Taste of the Huon, 2011

I love the Taste of the Huon - it's a lovely day out when the weather's nice - which it definitely was this year! As a result, thousands of people flocked down to Ranelagh and the lunchtime queues were huge. As a result, I mostly went to stalls that had shorter queues; this had a bit of a hit-and-miss outcome.

I tried a smoked salmon rosti from the Rosti Chalet - despite these guys appearing at pretty much every festival, I haven't tried a rosti from them for years. It was tasty.



I also tried a Bes Mudi seafood salad, which I didn't really enjoy. I was hoping for a lively, fresh salad but it didn't happen.



The Tasmanian Chilli Beer Co.'s raspberry with chilli sparking was fantastic - I went back for more later but they were all sold out.



Dessert was a berry crepe from Strawberry Avenue. After a long wait to get to the front of the line it hit the spot nicely.



A friend had their pavlova. It looked pretty great but the meringue was kind of overcooked.

Strathlynn, Rosevears.

Last month saw us at Strathlynn, a beautiful restaurant just north of Launceston that is part of Piper's Brook Vineyard. The setting is amazing, surrounded by grape plantations and overlooking the Tamar River, and the restaurant space itself is beautiful. It's a good choice for a special occasion.

We started by sharing one of the daily specials - I can't quite remember the finer details, but it included ling, trout and pickled vegetables. The combination of all three parts was brilliant.



I had the twice-cooked pork belly with almond couscous and pecorino ($25). The pork belly was perfect, but I struggled to eat this dish as the sauce was way too tangy.



J had the pan-fried Nichols chicken with red onion, beetroot and parmesan ($35). He scoffed this down in no time, so it must have been good!



My dad had the Springfield venison with carrots, feta and onion jam ($35), and couldn't stop raving about how good the sauce was.



Mum had the Spring Bay scallops with beetroot butter and hazelnut gratin ($25). They looked pretty, but didn't seem to be very good value - there were only four small scallops (it was a dish from the entrée menu - but so was my pork belly).



The organic salad ($8.50) was great, pepped up by the inclusion of pickles.



The herb potatoes ($8.50) were fantastic, perfectly cooked and drenched in oil, sage and other herbs.



We then moved on to dessert, having seen how good they looked when they were delivered to surrounding tables. I had the vanilla bean panna cotta ($15). Everything about this was superb, especially the perfect blueberries which were coated in an orange syrup.



Others had the lavender and rosewater semi-freddo ($15). I was a bit unsure about this when I read it on the menu, as flower-infused food can sometimes be a bit too ...floral, but this was really quite nice.



Finally, the amazing view from the front of the restaurant.

Ingleside Bakery, Evandale

Ingleside Bakery is one of several cafe options in the pretty town of Evandale. We decided to sit outside at Ingleside Bakery as it was a beautiful day.



J had the baked potato with cheese, bacon and sour cream. The bacon was great - fantastically crispy. The potato was sublime, it tasted like there would have been as much butter as potato inside the jacket.



I had the salmon, asparagus and brie melt. It had a very generous amount of salmon and cheese, and was really tasty.



The bill came to about $44 including two hot chocolates - good value.

House of Anvers Cafe and Coffee Shop

Another post from my north-west road trip with my mum. We stopped at the House of Anvers Cafe and Coffee Shop for a late-afternoon snack.

The service was a comedy of errors, though!

• After being asked what we wanted to order a couple of minutes after sitting down, we requested an extra minute. After no-one came to take our order in the next 10 minutes, we had to go and ask for service.
• Our food came out very quickly but we weren't given any cutlery or napkins. Again after trying to catch someone's eye for 5 minutes, I went and asked. We were then given one napkin and one set of cutlery to share between the two of us.
• One of our dishes was supposed to come with baguettes, but this was forgotten, and I had to go and ask... again.
• The hot chocolate finally came out once we'd finished eating, and was a large size instead of the smaller size ordered (not such a bad thing!).

We weren't too worried though, just quietly amused by the situation. Our waitress was young, and the other waitress (and manager?) on duty seemed to be much more competent.


Duck and Pistachio Terrine: A delicious pressed terrine of duck meat and lean pork with pistachios and orange liquor complimented with cherry chutney and served with freshly baked mini baguettes ($10.50). This was ok, but not as good as I was hoping. The meat was quite processed and tasted more like pork than duck, so it kind of reminded me of luncheon meat. The chutney was delicious.



The baguette...



Cranberry and Turkey Cafe Sandwich: Turkey breast slices with cranberry sauce, camembert cheese, tomato and sliced red onion on white sliced pipe loaf ($10). This was delicious.



Cinnamon hot chocolate:




Website

Christmas Hills Raspberry Farm Cafe

My mum and I went on a little road trip along the north-west coast last weekend. One of the places that we stopped at was the Christmas Hills Raspberry Farm Cafe. This place is very popular and it's easy to see why! Fantastic food that's great value, with raspberries being used in many creative ways. Service was very efficient.

Salmon Roulade: Tasmanian smoked salmon with cream cheese and herb filling in a sponge roulade served with salad and raspberry mayonnaise ($14). The roulade was just fantastic.



Lemon Curd Tartlets: Two lovely tangy lemon curd tartlets served with raspberry sauce and Meander Valley double cream ($6.70). I love lemon curd and these were wonderfully tart and sweet.



Raspberry latte ($3.80). Mum thoroughly enjoyed this!



We also purchased some of the chocolate covered raspberries to take home - they are quite expensive but absolutely worth it.

There's so much more on the menu that I want to try, so I will definitely be stopping in next time I'm in the area. Check out the menu here.

Recent eats: Aroma's Fine Food and News (Launceston) and Little Italy (Hobart)

A couple of eats that actually aren't all that recent, oopsie

Aroma's Fine Food & News is in Charles St, Launceston, very close to the hospital and apparently rather popular. I had breakfast there a while ago, and I don't remember prices or exact names of the dishes, sorry! After a bit of confusion before we realised you were supposed to order at the counter, we ended up with some tasty food.

Scrambled eggs with haloumi and mushrooms on sourdough:



Rosti with smoked salmon and sour cream:




Little Italy is in Collins St in Hobart city. It's an old favourite for decent bain-marie pasta. The lunchtime pizza/pasta deal ($12 or $13) is great for sharing between two; pictured below is the huge serving with a little of each of the three flavours on offer that day.

Cataract Bistro, Launceston

The Cataract Bistro is in Launceston, at 133 Paterson Street. It's a new-ish building next to the Pinot Shop and attached to the T.R.C. Hotel. We were planning on heading to the T.R.C. but they had a very small menu and it was basically just a gaming venue that also sells bar food, so we decided to try the Cataract Bistro instead.

We started by sharing chargrilled olive bread with a roasted capsicum and basil dip ($7) which was very tasty, and my mum had the soup of the day, which was onion and potato soup with gruyere crouton and thyme oil ($8).

For mains we had:

Char-grilled chicken stack with sweet potato rosti, confit mushroom and creamy basil pesto sauce ($17).



Atlantic salmon tornadoes wrapped in leek and baked, served on a bed of
spinach cream with scallop ravioli ($29).



Deep Sea trevalla, pan fried with pickled ginger, lime and parsley, served on a bed of creamy mash with asparagus spears ($32)



Beer-battered flathead fillets served with chips, tossed green salad and a tartare-style mayonnaise ($29). This was my selection - I was feeling a bit under the weather with a cold and so this sort of comfort food was looking appealing. Despite being a huge serving, the fish was unfortunately not all that good - it was really, really greasy - I don't think it had been fried correctly. The chips were fine and the salad was fantastic - much more interesting than the normal sort of salad you get with this dish, with apples, beans, spring onion and other things tucked away between the leaves.



The Bistro isn't cheap, but you do get quality food for the price. The atmosphere of the restaurant is really nice, and service was excellent.

Mt Elephant Pancakes, St Mary's

Mt Elephant Pancakes is in between Bicheno and St. Mary's on Tasmania's east coast.

Coke spider - one of my weaknesses. It came with the remainder of the can for topping up.



Spiked coffees served in a cute cup



Chicken, Camembert and blueberry savoury pancake ($18.90). Fantastic! A great flavour combination seasoned well with black pepper to give it a nice kick.



Up close and personal. They are very generous with the blueberries!



Chilli con carne ($17.90). This was enjoyed by a couple of my lunchmates, though all ordered a medium spiciness but barely noticed any chilli-ness at all.



And the amusing sign in the carpark:

Beachfront Resort, Bicheno

Still in Bicheno, we went to the pub at the Beachfront Resort. I forgot to note down prices, sorry, but they are quite good value.

Some meals come with a chips and salad bar option. On this evening the salad bar offered coleslaw, a garden salad, potato salad, pasta salad, beetroot and a rather unusual green bean, carrot and coconut salad. Here's my selection:



Flathead fillets:



Beef schnitzel: apparently a bit dry around the edges, but the chips are fantastic.



Steak:



Caesar salad:



Chicken parmigiana:



Curried scallops:



Chicken schnitzel with green peppercorn sauce:

Sealife Center, Bicheno

I've been going to Bicheno since I was a child, and I love the town. It's just the right size with everything you need.

It used to have the best fish and chips I have ever had, at the caravan park takeaway store, but they changed from thick cut chips to thinner ones the summer before last. They're still great chips, but just not quite as good.

We stopped at the Sealife Center for lunch on Monday.

Rhu Bru ($4.50). I love this drink and order it wherever I manage to find it (which isn't as often as I'd like!)



Seafood chowder, garnished with smoked salmon ($14.50). A nice soup, with salmon, dill, potatoes and leek in the mix. The roll was nothing special but I appreciated that it had been warmed. I would have liked some butter, though.



Garlic prawns ($24.50). These looked and smelled great!



Rock lobster ($80/kg, this one was $48) to takeaway. A nice looking cray. They are sold raw or cooked, and they offered to cut and clean it for us.



Spread with garlic butter before being warmed on the barbecue. Luxury camping food!