G’day Tony,

I’m back!

Ducked away to Port Lincoln in South Australia for a few days for Sascha’s birthday. I opted to not go swimming with the great whites. Just a little too much for me.

Back to our Hobart trip. After the day at MONA, we got back to eating!

Dinner was at Franklin (franklinhobart.com.au). No, a different place from the previous night. Wood fired oven, open kitchen, quirky wine list (too quirky for my mind). Food was great, highlight being the octopus. Very funky place though. Very Frank Lloyd Wright feel to the building.

Mixed it up the next day for brekkie and went to a laundromat. Machine Coin Laundry is in Salamanca, but tucked out of the way. Clearly a haunt for locals though. A warning, their coffee wasn’t really crash hot. But you can get a maxi latte which has to be at least 500mls. But, bigger doesn’t make it better. The food was nice though. A few small change ups to standard fare gave it a fresh slant and it was well put together. You can do your clothes while you wait. Handy.

A stroll through the somewhat disturbing Salamanca market followed. I can see how it was once a nice market. Now it is full of nasty, albeit Tasmanian made, touristy trinkets. Julia did pick up a really cool cycling/travel/clothes bag from a local developer who I think will make it big one day. Very clever design (henty.cc).

Just because we needed the walk, we headed up to Battery Point and found an awesome bakery, Jackman & McRoss. The place is evil good. Go hungry and make sure your insulin levels are up. I thought for a few minutes I was going to have to call for an ambulance for Julia.

Ok, wine. It’s Tassie and they do some absolutely cracking good cool growth stuff. Pinot Noir and Grigio, Rieslings, Chardonnay and bubbles. Oh my, the bubbles. If you find yourself staring at a glass from the House of Arras, don’t offer to share it!

So we headed out in the piece of crap to Coal River Valley. If it wasn’t for the football (apparently), we would have been in Richmond in about 20 mins. Even in the rental. 10 mins in a capable car. I’ve got a thing for Pinot Noir from Tolpuddle, but they don’t have a cellar door, so we stopped in at Frogmore Creek. Settled down with a glass of their passable pinot and a cheese platter. What’s not to like?

We headed back for a nap and then a pre-dinner cocktail at The Long Bar in Constitution Dock, which isn’t very long. But it part of the Henry Art Hotel so is supposed to be the place. *yawn*

Dinner was at Ethos (ethoseatdrink.com). No menu, degustation only and matching wines. Chef sources local produce from less than 100kms away daily, then designs the menu. Every day is a different experience. The super young, but thoroughly capable sommelier matched the wines, again all local, brilliantly. This was an outstanding experience, but at circa $200/per, I guess you’d want it to be. We were pretty much last sitting, so had a good chat with the staff, including the young chef at the end of the evening. We are fans.

Despite my misgivings about the coffee, we were back at the laundromat the next morning before the tediously drive to Port Arthur. Only made tedious by my change from gentle coaxing to yelling at the rental. Nothing helped. The drive is otherwise quite pleasant.

Port Arthur was very cool though. We’ll go back there to see more of it.

We stopped at a bottle shop in Hobart on our way back and grabbed a Pooley Riesling and a Josef Chromy Pinot and headed to the waterfront for some food-truck food with a difference. They’ve got 3 or 4 floating “caravans” which serve take away seafood. Some locals worded us up on Mako, and who were we to argue. It was good and pretty cheap too.

Creatures of habit and we went back to Smolt again. Better coffee and some quirky dishes, which I like (ham hock on bed of puy lentils with poached egg and sour dough toast). Then off down the Huon River valley for a look at the salmon farms. If only there was something resembling a pub or restaurant anywhere…but no, nothing.

We’re planning a return, as it is quick and easy to get there, but looking for an AirB n’B place we can stock up on market fresh goodies and come more local pinots! I’ll let you know when we’re planning. I think you’d love it.

Let me know if you want to head down to Tassie. Pretty sure I can convince Julia to head back.

Cheers,

Daniel