Despite that, I still ordered a breakfast-y dish! I had an omelette that came with sourdough and relish, and was incredibly filling.
My friend had the calamari salad, which looked wonderfully fresh.
Monday, July 11, 2011
Raincheck Lounge, North Hobart
A recent brunch at Raincheck Lounge. I've had breakfast there quite a lot, but haven't really tried many of their non-breakfast items.
Despite that, I still ordered a breakfast-y dish! I had an omelette that came with sourdough and relish, and was incredibly filling.
My friend had the calamari salad, which looked wonderfully fresh.
Despite that, I still ordered a breakfast-y dish! I had an omelette that came with sourdough and relish, and was incredibly filling.
My friend had the calamari salad, which looked wonderfully fresh.
Monday, July 4, 2011
Heart Foundation Gala Ball
J and I were lucky enough to score tickets ($200/head!) through his work for the Heart Foundation's annual gala ball at Wrest Point Casino in the last weekend on June. The theme of the night was 'Dreaming under the Southern Stars' so everything had a very Aussie feel to it, from the food to the decorations to the entertainment (James Blundell!). We dressed up in our finest clothes, and had a great time!
Before we were seated, canapés were served, though we didn't get to try any. The menu listed chermoula-spiced prawn skewers with soy dipping sauce, tempura vegetables with mint yoghurt, and sweet potato tartlets with wilted spinach and pecans.
The appetiser was a "Bushman's Platter", consisting of cured wallaby with Tasmanian berry chutney, gumleaf smoked atlantic salmon tartare, and sweet potato panna cotta with micro herb salad. The wallaby (hiding at the back-right of the pic below) was fantastic, a lovely flavour with a nicely chewy texture. The sweet potato panna cotta was a bit strange at first, but I ended up enjoying it.
Our entrée was consommé of roasted tomatoes with smoked chicken, fresh basil and savoury snow eggs. The soup itself was nice but the snow egg was very strange indeed! Reading the menu I'd had visions of a fantastical Peter Gilmore-style snow egg, but it was basically just a sweet, soft meringue. On its own it was far too sweet but I found that having a tiny bit in a spoonful of soup was not so bad tasting... but still odd!
We were also served a damper-like bread with butter.
Main courses were alternate service. I had the seared lemon myrtle ocean trout with pickled cucumber, steamed wild rice, light tomato and curry leaf sauce. The trout was sublime - I was impressed at how perfectly it was cooked considering how many people they were catering for. The other elements of the dish were fine.
J had the plum glazed pork ribs with herb crushed potato, red cabbage and port jus.
The table set up was quite nice.
Dessert was also alternate service. J had the wild rosella flower and coconut cream mousse, with wattle seed shortbread and orange pepper berry sauce.
I had a very lovely chocolate and wattle seed pudding with vanilla ice cream and rosella compote. A delicious end to the night!
After dessert we were offered tea and coffee, which came with casino-branded plain chocolates that were quite awful - they tasted like compound chocolate.
During the dinner we thoroughly enjoyed the wines from northern Tassie's Holm Oak Vineyard. I tried the sparkling rose, 2009 riesling, 2010 sauvignon blanc, 2009 pinot noir and the 2010 botrytis riesling, all of which were very drinkable indeed! I'll be looking out for their wines in future.
Before we were seated, canapés were served, though we didn't get to try any. The menu listed chermoula-spiced prawn skewers with soy dipping sauce, tempura vegetables with mint yoghurt, and sweet potato tartlets with wilted spinach and pecans.
The appetiser was a "Bushman's Platter", consisting of cured wallaby with Tasmanian berry chutney, gumleaf smoked atlantic salmon tartare, and sweet potato panna cotta with micro herb salad. The wallaby (hiding at the back-right of the pic below) was fantastic, a lovely flavour with a nicely chewy texture. The sweet potato panna cotta was a bit strange at first, but I ended up enjoying it.
Our entrée was consommé of roasted tomatoes with smoked chicken, fresh basil and savoury snow eggs. The soup itself was nice but the snow egg was very strange indeed! Reading the menu I'd had visions of a fantastical Peter Gilmore-style snow egg, but it was basically just a sweet, soft meringue. On its own it was far too sweet but I found that having a tiny bit in a spoonful of soup was not so bad tasting... but still odd!
We were also served a damper-like bread with butter.
Main courses were alternate service. I had the seared lemon myrtle ocean trout with pickled cucumber, steamed wild rice, light tomato and curry leaf sauce. The trout was sublime - I was impressed at how perfectly it was cooked considering how many people they were catering for. The other elements of the dish were fine.
J had the plum glazed pork ribs with herb crushed potato, red cabbage and port jus.
The table set up was quite nice.
Dessert was also alternate service. J had the wild rosella flower and coconut cream mousse, with wattle seed shortbread and orange pepper berry sauce.
I had a very lovely chocolate and wattle seed pudding with vanilla ice cream and rosella compote. A delicious end to the night!
After dessert we were offered tea and coffee, which came with casino-branded plain chocolates that were quite awful - they tasted like compound chocolate.
During the dinner we thoroughly enjoyed the wines from northern Tassie's Holm Oak Vineyard. I tried the sparkling rose, 2009 riesling, 2010 sauvignon blanc, 2009 pinot noir and the 2010 botrytis riesling, all of which were very drinkable indeed! I'll be looking out for their wines in future.
Monday, June 27, 2011
MONA Museum Cafe
J and I recently checked out the Museum of Old and New Art - a pretty incredible place. While we were there we had lunch at the museum cafe. It was busy the whole time we were there - they must have a pretty high turnover!
,
I had the pie, which was tasty with lovely pastry (a pie isn't good without nice pastry!)
J had the eggs benedict muffin. The sauce looked a bit strange (not quite as strange as the photo makes it look) but it all tasted good.
He was feeling hungry so also enjoyed a chicken wrap.
Next time I'm there I'd like to check out the Wine Bar - the menu looked really interesting. And I'd also love to go to the Source restaurant sometime, perhaps for a special occasion.
,
I had the pie, which was tasty with lovely pastry (a pie isn't good without nice pastry!)
J had the eggs benedict muffin. The sauce looked a bit strange (not quite as strange as the photo makes it look) but it all tasted good.
He was feeling hungry so also enjoyed a chicken wrap.
Next time I'm there I'd like to check out the Wine Bar - the menu looked really interesting. And I'd also love to go to the Source restaurant sometime, perhaps for a special occasion.
Monday, June 20, 2011
Fish Frenzy, Elizabeth Street Pier
A recent Saturday lunch. I had the prawns with Caesar salad... I made a bad menu choice. The salad was drowning in dressing and the prawns were what you'd expect from a corner fish and chippery.
Seafood chowder - this was J's much better menu choice. Thick and hearty and perfect for a cold day.
Seafood chowder - this was J's much better menu choice. Thick and hearty and perfect for a cold day.
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
Scary food
This is the 'Saffron rice' that we received from an unnamed Indian restaurant in Launceston recently. I haven't altered the colours in the picture at all!
The curries that we got with the rice didn't fare much better in terms of authenticity...
The curries that we got with the rice didn't fare much better in terms of authenticity...
Sunday, June 5, 2011
Maldini, Salamanca
J and I enjoyed at Saturday lunch at Maldini. I've been there for breakfast a couple of times and really like it, and have meaning to try their non-breakfast food for ages... finally got around to it! They have heaps of amazing sounding things on the menu which you can see online - I particularly wanted to try the pork loin dish but it seemed a bit much for a lunch time.
I ended up going for a dish from the Specials menu, which was a creamy salmon and asparagus fettuccine. It was delicious but deceptively rich - I couldn't finish it all, and went home and lay about in a food coma for the afternoon!
J had a beautiful dish of crispy skinned Atlantic salmon on smashed créme fraîche pinkeyes with a tomato, green olive & lemon salsa. Everything about this was perfect.
I ended up going for a dish from the Specials menu, which was a creamy salmon and asparagus fettuccine. It was delicious but deceptively rich - I couldn't finish it all, and went home and lay about in a food coma for the afternoon!
J had a beautiful dish of crispy skinned Atlantic salmon on smashed créme fraîche pinkeyes with a tomato, green olive & lemon salsa. Everything about this was perfect.
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Cider tasting night at the New Sydney Hotel
Last Wednesday the New Sydney Hotel held a cider tasting night. Ticket cost was $40 and that covered ciders and food. It was brilliant - some interesting and uncommon ciders matched with some fabulous food. They were very generous with the cider too - it just kept on coming!
We started off with a glass of Napoleon Perry - I've had their apple cider before but not the pear, and it was really nice. This was matched with 'Two flavours of cider: tea of cider hot and cold', which you can see in the smaller, right-hand glass in the picture below. It was made up of two layers of a cider jelly - the top 'hot' layer had chilli, ginger and juniper berries, and the bottom cold layer had lemongrass and something that I have forgotten - perhaps elderflower? It was really interesting to drink - I noticed a few people around us didn't finish theirs but I loved it. The chef told us what the jelly was made with - not gelatine or agar agar, but another combination of fancy ingredients/chemicals that escapes me...
Most of the food involved heading up to the chef's table at the front to grab a plate - this is the preparation of the next course:
...which was rolled chicken, silverbeet, purple potato, chicken glaze. Very tasty and it matched nicely with the True South Miss Muffet apple cider. This cider was new to me and my favourite from the night. I'm happy to see that the New Sydney now has this on tap.
Next up was apple and mustard cured salmon with lemon myrtle cream and an apple wafer. The salmon was melt-in-your-mouth delicious.
It was matched with the Green Goblin cider - the match was really good, although it's not a favourite cider of mine.
Next we had 'crisp pork fingers with apple' which were presented like pork lollipops. Another excellent match here, paired with Aspall cider from the UK.
Elderflower sorbet with crisp chilli, served with Inn Cider. The sorbet was nicely refreshing and I've been a fan of Inn Cider for a while, but it was probably the least successful pairing of the night.
With many drinks comes fuzzy photos taken after food has been nibbled on... these cheeses were served with crackers, bread and two jellies including a very nice raspberry jelly. Loved the soft cheese. It was served with Kelly Brothers cider.
We finished up with crispy, sweet beetroot biscuits served with a hot apple cider topped with foam. The menu had 'cider macaroon' as the final course, and I was a bit sad not to get this - perhaps something went wrong...
Our pile of drinks by the end of the night!
During the tasting we had talks from a new cider producer, a cider judge and one of the New Sydney's chefs, both very informative and it was clear that lots of people there were very interested in what they had to say.
It was a great night with HEAPS of cider and tasty food. I hope they do another one soon! (this was the first cider tasting night but they've held beer and whiskey tastings before).
A few cider drinkers read this blog - what's your favourite? :)
We started off with a glass of Napoleon Perry - I've had their apple cider before but not the pear, and it was really nice. This was matched with 'Two flavours of cider: tea of cider hot and cold', which you can see in the smaller, right-hand glass in the picture below. It was made up of two layers of a cider jelly - the top 'hot' layer had chilli, ginger and juniper berries, and the bottom cold layer had lemongrass and something that I have forgotten - perhaps elderflower? It was really interesting to drink - I noticed a few people around us didn't finish theirs but I loved it. The chef told us what the jelly was made with - not gelatine or agar agar, but another combination of fancy ingredients/chemicals that escapes me...
Most of the food involved heading up to the chef's table at the front to grab a plate - this is the preparation of the next course:
...which was rolled chicken, silverbeet, purple potato, chicken glaze. Very tasty and it matched nicely with the True South Miss Muffet apple cider. This cider was new to me and my favourite from the night. I'm happy to see that the New Sydney now has this on tap.
Next up was apple and mustard cured salmon with lemon myrtle cream and an apple wafer. The salmon was melt-in-your-mouth delicious.
It was matched with the Green Goblin cider - the match was really good, although it's not a favourite cider of mine.
Next we had 'crisp pork fingers with apple' which were presented like pork lollipops. Another excellent match here, paired with Aspall cider from the UK.
Elderflower sorbet with crisp chilli, served with Inn Cider. The sorbet was nicely refreshing and I've been a fan of Inn Cider for a while, but it was probably the least successful pairing of the night.
With many drinks comes fuzzy photos taken after food has been nibbled on... these cheeses were served with crackers, bread and two jellies including a very nice raspberry jelly. Loved the soft cheese. It was served with Kelly Brothers cider.
We finished up with crispy, sweet beetroot biscuits served with a hot apple cider topped with foam. The menu had 'cider macaroon' as the final course, and I was a bit sad not to get this - perhaps something went wrong...
Our pile of drinks by the end of the night!
During the tasting we had talks from a new cider producer, a cider judge and one of the New Sydney's chefs, both very informative and it was clear that lots of people there were very interested in what they had to say.
It was a great night with HEAPS of cider and tasty food. I hope they do another one soon! (this was the first cider tasting night but they've held beer and whiskey tastings before).
A few cider drinkers read this blog - what's your favourite? :)
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