The Friday before my birthday, my buddy Jimbo took me out for drinks at Romeo Lane (1A Crossley St, Melbourne VIC 3000)...

Romeo Lane - Bellini; Dubonnet Fizz

...followed by dinner at Annam (56 Lt Bourke St, Melbourne VIC 3000). When we worked together we used to go to Chef Jerry Mai's Pho Nom for lunch all the time and loved it, so I was really keen to try her new, more upmarket offering. It was great! Their Vietnamese coffee espresso martinis were so delicious, and the young coconut jelly dessert, with grilled corn and coconut sorbet, was incredible!

Black and White Swordsman - Vodka, amaretto, Vietnamese coffee, chocolate bitters, coconut condensed milk. The Vietnamese espresso martini - $9 during happy hour

Young coconut jelly, grilled corn, coconut sorbet - $14

The highlight of the "Sarah birthday season" is, of course, my annual Slumber Party - a group of girlfriends, PJs, lots of delicious charcuterie, cheese, and wine. Such fun! In previous years I cooked or baked a lot for the party; this time I took it really easy, just doing a big shop at Prahran Market earlier that day. We bought sourdough baguette from Q Le Baker; charcuterie and olives from Chaso's Gourmet Deli; and ridiculously good cheeses from Maker and Monger. (I can def recommend buying cheese at Maker and Monger - we basically just went to the stall and asked for help choosing cheeses, and the person working there patiently talked us through loads of different options, and gave us heaps of tastings so we could put the perfect platter together).

Cheese and Charcuterie

FYI the cheese we ended up choosing were Brillat-Savarin, a gorgonzola dolce, Marcel petite comté & an Annie Baxter Shaw River buffalo pecorino, as well as some Meredith marinated feta that we already had at home.

I still baked my own birthday cake though! I made mini burnt butter carrot cakes with cream cheese icing. (Recipe adapted from Joy The Baker). They're gluten free too! They were awesome! I'll share the recipe shortly.

Burnt Butter Carrot Cakes with Cream Cheese Icing

The next morning, feeling a little worse for wear, I made the most epic toasties for breakfast from the leftovers of the charcuterie and cheese platters - sourdough baguette, jamon serrano, fresh fig, grated Shaw River buffalo pecorino and comté. I may have even fried the toasties in a little butter. Oops.

Epic toastie is epic

Later that day, Sandra took me for chicken and waffles at Belle's Hot Chicken (107 Swan St, Richmond VIC 3121). BEST.

Chicken and Waffles - $20

Ok, so my real birthday was a Monday, so it was a regular old work day. But I got my free birthday Nando's for lunch!

Free Birthday Nando's

And I had dinner with my family at Entrecôte (131-133 Domain Rd, South Yarra, VIC 3141). All the steak! All the frites!

Entrecôte Steak Frites

The week after my birthday, my friend An took us out for dinner as a birthday gift - the full degustation at Amaru (1121 High St, Armadale VIC 3143). It had been a long time since we'd done a high end degustation, and Amaru was an absolutely stunning experience! Full blogpost to come. Here is the beautiful Meredith Cheesecake dessert.

Meredith Cheesecake

I was also extremely lucky to receive lots of wonderful gifts for my birthday! (I mean, in addition to the lovely dinners).

Gifts

I am so excited to now own a copy of the Bravetart cookbook! Stella Parks is a legend and I can't wait to start baking from it. Also, can we take a moment to appreciate the gorgeous salted pretzel earrings? TOO CUTE.

Bravetart and PRETZEL EARRINGS

And that was my birthday! At milestones like these, it's always nice to take a little time to reflect, and I feel so fortunate to have such wonderful and kind friends and family. Hooray!

Do you like spreading out the birthday celebrations? Have you tried poppycock? Would you choose pretzel earrings or donut earrings?

On Saturday, we started by visiting the Launceston Harvest Market (71 Cimitiere St, Launceston TAS 7250). There were lots of great stalls to see, we bought lots of goodies to take home, and we had delicious ham and cheese toasties from the Meat Bread Cheese stand.

Launceston Harvest Market

Launceston Harvest Market

Launceston Harvest Market

Launceston Harvest Market

Monsieur Grilled Cheese sandwich - Heidi Farm Raclette + Emmental cheese & shaved double smoked ham, grilled in fresh sourdough Vienna bread. Served with mustard on the side - $10 From Meat Bread Cheese

Our big destination for the day was Cradle Mountain, and on the way there we fuelled up with a second breakfast at Christmas Hills Raspberry Farm Cafe (9 Christmas Hills Road, Elizabeth Town, TAS 7304). It's an old fashioned, cheery, cafe with very friendly staff and lots of delicious raspberry goodies. The chocolate-stuffed French toast, raspberry lattes and waffles were all good, but I especially enjoyed my order of the hearty caramel dumplings with raspberry ice-cream. (They reminded me of the old-timey golden syrup dumplings I learned how to make at school, from a battered copy of Cookery The Australian Way).

Christmas Hills Raspberry Cafe - French toast w chocolate & berries - $16; Small Raspberry waffles - $10; Caramel dumplings with raspberry ice-cream

As we drove from Launceston, the weather got progressively worse and worse, and by the time we got to Cradle Mountain, it was bucketing down, windy, and freezing! I even had to buy a very snazzy Cradle Mountain fleecy jumper at the visitor centre on the way in. (And then I had to swiftly leave the visitor centre in case anyone thought I worked there and started asking me questions I couldn't answer, hah). An, Adri and I aren't particularly active people, so we certainly weren't planning on hiking (even the notion!), but I had been hoping to do one of the easy walks like The Enchanted Walk. Oh well, the weather put a stop to that, so we just drove down to Dove Lake and had a wander around and took some photos. I love it there, it's so beautiful!

Dove Lake

And of course the sky cleared up as we left Cradle Mountain, and it was lovely and sunny again by the time we got to Ashgrove Cheese (6173 Bass Hwy, Elizabeth Town TAS 7304) for an afternoon cheese platter. The shop there is pretty cool too, and I got some cute handmade jugs and cups to bring home (photo at the bottom of this post).

Cheese Platter at Ashgrove Cheese

Dinner that night was at Hallam's Seafood (13 Park Street, Launceston, TAS, 7250). I hadn't been there before, but Adri chose it because she wanted some Tasmanian seafood and I was more than happy to go along! We shared an entrée and this very generous "hot and cold seafood platter for two", and a salad, and it was more than enough for the three of us.

Hot & Cold Seafood Platter for Two - freshly shucked pacific oysters, marinated spring bay mussel's, king tiger prawns, citrus cured salmon, tempura fish, grilled harissa calamari, crumbed scallops, oven roasted salmon + fries - $110

On our final morning in Launceston, we went to Stillwater (2 Bridge Rd, Launceston TAS 7250) for breakfast. I really like this place, and I visited for both dinner and breakfast on my last trip to Launceston - you can read the posts here). I'm glad it was still as good as I remembered!

Coffees at Stillwater

An's chilli con carne with chorizo and crispy roast potatoes was a delicious behemoth of a breakfast, whilst I loved my rye waffles with cold smoked salmon, dill cucumber, poached eggs and mustard crème fraîche. Definitely a cut above usual brunch fare! (Although having said that, Adri's simple breakfast of poached eggs on toast with mushrooms was also very good).

Breakfast at Stillwater - Rye waffle, cold smoked Huon salmon, dill cucumber, eggs & mustard crème fraiche - $25; Chilli con carne, chorizo, eggs & fried potato - $23; Poached eggs on toast with mushrooms - $21.50

They've got a cute shop upstairs, Stillwater Providore, which sells a lot of homewares, pantry items, cheeses, alcohol, gifts, and more. It's well worth a look.

Stillwater Providore

Stillwater Providore Cheese

A very short walk from Stillwater is Cataract Gorge, a unique natural formation with a walking track, swimming pool, chairlift, suspension bridge, cafes and lookouts with gorgeous views. And they have peacocks! It's a really nice spot for a walk on a sunny day.

Cataract Gorge

Cataract Gorge

Peacock at Cataract Gorge

Cataract Gorge

Last stop, before catching our flight back to Melbourne, was a lazy lunch at Josef Chromy Winery (370 Relbia Rd, Relbia TAS 7258). I'd never been before, but when I was planning our trip I thought it might be nice if we included a winery lunch, and some internet searches led to Josef Chromy Winery. I'm so glad we visited, because the food was excellent, the atmosphere was lovely, and we loved the wines! (We even ended up ordering a case of their SGR Delikat Riesling to have shipped home).

Oysters

They have a short, sharp menu that I believe changes with the seasons. We started with oysters and excellent house-baked spelt bread, followed by some hearty meat dishes, accompanied by double potatoes. (Pork scotch fillet for An and Adri, tender lamb with peas and broad beans for me, roast kipflers and French fries for everyone).

Josef Chromy mains & double potato

The only gripe I have about the meal is that the desserts were extremely small for the price. They were delicious and of high quality (the spelt toast ice-cream, in particular, was a standout), but at $16 I'd expect something a little bigger than a single small quenelle of ice-cream with a little jug of sauce, and the pile of fruits and crumbs. Aside from that, however, the meal was very good, and I'd definitely want to visit again.

Desserts at Josef Chromy Winery

And finally, I want to show you all the goodies I purchased over the weekend - freeze dried blueberries (gonna make some super-stable blueberry cream!), chocolate hazelnut spread, cute little coffee cup and milk jug, honeys, shortbreads, a bottle of Negroni mix, and a cute little lavender soap bear (that one was a gift from Adri). Yay!

Goodies from Tasmania

Enjoy your weekend

Gooey Chocolate Stack