Foodtourist Tasmania

A little bit of the moon from Pupillin in Hobart this Sunday. If you have a ticket to @bottletops_21 drop by and try a taste from these two magic magnums made by Renaud Bruyère and Adeline Houillon (oh and say hello to us too)! Impossibility rare, especially in magnums, it will be a pleasure to share them a little more widely than usual. We’re there for a good time not a long time - possibly only the first hour or until these disappear. That’s about as long as our aged feet will last. (And there’s nothing for sale - this is just for the pleasure of tasting.)

What a joy to finally, after more than 2 years, very briefly visit Melbourne and to eat and drink at @publicwineshop. The best of teams (hopefully we tagged everyone) helm this glorious venue, so reminiscent of the wine bars we love in France that we felt we were walking into somewhere very familiar - or maybe it was @sarahrayfitzsimmons’s surprised smile! An added bonus was @campbellburtonwines generous sharing tastes of some newly-released wines from Cyril Alonso he had had open for trade customers that day. Three tienturier gamays in one cuvée and 31 varieties in another. The world can be grateful for the work Alonso is doing to save so many rare varieties. The wines are alive!

A trip to Launceston: 1-2. The new Elizabeth St @breadandbuttertasmania (including excellent sandwiches) 3. Pasta at @havilahwine (always delicious but an essential address on Sundays) 4-5. @fryed_fishandchips , @kyeemaseafoodstasmania’s new fish and chips shop (because a good fish and chip shop, where the provenance of the fish is known, always comes in handy) 6. Dumplings at @pachinko_eats, particularly full of soul on this trip. 7. Coffee and pastries at @princessquarebar (photo is missing the most immaculate napkins in town). 8. Cataract Gorge walking track (proof we aren’t always eating or sitting in front of a laptop) 9. The chocolate ice cream at @thedevilsownicecreamery (because anyone who makes their ice cream with @elgaarfarm milk and cream should be encouraged)

Feeling thoroughly spoilt to have this special delivery of various types of raddichio from @feldsfarm. It came (thanks @joycejohnston2013) just as we just ate the last of another collection from about 3 weeks ago. It’s extraordinary how long they last, especially the dark red ones. If you live in Launceston you can buy direct from them at @harvest_launceston on Saturday mornings. If you don’t live in Launceston these are worth driving for, especially considering their longevity. They are one of the most winter-brightening things we know to eat. So many wonderful vegetables, not part of Tasmania’s rather basic eating traditions (yes we love carrots, potatoes, onions, broad beans etc too but …) which seem to flourish here, including these. It’s a big opportunity. Much of the focus in Tasmania’s agricultural policy is about exporting the things we’ve always grown. Just a small pivot to support / encourage people growing produce that’s currently mostly acquired from elsewhere is surely as worthy a thing to encourage. These types of bitter greens are available in Tasmania but mostly they have come on a boat from interstate. Encouraging the replacement of those imports is surely as worthy as encouraging exports and has the added advantage that if the boats can’t operate for any period (as has happened) the fresh vegetable aisles in the supermarkets wouldn’t be quite as empty. Oh … and if there is any opportunity to support a bigger local globe artichoke crop / season that would be a bonus too!

The view across the bar at @pachinko_eats last week. Lots of our wines at the moment but even if there weren’t it’s the sort of collection that reminds us we are part of a community - wines and sake from importers who are friends, from vignerons we’ve hosted (imported by a friend not us) and of course we see the faces of the people we work with when we see the bottles that have come from us. We’re sure this is one of the reasons why so many people love these wines. Drinking a glass is a direct link to a person not a brand. We’ve missed direct contact with so many people in the last 2 years but the connections remain strong.

Notice the subtle change of name in @twometretall’s signature early-release beer. This is NOT a marketing decision. It is a very firm statement making a stake in the ground to mark the fact that this farmhouse beer (made on a farm so they can use that descriptor with some pride) is now made entirely without the need to add any yeast. All the yeasts that do the work, including finishing the fermentation in the bottle, are living on the farm. This is no mean feat for a young beer. All we can suggest you do is get to the Derwent Valley (their rustic farm bar is open regularly (currently Fridays and Saturdays) and ask Ashley to explain how it is made and why he feels this is such an important milestone. And taste it too - complex and refreshing at the same time. Here he is in full flight … while @jane_huntington keeps everything calm and flowing! At the moment you can only taste the new beer at the bar but it will be released to a wider audience later this year. Always such a pleasure to visit and enjoy their hospitality. Not your average brewery visit!

One of Hobart’s best kept secrets is @pigeonwholebakers Bake At Home boxes of frozen pain au chocolats or croissants. They are especially good if you’re about to travel into the country and stay off grid or in a region missing any patisseries. A tiny freezer in the corner of the shop is a last minute reminder to ask but it’s wiser to order online in advance and nominate a pickup day. This first photo is the pain au chocolat cooked at home, following all the instructions, which involve baking paper and a glaze of egg + milk or cream). The second photo is of the croissants, serendipitously purchased on the way to the country (never travel anywhere in Tasmania without a cooler box (aka an esky in Australia) loaded with ice bricks - you never know when you might need it) and prepared and cooked following only the most basic bits of the instructions (no baking paper, no glaze) but still delicious. We can’t emphasise too much the benefits of travelling with a small cooler box. If you’re a tourist planning to drive around the state it’s a worthwhile investment - and maybe you can make a local happy by donating it to them at the end of your trip. It’s something we do when we travel by car in France. They make serendipitous things like frozen @pigeonwholebakers pastries possible in the most unlikely of places!

Feeling the need to write about this dish. Blue-eye trevalla, rice, broth, silverbeet with some structure and plenty of flavour, and XO sauce. @thewaterloo_inn’s chef @oldmatebenji is happy to acknowledge he found some inspiration at @hamlet_hobart and we recognise an antecedent. At Hamlet the food is nourishing and so is this dish, so much so we ate it two nights in a row. It was surprisingly emotional to eat something so satisfying and nourishing well beyond our few few mainly city haunts. Since 1987 we have been documenting our eating around Tasmania and can count on one hand the restaurants beyond Hobart where we have eaten something as uplifting as this. The reality of eating in country Tasmania, with a few rare but notable exceptions, rarely reaches the same heights as the marketing of it does. It’s hard getting and keeping people who can cook well and care and who are willing to engage in the time-consuming and challenging battle to get the produce that allows what might have been ordinary to become extraordinary. It’s hard anywhere but even harder in a country town. We generally return from a few days of eating in the country, after having followed our own advice to stick with the often decent piece of steak and sometimes excellent fish and chips, craving for a dish as pure and deceptively simple as this to help our bodies recover. It was a very satisfying moment to find it here beside the water in a small coastal town. This is not fine dining. It’s much better than that because it is a dish we could happily eat every day and after each time, having enjoyed its deliciousness, feel better for it. This small team is working its collective butt off. Smother them with love Swansea - your town is lucky to have them.

Our regular ritual weekend visit to the @agrariankitcheneatery to buy bread and butter took an unexpected excellent turn today when Rodney Dunn appeared and offered us a tour of their new food garden. It’s a completely inspiring project in every way. Enclosed inside what was the high-walled prison section of the Willow Court Asylum, in less than a year they have already made so much progress. And it’s just the beginning. Later this year the Agrarian Kitchen Cooking School will reopen on this same site alongside the restaurant and kiosk. It is a nationally significant project and this glorious garden will be its beating heart. And we added a photo of the bread and butter that cause us to be here each week, something we do with a touch of self-doubt. Encouraging more people to buy it may not be in our best interests.😊