am humming to myself a few lines from the Elton John classic - "I'm still standing better than I ever did, looking like a true survivor, feeling like a little kid".

It's lovely to feel part of this esoteric little Rita's Bite community of people who regularly pop in and give us their opinions, featuring such luminaries as Christina, Sir Grumpy, Cartouche, Cool Room, Steve, Victor, Reb, Michelle, Anon2 etc - the list goes on, and I apologise to the many hundreds whose identities and pseudonyms I have not listed here, but who have kept me, and all our readers, amused and interested for the past 5 years.

Happy 1000th birthday Hobart Food for thought/Rita's Bite!

Who really was the lucky duck?

2011-01-03T19:28:00.006+11:00

Rita is delighted to announce she has found another one of those eatery gems which make food blogging (and eating out) 100% worthwhile.

The venue: Lucky Ducks Restaurant and Café at Nubeena.

This little place impressed me on so many levels, and it’s wonderful to know that there are still places out there that adhere to my lofty requirements: food produced and sourced as locally and ethically as possible; food produced with love and care; food credibility; wonderful service.

A big call for Rita, but I would like to compare Lucky Ducks food and service to best cobber Steve Cumper’s Red Velvet Lounge, and I rejoice in finding somewhere else that I know with certainty I can relax in, knowing that all is as I would ideally wish it to be, both FOH and in the kitchen.

I honestly can’t rave too much about this place and it is my fervent hope that everyone reading this will be filled with enough curiosity to make the trek to Nubeena and eat there.

Let me set the scene for you. Rita has been languishing on her lounge, in her jamas, since leaving hospital on Xmas Eve – for a lot of reasons. Best cobber Deb called to volunteer to take me to Taste but the three diuretics I have to take every morning guarantee that if I venture out, I must have a toilet action plan for those regular 15 minute jaunts to the loo! So Taste was out of the question, as the possibility of queuing at the loos, or in a food line waiting to be served, is definitely not an option here! Instead we set off for a drive specifically to Lucky Ducks, my curiosity having been aroused by some trusted and reliable friends feedback, as well as receiving an invitation to eat there some time ago from the guys running it.

At this stage, I also need to own up to the fact that I didn’t call first and book. I would have been disappointed if they’d been closed, or full up, and I had contingency plans if that one backfired, but it wasn’t necessary. They were open, had tables free, and had enticing-looking food on hand so we were home and hosed!

We sat down at a window table, surveyed the view (both inside and outside) and took in the general ambience of the place. They have four whiteboards on the walls: one with the breakfast menu, then two lunch ones, and a dessert one, plus a drinks list near the coffee machine. All menu items were well thought-out, and I challenge anyone not to find something they liked on the menu of items all made on the premises.

In true Rita fashion, I reverted to my childhood love of Lime Spiders when I saw they had them on the menu, and instantly ordered one! I was most definitely on a roll!! These guys could do no wrong from then on!

It was, coincidentally, their first birthday, so I was glad we were present on that auspicious day. It was also their busiest day on record, so I was doubly glad about that.

The service by 16 year old local waitress Georgia was unbelievable. For someone of such tender years, she was polite, efficient, helpful, friendly, knowledgeable and thoughtful – characteristics I have grown used to not seeing demonstrated in waitstaff of that age. I was extremely impressed.

Deb had the Local blue eye, oven baked with a fresh herb pesto and salad ($23.50), with a side bowl of chips. I tasted her fish, the pesto and salad and couldn’t fault anything. The fish was moist, fresh and tasty, and they had resisted the temptation to add some overpowering sauce to it. The fresh herb pesto highlighted the delicate flavour of the fish.
I had one of their pies – the Lamb tagine with sweet potato ($8). The pastry had been housemade, so ticked another of my boxes. It was fabulous.

We each bought a loaf of their bread to take home, after I had ascertained that, in advertising that it was made by them that day, it was not one of those pre-mixes most others who advertise freshly made bread use. It wasn’t.

Our bill at the end of our glorious time there was around $70, and was well worth it.

My rating, in case you’re interested, is 5/5. I will definitely make sure I return as often as I can. It’s a small place, so if you’re going down there specially, and don’t book, don’t get cross if you arrive and they don’t have a spare table for you. Please, please, please – if you care about food, and would like to support people who are working their butts off in a business that is so obviously their passion – go there.

Lucky Ducks
Main Road
Nubeena
Ph: 6250 2777
Open every day (Mon to Sun), 9 am till 8 pm. (They do breakfast, lunch and dinner).

STOP IT!

2011-01-02T08:48:00.002+11:00

I have heard many stories over the last few weeks (from friends in the industry), all of which have had as the root cause, rudeness and ignorance of the general public towards hospitality industry members.

Take it as the norm that in today’s world, it’s generally ‘all about me’ (and my life, which includes my family and friends, and my work and workmates). So that unattractive age-old theme of ‘insult me, and you insult, or threaten, my life, or choices’ which many of the old US western movies seemed to be based around (ie a gun shootout between two men with a disagreement of some kind), still resonate today, albeit in a different forum.

We are way too civilized these days to have a shootout in the main street of town (but, boy, in a way I would welcome this method of settling issues better than today’s more politically-correct and long drawn-out leaving it to the courts to dole out justice!). It would cause people to think more cautiously about what issues they truly believe in and what they want publicly to be seen to be representing, and potentially fighting to the death about! (It would maybe give perspective to those arguments on a topic such as whether Boags or Cascade is the better beer!).

Today, we seem to live in a place that permits humans to retain the attitude that if someone else is in a position of waiting on them, whether it’s in a retail, hospitality or other scenario, then the server is automatically inferior to the person/customer, and therefore should be spoken to and treated as such.

That attitude is so wrong on so many levels, but it happens constantly.

Turning up unannounced and un-booked at your restaurant or café of choice and expecting to find a seat or table, then served a coffee or meal, is totally unrealistic in today’s life.

The solution – as obvious as the nose on your face – CALL FIRST! And if you don’t, have an alternative plan up your sleeve for the possible (and probable) situation whereby they may well be unable to accommodate you.

And treat everyone as an equal to you – or better! They’re doing YOU the favour by having the business functioning there for your pleasure….all you have to do is walk in and order what you want, eat/drink it, then leave. Granted that without the customers, they wouldn’t have the business, but look at it in reverse, you NEED the business to be there so you can indulge your whimsies of not having to shop for, and make something yourself, and not having to wash up afterwards!

So customers – watch your manners!

O woe is me!

2010-12-29T14:44:00.001+11:00

“All I want for Christmas is my sense of taste”…..yep, that’s what I SHOULD have been singing on Christmas Eve when finally released from RHH Cardio ward, again, after a week of treatments attempting to get my heart beat back to normal – all of which failed!

They let me go home for Christmas accompanied by a heavy-duty load of tablets to treat all my symptoms.

And now – horror of horrors for someone who enjoys their food so much, and likes to blog about it – a dire loss of taste, due, maybe to the medication, or the operation last week which involved having my mouth and throat anaesthetized, or maybe due to having been defibrillated. Who knows, but the end result is that things which I know with certainty have a specific flavour or taste, now taste like poison.

What can I do? Well, for a start, I won’t be writing about food which I personally have eaten. I won’t go out as much. It is a devastating blow for Rita, and I apologise in advance for the lack of personal food experiences to be found on this blog, possibly over the next few months.

So – a solution is required. My daughter dined out last night (without me, as I just couldn’t bring myself to join she and her friends) at the newly renovated gastropub Brunswick. According to them (2 chefs and daughter Bec), the food was fantastic, and the renovation ditto.

We’ll venture along to Taste some time, but obviously that will be a half-hearted effort from Rita.

Ivory Cafe

2010-12-17T22:15:00.007+11:00

Forget the three Gourmet Farmer amigos (Matt, Nick and Ross) – tonight the three amigo bloggers dining out at Ivory Café in Elizabeth Street were Reb, Victor and Rita.

Following up on Victor’s extremely sad meal at Thai Gardens last week, Rita emailed him and suggested he try Ivory, so tonight was the culmination of that discussion, with all three of us hoping like hell that the meal at Ivory would be better than TG.

And it was. It was fabulous – and I guarantee this place will be well patronized from now on when Victor and Reb feel like eating a decent Thai meal on their way home from work.

We cracked up when the waitress came to our table and asked me if I was Rita. Then when I mentioned that Victor too had a blog, she asked if his was Food Trail! Talk about trying to go there quietly so we could blog about it – that blew that particular brainwave right out of the water!

But we were absolutely bowled over by the food. It’s a small café, and easily managed by the one floor staff (Donna, pictured below with partner, chef Gummy), and two in the kitchen. The attention to Thai food credibility was there, with amendments made for the local taste buds.

Finding out that chef was the ex-cook at Darjohs in Bellerive, I relaxed, as I then knew exactly what direction the food would come from, and was pretty sure I would love it.

We started out with Curry Puffs ($1.50 each) and dipping sauce, and a shared Entrée Platter ($9 per person, minimum for two) which contained some warm beef salad, sticky rice, carrot salad, three spring rolls, beef jerky and salad greens. Chef also sent out some pork jerky for us to try. Now the words I have written here listing what was on the platter are boring and mundane – and the exact opposite of what the dish actually tasted like. It was breathtaking – everything on it.

You’ve all had curry puffs before. They are usually standard, and not very exciting. These were the genuine article, with the accompanying dipping sauce being perfect.
Both the beef and pork jerky sounded to me like they might be shit – but were superlative. I can’t speak too highly of them. The carrot salad left the one I make (and take great pride in) for dead, as did the beef salad.

We then mained on a beef massaman ($12.50), a prawn pad thai ($15) and a stir fry pork with thai garlic paste and ginger ($13). All were stunning.

I recommend this café 100%. They are open:
lunch: Mon to Sat 11.30 – 3.00
dinner: Tues to Sat 5.00 – 9.00

Ivory Café
112 Elizabeth Street
Hobart
Phone: 6231 6808

Victor rated it 8.5 (out of 10), as did I. Reb was 8/10. I think that says it all really, don't you?

O is for Oprah

2010-12-16T11:17:00.005+11:00

My apologies for my recent quietness here. I am still having the heart problems which saw me hospitalised a few weeks back, and which have necessitated my sleeping on my lounge - upright, in the sitting position - as lying down is now physically impossible. Hence I am exhausted through no decent sleep/rest, hence my brain can't formulate a decent post, let alone get my slackarse body out for a meal!

I wanted to write about Steve Cumper catering for 2 special meals last week (a singular honour for him, and a huge compliment to his expertise, as well as being magnificent publicity), but wanted to wait for him to write about it himself, so this is my aside......

The power of the spoken word combined with the visual cannot be understated. But the importance of who is actually doing the speaking is tantamount in that equation.

If a politician suggests something, do we all nod our heads wisely in agreement, and instantly obey? I don’t think so! I think our automatic response is to assume that the politician is pushing a party line, or has a hidden agenda.

So it was with great interest that I observed last week’s quiet Oprah-invasion to Tassie. It was only 6 people (US tourists: part of Oprah’s 302-strong army of lucky viewers who won a guernsey to come to Oz on an all-expenses paid trip from America) arriving in Tasmania to experience the optimum in tourism experiences available to anyone with the requisite amount of money. But it appeared to be the most targeted, well-planned and executed trip ever, with the anticipated exposure of Tasmania and its glories to be splashed across the world via the Oprah show, to be aired in January.

Oprah Winfrey is certainly a powerhouse of a woman. If you haven’t ever taken the time to sit back and watch at least 5 episodes of her show, then you should. If you have just formed the opinion that because she is a chat show host she has nothing different to offer, then think again. There is a reason why Oprah is deemed to be so powerful in America.

Yes, she has a wonderful publicity machine behind her, which appears to work 24/7 spruiking the Oprah message extremely effectively. But when you watch her show, you will see quite a few issues raised which no one else would or could ever broach, let alone think they have the power to affect. (Oprah, fortunately, has a very high and genuine social conscience.)

Like, for instance, general education across the US. Oprah has put her foot down, and called for a nationwide halt to the extremely low levels of general education in the country. Not the education the well-heeled can afford, and take for granted, but the normal education that most of the population receive. She points out that this affects the functioning of the nation as a whole, so has gathered together the most powerful statesmen, together with the richest people to fund it, and has commenced a trial of practical education able to be delivered on the ground in all situations.

They have acknowledged and moved on past all the predictable opposition to a reforming of the education system (such as we have observed here in Tassie), making the point that the time for all that has passed, and it is now at the urgent stage.

So – the visit last week demonstrated the difference between a half-arsed, government-driven (for that, read ‘public service’) venture (where generally no one takes on personal ultimate responsibility for the success or failure of anything) versus a professional, well researched plan with well-defined and achievable outcomes.

In countless situations, when the public service gets involved in something, it usually ends in tears. If intelligent private enterprise is involved (ie correct research into the venture has been carried out, due to the fact that someone’s money and life is usually on the line!), the outcome is more commonly a raging success.

The Oprah visit to Australia being facilitated/coordinated by Tourism Australia, with Oprah’s own production company, Harpo, calling the shots they required, culminated in THE most successful advertising campaign on behalf of tourism in Australia ever conceived. The marriage between public and private enterprise worked strikingly well on this occasion, and should be a blueprint for future development, but I won’t hold my breath. We don’t have that many visionary movers and shakers here!

It's only words, and words are all I have......

2010-12-08T09:45:00.001+11:00

We all lead very busy lives these days…..busy doing things in the fastest and most direct way possible in order to try and cram even more into our hectic lives. We invent items daily to facilitate this. We are on an ever-increasing whirlpool of busy-ness. We are online keeping up with the latest. We are enlightened in the most enlightened of ways.

But all this comes at a cost. The number of people dropping out of mainstream interstate and overseas life and coming to the perceived backwater of Tasmania, to take up a life of renovating, gardening, being self-sufficient and joining their community actively, demonstrates this.

Another cost is, to me, the most important. It is the loss of a person’s word. Call me old-fashioned but I go to great lengths to keep my word, and it pains me deeply when I can’t or don’t, for whatever reason. The way to NOT break your word to someone is simple – don’t make a commitment if you know you can’t keep it. Don’t open your mouth! Don’t promise what you know you can’t deliver.

It is commonplace nowadays to expect nothing of anyone. If a plumber says they will be there on Monday morning, are they? If you make a doctors appointment for 2.00, and don’t get to see your doctor till 3.30, what do you do? If a friend says they’ll call you tomorrow, do they?

Keeping your word is vital in today’s world. It actively demonstrates many aspects of your personality and character. It shows integrity, truthfulness and trust, big-heartedness, caring, humanity and an awareness of all others around you. It gives people security to know they can rely on you, and your word. If you are in a sales situation, you will do your job badly if no one believes what you are mouthing. In a restaurant, when I ask a waitperson what they would have if THEY were eating at the restaurant they work at, it gives me just as much idea as to what to order, as to what kind of people are employed there, and what characteristics the employer finds important in his employees, depending on their answer.

We let a lot of that go past without batting an eyelid, but I’m over it! I’m declaring 2011 a no-go zone for people expecting me to take their shit! My new year’s resolution is to call people on not keeping their word to me. I won’t stress about the general stuff, like the plumber, but restrict it to the more personal promises. And I started yesterday with a return email to someone in the business community who promised to get back to me with information I required 2 weeks ago.

An extract of my email to him yesterday reads thusly:

Hi John

Well, the Monday you referred to in your answer to me (below) on Sat 27th November 2010 below (presumably Mon 29th November 2010) has well and truly passed with my receiving no update still on my xxx blah blah blah.

Added to the above confusion (see emails below) regarding where I stand in regard to my payments made to xxx, it appears systems could do with a thorough overhaul.

I am a patient and charitable person but find these characteristics tested at times like this.

Regards

Blah

I haven’t heard back from poor John yet but I intend keeping up the pressure. So if you are one of those careless people, be warned…..

The pitfalls of food blogging

2010-12-04T10:03:00.004+11:00

Rita puts on her blogging hat to review hospital food.......

Roast chicken (above)

Some kind of canned fish lasagne (above)

Yes - she's still alive!

Cold roast beef salad (above)

Well - it's not top-of-the-range, cordon bleu food, but, hey, who's in the position to complain? You want a meal in hospital? That's it. I was happy to accept anything I hadn't had to make myself.

Contrary to the facts as presented by my good mate Steve on his blog post the other day, when faced with scary situations, the human psyche, for self-protection, reacts in different ways. In my particular instance, the escape is through humour. Hence on finding myself being carted off in an ambulance, then attached to heart monitors and the like for days, combined with a series of medical experiences not marked on my calendar to occupy those very days, I regressed immediately into finding the whole situation of having a food blog (which seems to infer to some that the volume of food eaten is automatically immense) and me turning up at the Emergency Department of the Royal Hobart Hospital in an ambulance with heart problems (quite possibly due to food intake over the past 60 years!) extremely ironic!

However, let us not be hasty and point the finger at Mezethes, whose food last week (as I commented to a few close friends, whilst in hospital) proved to be way up there, standard-wise, in comparison to the food presented to me later in hospital!

We live, we eat. We have to eat in order to survive. No matter what we eat, there will come to all of us that finite ending, commonly called ‘death’. What we eat at normal mealtimes throughout our lives, what our metabolism is like, what our circumstances are, all impact on that.

So – I make no apology for, or explanation of, my heart problems. I attribute the fact that my heart is still beating to the fact that actually my diet is excellent – thanks to (or maybe, despite!!) many restaurants, cafes and chefs offerings over the years. I don’t drink or smoke (and have never done so), am not an asthmatic and can’t physically eat more than an entrée-sized portion of food at any sitting. Ergo whatever food has passed my lips over my lifetime has served as vital sustenance for this body without over-indulging in anything at all (except maybe the odd packet of Maltesers!).

So – my gratitude must go to the chefs of Tasmania, notably Hobart, to whom I obviously owe my life! Also to Hill St Grocers, where I buy the majority of my domestically devoured food ingredients.

The above 2 pics illustrate a point of discussion at Nellies, after she bought the above sourdough loaf, and discovered the new trademark attached to the loaf....a cute little bug, cosily nestling up and implanted onto the side of the loaf! Would YOU have returned the loaf?

Giving the greeks another go

2010-11-25T21:29:00.003+11:00

Renewed my acquaintance with Mezethes tonight, and found it to be pretty well unchanged since last time I ate there in 2007. Food pretty average, and service varying from average to slack.

If you are going there to meet friends and catch up, it probably would be fine, as you wouldn't be focussing on the food, but if you go to restaurants sheerly for the food (like me), then it's a let down.

Cooking classes anyone?

2010-11-23T22:36:00.003+11:00

There's no excuse for not knowing how to cook now - take a look at all these gourmet cooking classes scheduled for 2011, taken from the Tourism Tas Media release site:

Fancy a Gourmand escape? Celebrate the new year in Tasmania with a sojourn at one of the Island’s top cooking schools

TASMANIA, 17 NOVEMBER 2010 – An enticing and engaging holiday experience awaits food-lovers in the new year as Tasmania’s many world-class cooking schools unveil their new-season cooking classes. Hands on cooking sessions are being held around the state celebrating the island’s top provenance – with many conducted in some of the most breathtaking and spectacular locations Tasmania has to offer. A renowned destination for fine food and top quality produce, Tasmania’s cooking schools are an enriching way for visitors to connect with the quality, authenticity and purity of the destination.

The following are a selection of cooking schools and classes that are being held in Tasmania from January to April 2011:

*NEW* TOP OF THE WORLD – COOKING CLASS WITH WAJI
Held in the stunning, architecturally designed Eagles Eyrie lookout, located on a mountain top in the remote surrounds of the South West Wilderness, Top of the World cooking class with Waji is a new cooking class held in a unique location.

www.adventureforests.com.au/maydena/cooking-with-waji

What: Six themed cooking classes with acclaimed Tasmanian chef, Waji. Guest chefs for the classes include Brian Ritchie (American Barbeque), Kiri Booth (Tasmanian Game and Tasmanian Crustacean), Scott Heffernan (Modern Australian), Varuni Kulasekera (Sri Lankan) and Van Lulitanond (Royal Thai)When: Weekends from 8 January to 20 March 2011Where: Eagles Eyrie, Maydena includes transfers from Hobart City, Forestry Tasmania Office, 79 Melville Street, HobartCost: $295 per person. $315 for Tasmanian Crustacean. To book, visit the website.Inclusions: Hands-on cooking class, food and Tasmanian wine, Hobart-Maydena-Eagle Eyrie transfers, morning tea, apron.

THE AGRARIAN KITCHEN
A tranquil farm haven, guests can roam through The Agrarian Kitchen’s five hundred square metre organic and heirloom vegetable garden, large berry patch and orchard to pick fruits and vegetables, and collect the beautiful dark brown eggs laid by the farm’s eleven Barnevelder chickens for their cooking classes. Run by former Tetsuya protégé and ex Gourmet Traveller Food Editor, Rodney Dunn, The Agrarian Kitchen is one of the top cooking schools in Tasmania. www.theagrariankitchen.com
What: Pastry 101 class (March), Tomato Gluttony, Mutton Dressed as Lamb, The Whole Hog (April)When: The Agrarian Kitchen’s classes run throughout the year. For more details, visit their website.Where: The Agrarian Kitchen, 650 Lachlan Road, Lachlan TAS 7140Cost: $285 per person. To book, call 03 6261 1099 or visit the website.Inclusions: Apron, lunch, wine and the hands-on cooking class.

RED FEATHER INN COOKING SCHOOL
Conducted by acclaimed Tasmanian Chef and rare breed pig farmer, Lee Christmas, the Red Feather Inn Cooking School is the most popular cooking school in the state’s north. Here guests can forage, fish and hunt for ingredients for a feast, or take one of the school’s butchery classes. www.redfeatherinn.com.au/school/
What: Pork, Smoking & Curing, Summer’s Harvest, Perfect Pasta and The Wild Larder classesWhen: January through to March 2011Where: Red Feather Inn Cooking School, 42 Main Street, Hadspen 7209 TAS Cost: Classes start from $195 per person. To book, visit the website.Inclusions: Morning tea on arrival, an apron, tea towel, lunch & beverages and a recipe folder

COMPANION BAKERY
Where better to learn the art of sourdough bread making then at the Companion Bakery, which has Australia’s oldest restored working mill, Callington (circa 1832), just across the road. Featuring one of Australia’s most accomplished bakers Graham Pritchard, the Companion Bakery in the southern midlands town of Oatlands is a member of the Artisan Baker Association, and uses only the best organic flour and locally sourced ingredients. www.companionbakery.com.au
What: Introduction to Sourdough and Advanced Sourdough TechniquesWhen: Class information will be available on the website closer to the dateWhere: Companion Bakery, 160 High Street, Oatlands, TasmaniaCost: $275 per person for the Introduction class and $545 per person for the Advanced class. To book, visit the website.Inclusions: Baker’s cap, lunch and sourdough starter.

WURSTHAUS KITCHEN
Set in Salamanca Place, Wursthaus Kitchen is a treasure trove for the best local and imported deli products, charcuterie, wine and cheese in the country, in addition to their celebrated monthly cooking classes. www.wursthauskitchen.com.au
What: Autumn cooking classesWhen: Classes start from February. Class information will be available on the website closer to the dateWhere: 1 Montpelier Retreat, Battery Point, Hobart 7004Inclusions: All ingredients, lunch and wine.

ALPS & AMICI
Run by acclaimed Tasmania chef Daniel Alps (formerly of Strathlynn fame), Alps & Amici offers intimate gourmet cooking demonstrations and cupcake and cake classes with Daniel and his wife Sally. www.alpsandamici.com
What: Cooking demonstrations by acclaimed Tasmanian Chef Daniel Alps or hands on cupcake classes with his wife SallyWhen: Classes start from March. Class information will be available on the website closer to the dateWhere: 52 Abbott Street, East Launceston 7250. Cost: Cooking demonstrations cost $95 per person and cupcake classes cost $85 per person. To book, call 03 6331 1777 or email info@alpsandamici.com Inclusions: Food tastings, wine, recipes, a pantry bag (cooking classes). Hands-on preparation and decoration of cupcakes, cakes and recipes (cupcake classes)

The dreaded Christmas functions...

2010-11-16T09:13:00.002+11:00

I can’t remember where I read it recently but I was impressed with the statement that a restaurant owner (and I think this was local) charges diners on a larger (pre-booked) table an extra $10 if they’ve booked and confirmed specific numbers of guests, and are short a few on the night of the meal. This gets rid of the need for restaurant staff to take credit card details which are possibly fake (yes, it certainly happens!) as insurance against that very situation.

We have discussed this issue many times online, both here and at Steve’s, over the years, but it never seems to be resolved enough to safeguard restaurant owners in those circumstances.

As general social standards get lower, so does the level of caring and compassion for one’s fellow man, it would appear!

I continue to hear horror stories about human behaviour (read that as ‘customers’), which will go on for time immemorial, and often shake my head in total disbelief at the ignorance, rudeness and crassness of customers – but with the silly season fast approaching, yet again restaurant owners are faced with hundreds of workplaces wanting to celebrate the end of yet another year by eating out. The workplaces, in these enlightened days of political correctness, need to ‘listen’ to all staff’s suggestions for Xmas venues, so you end up with a situation where the Social Committee book 3 or 4 venues, await the results of staff discussions, then confirm with the winning venue – but neglect to inform the other venues they also booked that they need to cancel.

(A past workplace of mine was particularly noteworthy for this! I swear to god that we started discussions about where the event - at XMAS time! - for approximately 40 people should be held, around June each year! It was the subject of countless staff meetings, with much lobbying of staff done by the more unscrupulous ‘team’ members! It was the most controversial topic of discussion EVER! Rita won twice with her proposals/organisation, and absolutely loved our Xmas meals on both occasions, but it was difficult to maintain the rage!)

The result is that the other (unsuccessful, although they don’t know it at that stage) venues have a large booking pencilled in till someone at the restaurant takes the time to do a ring-around and verify all bookings. If this doesn’t happen, it could be that the restaurant doesn’t find out about the lack of booking until the actual night of the function! The restaurant have probably knocked back other more definite bookings in favour of the first one booked, in the mistaken assumption that they have secured a booking which will cover all their bills for that night – purchasing ingredients, staff wages, electricity, cleaning, insurance etc.

At my current workplace (the Frog), I am impressed with the system of booking (accommodation) online. You go onto our (secure) website which takes you through the required steps, including submitting your credit card details (which get verified instantly). We don’t take ANY payment out of that account. When you physically arrive at the Frog, we check you in and you pay in whatever way you want (either card or cash). If we have the need to use them, we have your credit card details, but we never use them. An automated email response is immediately sent to the customer the instant we receive, open and deal with the booking, acknowledging receipt of the booking and detailing exactly what they have been booked for. All terms and conditions are spelled out in black and white at the outset.

You pay when you check in, whether you’re happy about the accommodation, or service you received, or not. You still intend using the product (accommodation) so you need to pay for it. Why can’t it be the same for eating out at a function? Why not pay up BEFORE the meal? The enjoyment of the meal is a moot point – you still partook of the meal – ie used the product - so the fact that ingredients actually got used, staff actually bought it to you, the power was working and lights were on, etc, all happened, whether you liked the food or not.

So – bloody good on whoever has taken the radical step of charging the thoughtless customer who hasn’t had the courtesy to call up and notify of late withdrawls! And my heartiest congratulations to those restaurants who manage to succeed in pleasing ALL guests at their functions!

Rita's adventures in wonderland

2010-11-12T08:27:00.003+11:00

Saturday 13th November marks the birthday of Rita’s youngest offspring, Miss Bec. When asked what she wanted for her birthday, her instant response was a desire to attend the Beerfest Degustation at Cooleys (as spearheaded by Cooleys Hotel owner Kalis Group’s recently-appointed executive, Paul Foreman). ‘Easy peasy’, said Rita. ‘Done deal’, said Rita. So that’s how Rita and Bec ended up last night in surreal-land Cooleys eating surreal-food dego.

Now for those (foreigners) amongst us, Cooleys is in Moonah. Moonah is the first suburb in what is generally classed (in Hobart language) as NCR – which = north of Creek Road. Creek Rd (Lenah Valley) is defined as the border between the world of flannies and hot cars, and the world of Yves St Laurent and BMW’s. Nowhere was this difference more obvious than last night at dego at Cooleys!

As waitstaff served course after course of the 5 course dego, it was obvious that many (most?) present were there principally for the matched beers. Totally natural for this opening Beerfest event for this years Beerfest. I’m not sure but I would hazard a guess that Rita would have been the sole non-drinker in the room of roughly 80-odd people!

The turnout was, I thought, fantastic. The vibe enthusiastic and noisy.

But – I was there solely for the food, and an interesting evening for food it was too! Along with anticipating each course, I was also extremely interested in observing the reactions of our fellow table members (four fantastic and fun guys – Michael, Nick, George and birthday boy Daniel), and decided to get a group vote at the end of each course in order to more accurately reflect the group reaction to the food.

At this stage I need to add news of my disaster of the year: my MORONIC daughter (who had diligently taken some of the most inspired and artistic snaps, ever, of each dish as it came out) decided that a picture she’d taken of herself and her mother would be better deleted – so she deleted – EVERY SINGLE PHOTO IN THE CAMERA’S MEMORY! As I am still recovering from this trauma, I can’t say any more on that subject, but suffice it to say there is no way she ever lays a finger on my beloved and trusty camera ever again!

Vintage cheddar and molasses ciabatta bread arrived first, silver served onto our sideplates. It didn’t require the oil and balsamic on the table, as it was easily the best ciabatta I have ever had, with the strong vintage cheese flavour being carried through every mouthful.

Hot and sour soup featuring Flinders Island green lip abalone, lup cheong, shitake mushroom and chilli came next, elegantly served in a reinforced glass with a teaspoon to assist in serving the tasty tidbits contained within. It was fabulous, and all present at our table unanimously voted it a 4 out of 5.

Next came the Kataifi striped trumpeter, gaufrette potatoes, cornichons and Fat Yak foam. For those (like non-drinker Rita!) unaware of Fat Yak, it turns out to be a variety of beer from WA named Matilda Bay Fat Yak! This read to me, on initial perusing of the menu, as being the standout course, but in fact turned out to be the biggest disappointment. Simply, it didn’t work. Talking with Paul afterwards, I could see what he had been aiming for – a fish and chips-style plate, but as he’d fried the fish in its kaitifi and didn’t want to fry the potato as well, decided he would pickle the potato instead, and matched that with the pickled cornichon, or gherkin. Sorry Paul, but the table rated it at 1.5 out of 5.

Roaring Forties blue cheese soufflé, accompanied by fig, prune & Beez Neez (another Matilda Bay beer) jam, white salad and pickled zucchini then arrived. Before the food came, we all cogitated about what exactly comprised a ‘white salad’. It turned out to be 2 melon ball-sized scoops of apple topped with a shoot of micro-herb! This was a great plate with the soufflé being perfectly done – no mean feat for a group of 80-odd diners, I would imagine! The flavours were beautiful, with all at the table murmuring through mouths full of food how yummy this was. This dish rated a 3.5, as the table got more discerning in their ratings as the meal progressed, but I reckon if it had been served up first it would have rated 5/5.

12 hour Big Helga (another Matilda Bay beer) braised Longford oyster blade, onions, spec, sweetbreads and anchovies was next. The boys at the table knew there was something suss about the sweetbreads, but all gave them a valiant try, albeit slowly and suspiciously! Overall, this dish was enjoyed, with it rating 3 out of 5.

The final course easily tied with the first course as regards popularity. It scored 4 out of 5. Anzac Cookie and dark chocolate parfait, banana toffee and Cascade Export Stout sabayon triumphed supreme. It was exactly what was needed to finish off a great meal – sweet and highlighting the individual fine flavours of the separate components. (See above for the sole photographic evidence of last night's meal, taken post-disaster!)

It was a late night, with us leaving at 11.40. Apart from suppressing the desire to throttle my daughter for the unforgiveable sin of deleting all my precious photos, I thoroughly enjoyed my night at Cooleys, apart from being treated with total disrespect by waitboy extraordinaire, Jamie (who, I might add, coincidentally happens to be my son)! Thanks to my fellow table members for a wonderful evening; to Tom the other waiter who claims to be a firm Rita-reader; to Alexia who runs the pub; and to Paul and his kitchen staff who provided Cooleys with a taste of Marque IV-standard food.

Backpacking

2010-11-09T16:07:00.001+11:00

Before starting work in the backpackers, I had never entered the door, or even entertained the thought of staying at one, in my life, ever! Hold that thought while I add the fact that I had absolutely not one skerrick of experience working hotel (or backpackers) reception. Hence the learning curve for my current job working reception at Pickled Frog Backpackers has been steep! But – I LOVE it.

A career change is guaranteed to challenge anyone, and this one was no exception. I stuffed up royally many times to start with, but have taken off the L plates, and now feel competent at dealing with pretty well any eventuality that confronts me over the course of a shift.

The best part of the job is the customer service. If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you’ll be aware of the fact that Rita’s focus in life is customer service. I live to provide the optimum in excellent customer service, and this job provides me with the outlet to do exactly that.

Numerous times over the course of a day, guests approach reception asking questions – about the most varied and unlikely things! The normal questions are about hiring cars and campervans, tours to go on, places I consider they should go to, trips they should take, things they should see and do, places they should eat, places where they can shop, bus timetables etc. More uncommon questions are around buying 2nd hand cars, car registration, car insurance, second hand and op shops, second hand book shops, camping shops, finding a share house and finding seasonal or casual jobs.

From the above list, you can see one needs to possess a fair amount of knowledge and information about Hobart, and Tasmania generally, in order to do a reasonable job.

In a past life, many years ago, whilst working at Centrelink, the order was that you weren’t to pre-empt any questions asked by clients or provide them with additional information – you were only to answer questions that were actually (verbally) asked. This job is the opposite of that directive (and you can see how Rita would have been a square peg in a round hole in THAT Centrelink job!) – the more info you can give the guests, the more helpful it is for them, and the more they appreciate the extra mile you go for them.

I love the diversity of the guests. I love it that they all return from a day’s sightseeing raving about Tasmania’s beauty. I love it when they can’t wait to see me when they return and tell me they did what I had suggested, and that my suggestions were brilliant!

I am learning heaps about different races of people. I am impressed at the adventurousness and enthusiasm of these (mostly) younger people. They arrive here at the Frog, and straight away are into it – trekking up Mt Wellington for the afternoon, or rushing off to hire a bike and pedal off up the East Coast, or hopping a bus and heading out to Cadburys or up to the brewery! No lazy lounging around the hotel for them, catching up on the latest in daytime TV and ordering room service!

And they LOVE chatting! They love telling you about where they’ve come from, what they’re doing, why they’re doing it, their family, their jobs, their savings. Luckily I love listening to them, so we all have a great time!

It’s not ALL beer and skittles – there are a few aspects which annoy me, but luckily they are few and far between, and generally, for both job satisfaction and enjoyment level, I truly recommend this type of job to anyone who loves to get paid for talking and enjoying themselves!

Ethics - what price?

2010-11-04T08:54:00.003+11:00

I have made no attempt to hide my preference to eat food that has been as ethically and locally produced as possible. That means, quite simply, that ideally I would like to know that my food, if it had previously been alive and of the animal, bird or fish variety, had lived as humane a life as possible in the circumstances, and been killed in the same way.

If it had been grown, I would like to think a similar amount of love, care and thought had been injected into its production, with no, or minimal amounts of, chemicals added to the equation over its lifespan.

I realize that my expectations are costly and unreal, in many instances, but that doesn’t alter the fact that this is how I feel. I also think many others feel the same way, as appears to be emerging with the popularity of Farmers Markets worldwide.

Therefore I find it interesting to ponder and observe the eating habits of the very same people who produce this ethically and organically grown and farmed produce that I buy, and encourage everyone else to buy.

Do they indeed embrace these self-same ethics I have described above? Do they put their money where their mouths are and indulge similarly? Or do they pop along to the local supermarket and buy any old dross, and eat at restaurants where they know with certainty that the produce used is frozen, not local and not ethically or organically raised?

Do you regularly see all your (expensively priced local produce) producers eating at the restaurants or cafes of more well known users of ethically produced food, such as Ut Si’s, Smolt, Garagistes, Moorilla, Pigeon Hole, Lotus Eaters, RVL, Red Feather Inn? What do the larders of local producers of exclusive products look like?

My question – do the local producers put back into the ‘foodie’ community?

The cafes and restaurants who constantly strive to maintain the ethical, sustainable and organic label buy from these local producers, but is it just a one way, or is it a two way, street?

A common ground

2010-11-02T18:35:00.005+11:00

Found this little snippet of info while surfing the net:

"A Common Ground is a collaboration between the guys from Gourmet Farmer: Matthew Evans, Nick Haddow and Ross O’Meara with the artisan growers, farmers, fishermen, winemakers, brewers and producers of Tasmania.

We want to re-connect people who love eating great food with the great people who produce it. We feel that both the producers and the diners are equal sides of the equation and we aim to honour both.

A Common Ground is kind of a restaurant, but one that roves our regions, hunting and gathering, meeting the growers and makers, learning from them about their produce and passing this on to the diners.

The calendar for A Common Ground will feature a series of long table lunches. We set up our table right in the places where the food comes from – a field of potatoes, an olive grove, a jetty, a greenhouse, a paddock.

We will cook you a slow meal that will showcase the regions produce in way that is often talked about but rarely done. You might be sitting in a field surrounded by the same carrots you are eating. At your table might be the local farmer that raised the lamb or caught the fish on your plate.

All ingredients will come from the region’s. This is real food.

To be informed about future events, please send an email to eat@acommonground.com.au"

I believe their first event is on in Stanley on 27th October 2010.

link to the website is here.

KK goes west!

2010-11-01T22:15:00.003+11:00

OMG! The world as we know it will end in a months time, in Australia! Krispy Kreme has gone into receivership. What are all us KK lovers meant to survive on, I ask, in total denial?

Where's Jan Cameron when you need her, eh?

What's under the bonnet at the garage?

2010-10-31T10:27:00.003+11:00

Thanks to my beautiful friend Colette from Ut Si Café in Perth (Tas), I eventually got to see last weekend’s review, by John Lethlean in the Weekend Australian, of Luke Burgess’ latest foray into restaurant-ing in which Luke drags Hobart, kicking and screaming, into the food world of the 21st century with his new, avant garde restaurant Garagistes.

Lethlean literally raved about the décor, the food, the staff, the wine – in fact every tiny detail – of which Luke and friends obviously have paid huge attention to.

He also, interestingly, twice referred to Hobart as being conservative, in his article. He is 100% correct. Hobart is an extremely tough gig, populated by an eclectic bunch of humans combining your traditional long term Tasmanian natives (in the more general sense of the word, rather than racially) with your more recent ‘blow-ins’. For someone trying to break into ANY sphere here (not necessarily food), it is a hard place to ‘read’.

Hobart (or Tasmania) functions on an entirely different level to that which those who arrive from different places expect, and assume. Many who arrive here having run a successful business elsewhere, then start up a similar operation here, often find, to their utter amazement (and sometimes, horror!), that it doesn’t quite run the way it previously did in Sydney, or Cairns, or London.

You simply can’t assume that the Tasmanian market is typical of all markets, because it’s not. You need to ease into the environment here. Make friends with friendly locals. Listen, observe, and take note. Be open-minded.

This, cleverly, is what Luke has done. He arrived in Tasmania a few years ago, with charismatic partner Katrina, to quietly take up the reins of the catering aspect at the Grandvewe Cheesery near Woodbridge, which only lasted around 6 months but nevertheless proved to be a great training ground. Slowly but surely the Luke and Katrina partnership sussed out the lie of the land, and probably came quite a few croppers on the way, but they got a good look at the environment here, so were well prepared for their second entry into the world of restaurants in Hobart – Garagistes.

I think the jury is still out on exactly what Hobart’s reaction to Garagistes really is. I have heard reports ranging from fabulous to OK to negative, but not having been there myself, obviously can’t add to that discussion.

I am genuinely delighted that Luke and Katrina chose to remain in Hobart and start up this venue, and pray that the populace will support and sustain them through the long, cold winter of 2011. If anyone is interested in Lethlean’s review, you can find it here. That review alone should send people scurrying to the door of Garagistes, clamouring for a seat!

(and, btw, yes, I AM aware of the double meaning of the word Garagistes!!)

Currying flavour?

2010-10-25T20:22:00.000+11:00

I was privy to an interesting conversation the other day. The topic of the conversation was the reason for the extreme hotness of Thai and Indian curries.

The claim was that the reason those countries curries are so (in many cases) unbelievably hot is because generally (when cooking in their native state) the basic ingredients used are sub-standard, and in order to disguise that fact, strong spice usage occurs.

My initial instinctive reaction was to totally refute that statement but on reflection, decided this was a feasible explanation. Thailand or India aren’t like Australia geographically: they don’t have thousands of acres of outback areas devoted to sheep and cattle production. So it seemed logical to me that in order to disguise food that was possibly past its use-by date (and therefore definitely not at its freshest), hot spices were used to mask that fact.

A quick googling of the origin of curry only provided me with the background and definition of the actual word, rather than the reason for it.

Once again – food for thought.

Second Bite's a winner, baby, that's alright!

2010-10-18T13:36:00.004+11:00

Referring back to my post of 6 September this year, I exhorted everyone to support the wonderful not-for-profit organisation Second Bite, and cast a vote for them in the 2010 Banksia Awards, and to my great delight, just received an email confirming that Second Bite was the 2010 Banksia Community Grant Winner.

At the time they were up for a few awards, unfortunately missed out on the People's Choice and Paddock to Plate awards, but I'm overjoyed they received the Community Grant award - which is $10,000.

Well done Second Bite. May you go from strength to strength!

Hobart's first Thai Festival

2010-10-17T17:31:00.003+11:00

At the Function Centre on Elizabeth St Pier today, the inaugural Thai Festival was held. It was a celebration of all things Thai, including food, singing, dancing, boxing and, of all things, a Thai fashion parade. You could get a Thai shoulder and neck massage, sample wines, play games, arrange for your Thai partner to enter the country courtesy of an immigration agent, and learn how to sculpt vegetables.

The obvious highlight for Rita, and most people present, was the food available from the various food stalls, as represented by some of our better known Thai restaurants round town like Vanidols and Infusion, Ivory and Shu Yuan.

The stalls were catering for larger numbers of people, under reasonably difficult conditions, so I think the food wasn’t as brilliant as it would have been had you eaten the identical item in the relevant restaurant, but it was fantastic to see so many people there, queuing up to sample the wares from 10 am till when we left at around 2.00.

The Thais are a gentle, courteous, friendly and happy race of people generally, and today typified all those adjectives. I loved the ‘vibe’ of the festival, and was happy to see that the mix of attendees was 50/50 (Thai/others).

They had instigated a coupon system for the purchasing of food, so that when you arrived, you paid (or surrendered your pre-paid ticket) $15, but were instantly reimbursed with $10 worth of food coupons, which was the currency to be used to purchase what you ate or drunk at the festival. If you needed more, you returned to the entrance desk and purchased more vouchers. Thus the entry fee in actuality was $5.

I searched out one of the organizers and had a quick chat with him, quizzing him on the background behind the festival. He told me they had organized it over the last three weeks only, and that depending on how successful this first one was, they intended holding the next one in December next year (2011) as the current Thai king turns 84 then, so it will be a celebration of that auspicious event. He didn’t envisage making any money out of today’s event (to get them started next year) but was happy with the way things were going.

He estimated that, at the time I spoke to him, they had had around 250 people through, but I think they had many more, as he was going on tickets/coupons sold, and I noted many stalls accepting real money in payment for food (as well as vouchers) from passers-by wandering around the dock area, and being attracted by the milling people at the end of the pier. I would also say it would have been difficult for those manning the entrance door to judge who had paid and who hadn’t, as the day developed and things got busier and busier, because you had to go outside to get food from the food stalls, then go back inside to watch the various entertainments inside, so people were continually going inside and outside.

The toilet-ing situation would need clarification for next year too, as it wasn’t immediately obvious where you could go for that particular human requirement!

But – all in all, a great day was had by all. I met many good friends there today, and look forward to next years event.

Gotta love those tip-offs!

2010-10-15T06:53:00.003+11:00

This blog, as well as being my own personal diary of my thoughts, should be a forum for suggestions and ideas themed by food and produce. So when I receive intelligent and well thought out emails from people highlighting both good and bad aspects of that related theme, I like to share them with my readers.

Hence I am sharing the email below, from an ex-co-worker of mine, who quite rightly assumed I would be interested in hearing about her recent experience of eating out. Once again, I am publishing her email verbatim:

"We were down at White Beach yesterday, scoping out shack property, and called into Lucky Ducks in Nubeena. Have you been? If not, definitely mark it as a place to visit if ever down that way.

It's run by 2 guys (Kelly & Grant). I can't remember which one is the chef, but almost everything is made on premises, and they use local wherever possible.

I had the Farmers Lunch - absolutely top-notch. Particularly the 12 hour marinated mushrooms - I actually needed a quiet moment when I was eating those, they were so good. Kids had the most petite little homemade party pies, rustic looking and gorgeous, and Ollie was a little concerned about the carrot in his (win for nutrition, haha).

We took home some pies to heat for dinner last night, and they were equally as good. Lamb Tagine, and Trevally. I loved the Trevally especially, not usually a fan of fish pies.Anyway, it was seriously so good that I had to come on here and see if you'd be down, and what you'd thought!"

I love getting others' feedback, particularly as it mostly reflects local groundswell opinion, and provides us all with ideas, and reliable information on what's happening somewhere we would otherwise not know about.

So - I urge anyone who might be travelling down the Tasman Peninsula way to pop into Lucky Ducks at Nubeena and check them out. I certainly will be getting there as soon as I can. Thanks, Al!

Eating around the world

2010-10-10T07:49:00.001+11:00

Working reception at the backpackers, as I am now, it has been intriguing to pop into the kitchen frequently and check out what guests are concocting for their meals. Given that each guest is from a totally different place in the world, and that they are restricted to, essentially, stovetop cooking (there being no oven available), it appears to be a lesson on combining your ethnicity with your ingenuity!

Last night, I watched (then sampled) as one inmate cooked up a pot of pasta, then pan-fried it in olive oil along with a block of soft cheese! An ‘interesting’ concept, and not one which would probably occur to many to whip up for their evening meal, but one which, with a tad more flavour adjustment, I would have been happy to have as my main meal for the day.

The Asians win, hands down, for the variety of meals they seem able to produce with minimal ingredients. I watched in amazement as three young people from Taiwan, with a surfeit of onions, made a deliciously-perfumed soup along with a mushroom and onion stirfry, and a vegetable and egg dish which resembled a dry curried cauliflower dish but contained no cauliflower. As I passed through the dining room, the three had just sat down and were helping themselves to a portion of each dish in the happy communal way of backpackers.

It is easy to trace the guests daily treks round the various tourist destinations when you look at what they’re eating each evening! The Bruny visitors return with a combination of oysters and cheese. The Salamanca wanderers come bearing fish, fruit and vegetables. The Airwalkers pick up bags of Huon apples, and snack on those for days to come.

But I think my prize goes to a French guest who has emerged from the kitchen a few times this week, to chat with me (en francais – just to help me brush up on my language skills! Bonjour Aurelie!), eating what I mistakenly took to be a small Maccas hamburger, but which, on questioning her about it, turned out to be a Nutella-filled two-crumpet sweet treat for breakfast! How enterprising is that?

Suwan Thai

2010-10-06T21:16:00.005+11:00

Last week at work I directed an English couple of backpacking Thai-food fans towards Suwan Thai in the Galleria at Salamanca. When they returned from dinner, they provided me with a blow-by-blow description of every morsel that entered their mouths, and how delicious the food was, and how much they owed to Rita for her recommendation!

Well - I'm happy to take that last accolade, but after that 20 minute solid rave from the pair, decided I should make it a priority to get my sorry arse down there as soon as I could - so I did tonight!

Along with BF, and accompanied by number 2 BF, we three girls chomped our way through:
Salad Puk Sod (green salad topped with hard boiled egg and peanut sauce) $9
Gaeng Keow Waan (thai green chicken curry) $14
Pad Khing Tofu (stir fried bean curd & veges with fresh ginger) $12.50
Pad Talay (stir fried mixed seafood with garlic, chilli, spring onions & basil) on sizzle platter $17
Koa Kati (coconut rice) $3
and had all plates cleaned up in around 15 minutes flat!

Our decision on every plate: FABULOUS! I could see why I had been subjected to the 20 minute lecture from the poms last week!

The restaurant was bustling, the food came out quite quickly, and the service was fine. The food was spectacular. The three of us have totally different tastes and expectations, so for the meal to have produced the level of enjoyment it did, I reckon speaks volumes for Suwan Thai's chef.

Each dish had a different flavour focus, and as bland as the salad sounded on paper, in my books it was my favourite. We each selected a main dish, and shared everything. My choice was the seafood stir fry, which I rated as my number 3 favourite, after the green chicken curry.

I recommend, if you're a Thai food freak, like me, you mosey along to Suwan Thai, eat there, then return here to Rita's and tell me what you thought.

Where's Rita?

2010-10-05T21:55:00.004+11:00

As well as starting a totally new career path recently doing reception at a backpackers, Rita has been offered the job of Food Editor at Tasmanian Life magazine – as a direct result of this blog.

This has lead to my interviewing three diverse but extremely interesting local hospitality identities last week.

The first was Matt Alcorso – Head Chef at Catch Restaurant. The second was Sean Dunn, Marketing guru for Boks Bacon, and the third was Geoff Copping – owner of Blue Skies Restaurant. I also met and had a great (albeit brief) chat with Sally Legosz, Director of Herbaceous Tours. I will write more about those chats here soon.

Added to that, I popped along to the fundraising (for the Tasmanian devil population preservation) Devil of a Dinner Divine Degustation at the Elizabeth Function Centre last night – starring Tetsuya cooking first and main courses, and featuring other of my favourite chefs: Matt Starkey (Monty’s), Iain Todd (Piccalilly) and Paul Foreman, as well as Aaron Gillespie from Launceston (ex HGC), and Will Goodman (Function Centre) - both of whom I didn't know but am sure I'd like if I ate their food!

I didn’t eat, but was there to report for Tasmanian Life on the evening – from Rita’s perspective. I’m still forming those perceptions, but gained some great side-stories. $180,000 was raised (to help the devils) from this dinner - what a massive amount - and well done to all concerned.

From the above, you will understand why it is that Rita has been so silent online recently. Hopefully that will change as I get my head around this new Food Editing direction.

Today at the backpackers, a representative from Lonely Planet came in to check us out. We had a lovely chat about food in Hobart, and after our chat I recommended he try Blue Eye for dinner tonight – my fingers are crossed that they didn’t let me down, and that he loved it!

Email from Jonathon in Massachusetts, USA

2010-09-27T15:53:00.004+10:00

I'm trusting that Jonathon (see email below) is a reasonable bloke, and will forgive my posting his email to me via the Email Rita direct facility, verbatim.

Rita,

I am new follower of your blog and have enjoyed starting to read the posts. There is quite a bit of information here -- much to sort through! I write because my wife and I are embarking on our first trip to Australia in about a month and we will be spending five nights in Tasmania. We were intrigued by its natural beauty, great parks, and food/wine possibilities.

I was wondering if you could direct me to some posts or provide some suggestions for a superior food/wine experience during our time in Tasmania.

We fly into Launceston, spend two nights at Cradle Mountain Lodge, drive to Bicheno for a night, and conclude with two nights in Hobart at the Islington Hotel. Our three main activities include hiking Cradle Mountain summit, hiking into Wineglass bay, and touring the Port Arthur historic site.

During our drives back and forth, we plan to stop at several wineries around Launceston and Hobart. We love good wine, good cheese, and good seafood -- so we are very excited about Tassie. Any thoughts, insights, or direction would be much appreciated.

Thanks so much.

Cheers, Jonathan
Hopkinton, Massachusetts, USA

My response is:

Dear Jonathon

Thank you so much for your email. Congratulations on selecting Australia as your holiday destination, and including Tasmania on the itinery.

For five days in Tassie, you have selected well in your whistle stop tour. Hopefully you will get a great taster of what life offers here in Tassie - enough maybe to return and spend longer next visit.

As you drive between each of those venues you named, you will pass many vineyards, so the wine aspect will be well covered.

Local cheeseries around Hobart (ie within easy reach of Islington) include Bruny Island Cheese (on Bruny Island, funnily enough!) and Grandvewe (past Woodbridge) - both of which I have written about in the past, and which you will easily find on this blog by entering the salient words in the Search box on the top right hand side of the home page. It will bring up all posts which mention the words you type in there.

Fabulous fresh seafood abounds - you just need to know where to find it. My recommendations for restaurants specialising in seafood are either Blue Eye (a new seafood restaurant owned by one of our better seafood chefs) in Salamanca Place, or Fish Frenzy, on Elizabeth St Pier. Many other local restaurants include beautiful fish dishes on their menus. I am happy to help you out with names if you require them - or readers may do that.......

Stanley - up in the NW of the state has, in my humble opinion, the BEST fresh seafood arriving daily on the jetty off the fishing boats, and is where renowned chef Tetsuya sources his perfect fresh fish for his award-winning Sydney restaurant - but unfortunately I don't see a window of opportunity for you to get to Stanley this visit, as it's a fairly long drive for you.

I encourage any Rita-readers to add any comments or suggestions they feel might be of use or interest to Jonathon.

Notes on an island

2010-09-25T15:20:00.000+10:00

So what exactly is it about Tasmania that draws people here? Could it perchance be the pristine (in comparison to the rest of the world) environment?

Pristine-ness in appearance; pristine in purity and quality of soil, water and air. Which leads to products grown and produced by producers who presumably care about, and are aware of, the importance of these things to their market /client group.

With something ‘foody’I buy, it always feels better if I can think of its provenance as being a paddock in Cygnet or Wilmot, rather than mass produced in a factory in China. I think many people are the same. I think many visitors to Tassie are the same. They love the fact that they can see, visibly demonstrated in front of them, the landscape, the rivers, the farms, the shops, everything. There are no hidden secrets here in Tassie. It is what it is. An island – cut off from the rest of the world physically. A lovely, round-ish, compact size and shape. Manageable (you’d think).

We, as a population of the island, have opposing views about the management of our island. In the same way that people seem to divide the island into north and south, so do they seem to be divided between logging or anti-logging in attitude.

But looking at it from the outsider’s perspective it is simple. Whilst totally empathising with the fact that, for instance, timber industry people have lives and families to look after and provide for, whether it is now or in 3 generations time, there is going to come a time (if we keep cutting down trees) when all the trees for logging run out. When, somehow, timber people will be forced to find alternative means of earning money.

And that’s why tourists see us as being, to put it bluntly, dickheads. If our pristine-ness is such a saleable commodity for visitors, and given that once the uniqueness of Tassie (which is what draws people here, or persuades people interstate or overseas to buy our products) is logged, or dug up, or sprayed, or gotten rid of in some (human) way, we can never replace what nature has so generously provided us with.

Wouldn’t it be better the address the issue of logging/spraying/killing/clearing now, rather than in 3 generations time? To acknowledge the inevitable? To act now rather than later?

I’m a ‘live and let live’ kind of person. I don’t possess extreme opinions either way. But I DO care about my state. I care about my grandchildren’s futures. I care about the kind of life they might have ahead of them as adults in a Tasmania I know with certainty I won’t recognise.

I listened to the bulk of what I have written above, today, from a guest at my work. She was sensible and logical in what she said and the way she put it. She was checking out of her accommodation having loved our city, and indeed our state. But she observed that what she, and others, had come for, could soon be erased if we’re not careful. I agree.

Penny at Grub

2010-09-19T12:32:00.002+10:00

Having had some wonderful discussions recently with friends and acquaintances about both past and current hospitality luminaries, and continuing my thoughts late into the night as I lie in bed trying to get to sleep, I decided that writing about them would be a good way to perpetuate their memory, or highlight their achievements.

Today, my first ‘target/victim’ is Penny Brewer – owner and all-round competent worker at Grub Café in New Town.

I first heard about Penny, and Grub Café, a few years ago when my daughter Bec mentioned to me that a school friend of hers had started a café in New Town and that I should go there and check it out. Naturally, being a good mother, I ignored what she said and didn’t do that, till a few years later when I eventually got around to popping in to Grub, meeting Penny, eating some food there and chatting with her. My review from then is here on this blogsite.

I was mega-impressed with Penny then. Today she has risen to the highest level of my estimations. She has to be THE most unassuming but inspired young person around the hospitality industry in Hobart.

Penny’s ideals, morals, diligence, conscience and devotion to her trade/craft make her my nomination for Young Australian of any year. She is quiet but 100% passionate about what she does, and she lives and breathes hospitality every waking moment of her life.

She borders on shy, but rapidly looses her shyness once you get her started in conversation about the 60 (this year) Ogilvie High students she is providing hands-on hospitality training for in her café, or her plans for her café.

We have all met the seasoned, experienced, gnarled, cynical old hospitality stalwart, who has ‘been there and done that’ countless times, and seen everything, and in so doing, has lost a lot of their original humanity and humour which probably made them a delight to be with, or work with, 20 years ago, but now leaves them, quite frankly, a pain in the arse today!

Penny is the antithesis of that person. She is young, vital, caring, enthusiastic, hopeful, effervescent, active. When she sees something that needs doing, or addressing, she hops in there (quietly) with no fanfare, and does it. That’s how she got started with the hospitality training relationship she has developed with Ogilvie High. She’s an ex-Ogilvie student, who was aware of the way the system worked, what its faults and foibles were, and how she could inject something into the upcoming future hospitality workers here – so started quietly and slowly delivering on-the-job, practical skills training to a few students, to the stage she’s at now: with a fully developed locally-slanted and relevant professional training program for young people with any kind of desire to enter the industry.

I think one of the reasons many of our youth are put off the industry has to do with the training they receive at the various training institutions. That’s not to say the training itself is shabby. It’s not. Those many people currently delivering the training are close friends of mine, and excellent at what they do. But I believe the actual system of how that training is delivered leaves a lot to be desired.

At Grub, Penny delivers a low impact but thoroughly professional training program which does not put overly too much pressure on the young ones to perform or die! They are instructed empathetically in a smaller, nurturing environment which is not highly technical, and highly staffed with obvious professionals – which I would imagine would scare the crap out of someone new to that environment!

Grub’s training provides a little taster for these high school students of what life could be like and what they might expect earning their living in the hospitality environment.

I ate at Grub on Friday night. Penny has a $10 roast special going there three or four nights a week. On Friday we had a choice between Roast Lamb or Pork. I chose the Lamb and found it excellent value for money, especially if you’ve looked at the price of lamb lately! We didn’t get greens with it, but, hell, for $10 we got roast lamb, potatoes, pumpkin and a copious amount of yummy gravy. What more could you ask for? I could see why you needed to book in for an evening meal there, as she was busy all through the meal period, with most customers obviously being return diners.

I think we, the older generation, leave the hospitality industry in excellent hands if people the calibre of Penny continue plying their trade here.

Tassie as a holiday destination

2010-09-17T10:34:00.002+10:00

Rita has had a change of career path and job, and is working in reception at a city backpackers. This career change is a long-held ambition which has now been realized, and which I am very much enjoying, whilst finding myself in yet another scenario which observes our hospitality industry from another totally different viewpoint.

The assorted number of interstate and overseas visitors to our fair state all arrive with a number of conceptions, and misconceptions, about Tasmania. They all share the common theme of wanting (and having paid money for) to see and experience what life here is like: what Tasmania as a state has to offer; what our landscape looks like; what we as Tasmanians are like; what our locally grown produce is all about; what our restaurants are like. Basically, it’s about looking and eating!

I have yet to meet, at my workplace in the three weeks I have been working there, someone who is departing the state disenchanted with Tassie. In fact I have met at least 6 people who have decided to relocate here, sheerly because of the beauty of the place, the friendliness of the inhabitants and the ease of getting around here.

I have had some of the most riveting conversations with guests, which have resulted in a renewed love for, and pride in, my state. Having said that, there are so many more ways we could capitalize on what we have, and ways for current business owners to value-add to their profit margin, if they just sat down and had a strategic think about their markets.

Far be it from me to tell others how to run their businesses, but I see a few gaps in service delivery which, had I the requisite money, youth and enthusiasm, I would hasten to fill.

The naturalness of the environment can only do so much of the work to attract visitors to Tassie. It’s the human capital which has to take over after nature has done its work, and that’s where we, as locals, seem to fall a bit flat.

Come on Tassie! Step up!

Trendy coffee

2010-09-12T10:06:00.003+10:00

Not being a coffee drinker (or alcohol consumer: abstaining from both due to a heart condition, with coffee, chocolate and alcohol being huge heart stimulants which Rita should stay well away from, according to my doctor), I don't follow religiously where the current 'in' place for the coffee connoisseur is, but have been reliably informed that it's currently the Italian Pantry in North Hobart.

The Cupping Room has also been mooted as THE place for Hobart's best coffee, as well as Villeno in Criterion St.

Years before owning a coffee shop in Hobart myself (many moons ago) but still not, at that time, being a coffee drinker (for the same reasons as named above) and extremely often since, I have found myself in the position of being able to observe coffee afficionados and their pronouncements about what exactly constitutes, in THEIR opinion, a good and/or the best coffee.

I have come to the conclusion that actually, once again as in the case of food, it really is a personal choice and matter of taste preference.

Practically all my closest relatives and friends are coffee drinkers - and not just ANY coffee, but they all strive to make or drink only the best coffee. They can wax lyrical for hours on the subject. I have long since learned to glaze over once the familiar listing of the prerequisites for "the perfect latte, or cappa" or whatever, commences, whilst still appearing to look enthused and interested in their pronouncements!

Truth is: whatever pleases each and every one of you! All I want from life is that everyone gains the maximum of enjoyment or satisfaction from their cuppa - whatever it is.

I have found that there is no single thread of consistency regarding exactly what constitutes a "perfect" coffee, from all those surrounding me, both personal and professional.

I don't write this easily - and expect to be taken to task bigtime by all the coffee drinkers out there in Rita-land - but, hey, I'm just reporting it as I have observed it over the last 20-30 years, without having actually been involved in it myself!

Your thoughts, coffee-freaks?

Commenting on Rita's Bite

2010-09-10T14:39:00.002+10:00

Much as I love people commenting on the posts here on Rita’s Bite, it would be great if people selected a fake, random name for themselves (like Sir Grumpy, or Cartouche), so that when they post a comment on any subject, we can instantly respond to that particular comment.

When you’ve got 20+ Anonymous comments made by many different people, as in the case of the Sweet Envy post, it’s REALLY hard to tell who said what about something.

I’m happy for you all to be Anonymous, but would prefer that if someone wants to respond to a particular comment, then they can – as they currently do with, for instance, Sir Grumpy.

Consider what the real purpose of a blog is: for me to have my say; for you to have your say; and for all of us to share opinions and views, and have general discussions about food and hospitality.

You can still maintain your anonymity, if that’s what you’d like, but try selecting the NAME/URL option, instead of the ANONYMOUS option, click on that, then use whatever name you want where it reads NAME. The URL section is optional, so you don't need to fill that out.

Second Bite vote

2010-09-06T19:56:00.001+10:00

Second Bite is an inspired, not-for-profit organization which collects surplus fresh nutritious food that would otherwise go to waste, and distributes it to agencies for people in need.

They are a finalist in the 2010 Banksia Environmental Awards in the category Agriculture and Food – From Paddock to Plate Sustainably, and are seeking votes to help them win.

The section they are finalists in is all about leadership and innovation in moving to more sustainable and productive agricultural and food manufacturing practices and also management through leadership in the production, harvesting, preparation and distribution of commodities and food.

They are also a contender for the People’s Choice Awards – and that’s where they need our help. We need to vote for them on the following site:

http://www.banksiafdn.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&catid53&id=179&Itemid=79

I have voted, and if this is something which interests or concerns you, am asking you to please act on this plea, and vote for Second Bite as well.

Sweet Envy

2010-09-02T21:15:00.007+10:00

Ate morning tea at Sweet Envy this morning......talk about Ackland Street comes to Hobart! At long last we are starting to look slightly progressive here in little old downtown North Hobart! Praise the lord for Alastair Wise and partner Tina!

Yes - the goodies on sale there are spectacular - as one would expect from a son of lovely Sally Wise, and an ex-Gordon Ramsey employee.

I think the photos speak better than I ever can.

A gem of a place

2010-08-29T19:26:00.007+10:00

At the risk of offending the sensibilities of some of my readers, I am forced to use a misquote of Usher in order to describe my experience last night at Federal’s latest property, Saffire at Coles Bay – omifuckinggod!

Rita was invited to eat at Saffire’s restaurant, Palate, so bought a small, select group of like-minded food and hospitality fans along to share in the experience of seeing around the property then dining in the restaurant.

We were requested to arrive at 5 pm sharp in order that we might witness the sunset from the restaurant. The view of the Hazards in the setting sun was indeed a sight to behold.

The ethos behind the whole property of top-of-the-range time-out, with absolutely no expense spared, ensures that anyone prepared to fork out the cheapest room price of $1250 per night (exclusive of dinner and dinner beverages) for a Deluxe Suite, or the most expensive rate of $2550 per night (inclusive of dinner and dinner beverages) for a Premium Suite is guaranteed to have THE most fabulous time ever.

(this light, above, was specifically designed to replicate the Hazards)

Generally, you just can't walk in off the street and have a meal there. You need to be staying there in order to experience the luxury of Saffire, hence it was a great honour to have been invited along there this weekend.

I’m sure you are all capable of googling the Saffire website and checking it out, so I won’t do a sell job on you, but will cut to the chase and speak about the food and service.

I left it to Exec Chef Hugh Whitehouse to select what he fed us, so he had prepared the most wonderful 6 course degustation for the 6 of us to indulge in. Four of the group had matched wines with each course, one was a beer drinker so had matched beers to accompany each course, then there was Rita who unadventurously sat on bitters, lime and lemon all night! It was priced at $135 a head for the food, with an additional $50 if you had matched wines.

The matched wine drinkers had:
2009 Milton Reisling, East Coast, Tas
2008 South Chardonnay, Tamar Valley, Tas
2007 William Fevre Petit Chablis, Chablis, France
2007 George Duboeuf Fleurie, Beaujolais, France
2008 Pizzini Sangiovese, King Valley, SA
2009 Craigow Dessert Gewurtztraminer, Coal River Valley, Tas

They absolutely couldn’t shut up about the magnificent choice of wines, with sommelier Andrew doing something no one had witnessed before – he went round each person’s glasses (one by one) for the next matched wine, placed their glass onto his tray, poured about a tablespoon of the wine they were about to drink into their glass, swizzled it around on his tray, tipped the wine back into another glass, then replaced their glass onto the table. Apparently that prepares the glass for the wine about to be poured into the glass. All present agreed you live and learn!

So:
The food……first course was, for me, head and shoulders above anything ever, in the world, ever! Yellow fin tuna, buck wheat and szechwan pepper encrusted, with sweet ginger and eschalot dressing. I wished I could die after eating that plate of food, as I was sure perfection in food could never again come anywhere near that dish. The separate flavours which assaulted your palate as you slowly ate and assimilated each mouthful was mindblowing.

Congee ‘split rice porridge’ king crab, southern rock lobster, oyster bay calamari. This dish also had samphire in it - the first time I had tasted this ingredient, despite having seen it added to countless dishes on British cooking shows! Interesting.

Hapuka, jerusalem artichoke, lemon thyme butter – my second favourite. The hapuka was wrapped in beautiful jamon iberico. The artichoke was more creamed than mashed so I suspect the Thermomix had a hand in the process, and the lemon thyme butter was perfection itself.

Rare roasted squab (baby pigeon, for the uninitiated), boudin noir (black pudding, also for the uninitiated), muscatel raisins, spiced apple. Out of all the courses this one was my least favourite. Others at the table loved it.

Clover Hill lamb, slow cooked 8 hours, winter vegetables, spatzle dumplings - a simple but tasty dish.

Blood orange crème caramel, citrus fruits, ruby grapefruit granite, marmalade ice cream – I enjoyed this one but was feeling quite stuffed by this stage, so couldn’t really do it justice.

Before the meal, after we had been given the royal tour of the property by fabulous Campbell, we had pre-dinner drinks sitting in the sumptuous lounge area, and were force-fed the most delectable canapés of chicken liver pate-filled mini profiteroles, baba ganoush tartlets and arrancini. Ah to be rich and famous!

The service at Saffire is unbelievable, and trust me, you really do need to go there to understand what I am trying ineffectually to tell you here. Shannon was our main waitperson, and did a fabulous job of anticipating all needs. Andrew the sommelier was a wizard in his wine knowledge and expertise. Hugh himself assisted in the delivery of 4 of the courses (to both our table and all others present), which was exactly what I reckon all chefs in the higher calibre restaurants should do. Naturally we plied him with many technical questions! Brady also contributed to the perfection in customer service from staff there.

Absolutely nothing has been left to chance at that place. Every little want, need and desire of all guests has been anticipated, and seen to, before you have even been aware that you wanted it, or needed it!

I find it noteworthy too, that of all the meals I have eaten this year, the two that stand out head and shoulders above all others, in various ways, are the two I have eaten in two Federal properties – the meal at Country Club a few months back, and this one last night at Saffire. Say what you want about Federal but I reckon when it comes to hiring great chefs and letting them have their wicked ways with as much locally sourced fresh food as possible, and giving them free reign with their menus, and you easily come up trumps!

Anyway – I am aware Christina is dying to read all about this weekend’s experience so I am now going to finish, and retire to bed exhausted after a hectic weekend up the east coast, hopefully to dream about meeting that rich millionaire who will sweep me off my feet and transport me to Saffire to rough it there for a few months in one of the Premium Suites!

Saffire - you have a firm fan for life in Rita! My humble thanks to everyone at Saffire, from General Manager Matt (ex Henry Jones) outwards.

Luck of the Irish

2010-08-28T11:42:00.005+10:00

Place: Irish Murphys

Food eaten: Haloumi Burger, and Pork Belly on Asian greens (entree size)

Judgement: burger - Bec loved it; pork - my pork was extremely well done, and nearly as good as one I had at Marque IV from Paul Foreman a few years back.

Irish makes no claim to being Hobart's premier fine food establishment but chef (I believe he is named Justin, ex New Sydney) does a damn fine job of catering to his clientele. For what I wanted, and what we got, and paid for it, I believe we had excellent value, and congratulate Justin.