My blogging activity has been limited recently because I have just come back from a week in Tasmania. Tim and I flew into Launceston, hired a car, and drove down the east coast and explored a few other places in between. Tasmania is one of the most beautiful places you will ever see, as demonstrated by the photo at the top of this post. It is a view of Launceston from Cataract Gorge.
Tasmania is as famous for its produce as its beauty, and we tried quite a bit of it while we were there. I was disappointed that it wasn't berry season as there are a lot of berry farms, but there were plenty of other things to try. Below are a few of the random things that I feasted on while travelling through Tasmania.
At Tombolo in Coles Bay, I had the most delicious BLT that I have ever had the privilege to eat:
We could smell the bacon cooking ages before the sandwich arrived, and the ingredients just came together to melt in your mouth. The staff at Tombolo were super friendly too. I believe that there was mayo and barbecue sauce on the BLT - as Tim would say, "grouse".
In Swansea, we visited Kate's Berry Farm, and my disappointment at it being too early for berries was assuaged by this glorious serve of berry crepes:
This was indescribably fabulous. Tim had the berry pancakes, which were in a similar vein to the crepes - also delicious.
A Tasmanian signature dish is the scallop curry pie, sold all over Tasmania, so I thought it was my duty to have one:
Mine came from the Richmond Bakery; Tim got one in Bicheno. These pies have a puff pastry lid, and a pastry shell filled with curried scallops and prawns. I liked this pie very much.
The other Tasmanian signature dish that we tried, but which I didn't photograph (because we were eating them in the car in a carpark in Sorrell while it poured outside), is the Kiss Biscuit - two shortbread biscuits sandwiched together with raspberry jam and iced with vanilla buttercream then topped with hundreds and thousands. There is a recipe for homemade ones here.
At the Swansea RSL, I had the most enormous T-bone steak with veges:
Tim's chicken parma was also enormous. The beers here were also cheap - $3.40 for a light beer and $3.70 for a draught beer.
In Hobart, I had this amazing smoky seafood chowder at Fish Frenzy:
It contained mussels, scallops and fish in a thick, creamy soup, and was served with bread - delish.
At Salamanca Market in Hobart, I bought cherry brandy and orange ginger chocolate from Federation Chocolate:
I have only tried the cherry brandy chocolate so far - it is truly scrumptious!
We attended the Tasmanian Craft Fair in Deloraine, where I picked up these three lovely jams by Amanda Jammm:
From left to right, they are: lime coconut marmalade, peach apricot Cointreau white chocolate, and plum pudding jam. I am currently eating the lime coconut marmalade out of the jar - it is seriously that good, with its zesty tropical flavours. I also really liked Amanda's blood orange marmalade - but the deal was three jams for $30 and I had to carry what I bought, so I sadly had to leave it behind on this occasion.
We also stopped in at the Cascade Brewery in Hobart. This beer is Tasmanian brewed beer that Tim ordered, and I couldn't resist showing you the label:
The coat of arms features two Tasmanian tigers, which are extinct but which feature widely as emblems in Tasmania, including on car number plates.
I had a fabulous time on Tasmania, and highly recommend that you visit if you get the chance.
