The Queen’s Birthday public holiday saw Haz and me hitting up Hobart for a bit of long weekend fun times.
We flew into Hobart on a Saturday morning (with the husbands of course) and after leaving luggage at our hotel, proceeded to walk the entire length of the town in search of a particular cafe. All that walking, and the cafe turned out to be not so good. Thankfully Hobart is small and it doesn’t take long to walk from one end to another.
After breakfast we wandered Salamanca Market, resisting the urge to buy overpriced “vintage” cutlery and expensive wood blocks (well, I resisted anyway…).
Our first night in Hobart, we wandered around acquainting ourselves with the city. For dinner, we walked down to the waterfront and decided to eat at a seafood restaurant.
I had blue eye fillets, marinated in soy, honey, garlic, and ginger, char grilled and served with stir fried vegetables and potatoes ($31.50). It was okay – not great, not bad.
Dad had fish and chips ($29.50), and choose to have his fish grilled. It was served with chips and salad. Mum had the baked blue eye served on borlotti beans, roast zucchini, eggplant and capscium with sweet corn puree and pappa di pomadoro sauce ($33.50).
Mako Seafood Constitution Dock Hobart, Tasmania
My Dad seemed to be obsessed with fish so the following night we had fish and chips. We went down to the waterfront again, and ate at Mako Seafood, which is actually a floating two level pontoon. Along with the fried stuff, you can also purchase fresh fish.
I had a mini fish basket – for $8.50 I got a piece of fish, which was trevalla, a prawn, scallop, calamari and small chips.
Mum and Dad shared a fish feast – fish, 2 prawns, 2 calamari, scallop, chips and salad.
On Saturday, after visiting the Salamanca Markets, we stopped for lunch at Say Cheese. I felt like eating bits and pieces, so I ordered an antipasto platter ($23). It was massive! The plate was loaded with cheese, smoked turkey kransky, button mushrooms, smoked octopus, eggplant, peppers, olives, sundried tomatoes, and dolmades.
I also received a large bread roll and crackers. It could’ve easily fed two people. Look how many crackers there were!
Fortunately, Mum and Dad had smaller meals so they were able to help me out with mine! Mum had a smoked chicken salad and Dad had a smoked salmon salad.
New Sydney Hotel 87 Bathurst Street Hobart, Tasmania
Nearing the end of our trip, we had dinner at a random pub. I had a MASSIVE peppered steak pot pie ($20). This thing was seriously gigantic, and it was all big chunks of meat. It was also quite salty, and I only managed half because I got rather tired of eating nothing but meat chunks. The chips were good though.
Mum had a small seafood and tomato pasta with rocket ($13) while Dad had fish AGAIN. He had the fish of the day ($28). Mum also ordered us a caesar salad ($10) to share – and thank goodness she did! I was grateful for the lettuce to break up the tedium of my pot pie.
In November, Alastair and I also made a quick trip to Blenheim. Last time we were there, we had breakfast at Raupo. On this trip, we found ourselves at a loose end and went to Raupo again for cake and coffee. We had a chocolate torte with white chocolate mousse and raspberries ($7.50). It was a sponge like cake, so wasn’t too heavy, and it was yuuuuuuuum.
We returned again for breakfast on our last day. I wasn’t feeling particularly hungry (I’m not sure what was wrong with me – it’s very unusual!) and just had a couple of mini croissants with butter and jam (normal toast wasn’t on the menu).
Alastair had pancakes with fresh fruit and yoghurt.
That’s it for this edition! I have been a tad slack with posting recently, but I have a couple of half written posts that I will try and finish this weekend.
Mum and dad went home yesterday morning. We have been exceptionally spoilt during their stay with us so yes, I was sad to see them go, although it was for purely selfish reasons! I’ve had to start doing housework again. Sigh.
Before they left, I considered confiscating their passports, but I’m pretty sure that’s frowned upon in this country.
Still, even though they’re no longer here, we’re still reaping the benefits of their stay. The past couple of nights, dinner has been left overs that they made. Additionally, my freezers are full to bursting with food – containers of dumplings, meat, and more left overs. I will start cooking and baking again soon, but for now I’ll leave you with some of my favourite photos from Hobart.
Mum about to walk up Kelly’s Steps. These steps were built in 1839 by the adventurer James Kelly to connect Salamanca Place with Battery Point.
Taken in the Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens. The gardens were lovely. I took A LOT of flower photos.
Like this one.
We went on an “eco adventure cruise” around Tasman Island. (Yeah, I don’t know what that’s supposed to mean either.) I snapped this Australian gannet taking off after we got too close and disturbed it.
This is at the Port Arthur Historical site. Port Arthur was established as a convict settlement and soon became Australia’s largest, in operation from 1833 until 1877.
Before we get into the last fortnight, first some news about Foodbank Victoria:
Foodbank Victoria launched its Warm Up Winter campaign this month, aiming to raise $100,000 for the 500,000 Victorians struggling to meet the cost of living.
Foodbank Victoria is the state’s oldest and largest food relief organisation that delivers nutritious, healthy food to people experiencing hardship. They estimate that 1,725,000 meals will be required to feed Victorians doing it tough this winter.
Did you know?
526,700 Victorians are living below the poverty line
Approximately 90,000 of these people are children
11.4% of people in Melbourne live below the poverty line
12.9% of regional Victorians live below the poverty line
29% of households in poverty had a wage earner as the main income
25% of sole parent households are in poverty
To help raise awareness of how urgently food is needed, Foodbank Victoria has partnered with JMC Academy to create a series of short films to launch the annual fundraising campaign, which can be viewed on YouTube. The films illustrate the individual stories of Victorian’s living in crisis who rely on food relief for a regular meal, including single mothers, pensioners and individuals, who after paying the bills, may have less than $20 a week to feed themselves. The films also demonstrate how much work is involved to get food onto the plate, to highlight the growing need for financial assistance to continue to provide fresh produce to food agencies.
I got back today from a long weekend in Hobart with my parents. The previous weekend Alastair and I spent an unplanned long weekend in Blenheim, NZ.
It’s nice to go away, but it’s also nice to be home. I cooked tonight! There were vegetables! Weeee!
I can’t say that any amazing food has been eaten while away, but perhaps I’ll make you scroll through my photos of Port Arthur, Salamanca Markets and flowers from the Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens. Sure, it’s not food related, but what kind of food blogger would I be if I wasn’t self indulgent?
