And to wrap up my series of posts on Tasmania, I'd love to show y'all some of the other yumminess we enjoyed!

Tant Pout Tant
226 Charles Street
Launceston Tas 7250
Ph: (03) 6334-9884
Website

Tant Pout Tant was a 2 minute walk from our accommodation, and sells a range of delicious pastries, breads and cakes.  They also do cooked breakfasts and good coffee!

On our first morning in Launceston, we popped in for a quick breakfast.  They had a steady stream of customers, buying bread, picking up celebration cakes and so on.

Flat white, caffe latte

Raspberry Brioche

Cherry Danish

Mmm... cream cheese interior

Prices are reasonable, at around $3.50-$4.50 for the pastries.  However, prices are slightly higher if you eat in.  So come to think of it, we could have taken the pastries back to the apartment and eaten them there. Oh well, next time!



The Christmas Hills Raspberry Farm & Cafe
9 Christmas Hills Rd
Elizabethown, TAS 7304
(03) 6362-2186
Website

About an hour out of Launceston is the Christmas Hills Raspberry Farm and Cafe.  As it wasn't raspberry season when we visited, we just had a nice relaxing arvo tea in the cafe.  (This was after the 2nd huge day of driving, when I was in much need of reinvigoration!)


They serve some savouries, and a wide range of raspberry-based desserts - raspberry cheesecake, waffles, pancakes, crepes, scones and more.

Rapsberry latte - Cafe latte served with raspberry syrup and dusted with 'lust dust' - $4

Sandra got a large serve of raspberry waffles (the difference between this and a "small" serve is one extra scoop of ice-cream).  Mega rich and filling!  It was yummy, although it did look like it might have been sitting out for a while, as the ice-cream and cream had already melted a bit when it got to our table.

RASPBERRY WAFFLES - Fresh 'home made' waffles served with homemade raspberry icecream, hot sauce & cream - $12 for a large serve

I had a small serve of crepes, chosen because "it's the one with the most raspberries in it!".  Normally I find cream AND ice-cream together to be a little OTT, but the rich cream was really necessary to cut through the sharpness of the raspberries.

RASPBERRY CREPE - Thin crepe filled with raspberries, served with hot sauce, raspberry icecream & cream - $9.50 for a small serve

Down at the Launceston Seaport, there is a hotel and marina, with some restaurants, cafes and food stores.



Silt
31 Seaport Boulevard
Launceston Tas 7250
(03) 6331-0557
Website

Silt (and the nearby "Mud") restaurant came recommended by locals, and had a casual warehouse atmosphere, with service that was friendly, but very slow.  To be honest I found the food very overpriced and not too impressive.  I get the feeling it was recommended to us because it's in a touristy location, not for its food.

I started with oysters, which were delicious and fresh.  I really liked the Japanesey dressing that accompanied it.

1/2 Dozen Oysters "freshly shucked from the East Coast", served natural with ginger, soy and mirin - $15

Chicken Breast Risotto with asparagus and hollandaise - $29

Sandra's chicken risotto with hollandaise was a well-executed but very odd combination.

I was in the mood for something simple, so ordered fish and chips, with grilled fish.

Classic Fish and Chips (grilled), with house-made tartare, thick chips and salad - $31

I was very disappointed by this.  $31 for a few chewy pieces of fish, a small salad and a bowl of chips.  I feel we would have been better off spending a little bit extra and going back to Stillwater or the Black Cow Bistro, or just going to a cheap takeaway for fish and chips.

What I did like about Silt, however, was their desserts! 

Vanilla & pear crème brûlée - w/ tuille biscuits & ginger ice cream $11

Silt serve classic desserts, with little unique twists.  I really liked the rhubarb and apple sponge pudding I ordered, especially with thick lashings of King Island cream.  Presentation was cute too!  I'm pretty sure I could make something similar at home... time to put my thinking cap on!

Rhubarb & apple sponge pudding - w/ ice cream & King Island cream $11

Fish 'n Chips
30 Seaport Road
Old Launceston Seaport
Launceston, Tas 7250
Ph: (03) 6331-1999
Website

On our last day in Launceston, we grabbed some a quick bite on the way out to the airport.  This time, back to the Seaport, but to the more casual fish and chips place.  It sure was nice to sit out on the water and enjoy our food in the sun!  I've actually forgotten the exact prices, but they were on the slightly high side of reasonable.

***EDIT: I found the receipt from the fish & chips place, so I've added in the prices. Yay!***

Oysters with cocktail sauce - $8 for four

Small Chips - $4, 80c for tomato sauce

Crumbed scallops - yum yum - $8 for 5, 80c for tartare sauce

And that, folks, wraps up my Tasmania posts!  Hope y'all have enjoyed them.  We absolutely loved Tassie, and can't wait to make another trip down there, and check out the other parts of the island.


To help me discover Tasmania, Tourism Tasmania generously provided return flights and car hire for the trip.  However, I selected all accommodation, tourist destinations and restaurants personally and visited as a paying customer.

Stillwater
Ricthie's Mill
2 Bridge Rd
Launceston, TAS 7250
(03) 6331-4153
Website

Down by the banks of the Tamar River, at the mouth of the Cataract Gorge in Launceston, is a lovely little restaurant called Stillwater.  They're actually the sister restaurant of the Black Cow Bistro (Stillwater was there first!), and do slightly cheffier food in a rustic setting.  They do breakfast, lunch and dinner, and we actually visited twice during our 3 days in Launceston - once for dinner, and again for breakfast!


Upon walking in, we felt that the restaurant was quite a bit more formal than Black Cow, with very polite waitstaff calling you "ma'am" and so on.  Interestingly, customers tended to dress quite casually - lots of hoodies and jeans.

Crusty bread roll... included in the price! Hehe.

Butter and salt

Here is my entrée - black lipped abalone with pickled cucumber. I'd never ordered abalone myself before, mainly because I don't like the idea of eating non-sustainable seafood.  But I asked our waiter, and this abalone was farmed off the east coast of Tassie, near Hobart.  Overall I found the dish a little sour, but the abalone itself was fresh and cooked perfectly.

East Coast black lipped abalone - pickled cucumber, yellow rock sugar, iceberg lettuce and wakame crostoli. $32

Sandra had a cheese soufflé to start.  It was quite rich, so it was good that it came with a nice refreshing salad.  Incidentally, all the different farms and stockists mentioned on the menu (Heidi Farms, 41° South, Yorktown Organics etc.), would probably be interesting places to visit for a daytrip.

Heidi Farm Gruyere soufflé - chive sabayon, candied walnut and pear salad. $18

I was in the mood for lamb, and absolutely loved my main course!  A rare lamb rack, sliced into individual chops, and prettily arranged on top of small salad leaves, sweet and tender carrots, and smoky baba ghanoush.  If we hadn't been in a public I would have picked up each of the little bones and gnawed the last bits of the meat off.  Delicious!

Rack of Clover Country lamb - 41° South ginseng spiced, baba ghanoush, glazed baby carrots and preserved lemon yoghurt. $39

Sandra's main was something I think many Melbourne foodies would love - eye fillet with whipped jamón serrano butter and a crispy jamón serrano shard.  It had a great mix of sweet (baby beets) and salty (jamon), but Sandra said it the smokiness of the jamón became a bit overpowering.

Eye fillet of grass-fed Greenham Tasmania natural beef - textures of Yorktown Organics beets, whipped Jamón Serrano butter and Jamón Serrano shard. $39

We only got one side - butter roasted Swiss brown mushrooms, with thyme and garlic chips.  Juicy and tasty!

Butter roasted swiss brown mushrooms, thyme & garlic chips. $7

We got one dessert to share - this item isn't on the on-line menu, so I can't be entirely sure if my caption is exactly accurate - but it was a disc of sweet mousse, studded with tiny pieces of fresh truffle.  On top of that was a quenelle of vanilla sago, some crunchy macadamias and a cruncy triangular tuille.  I'm not entirely convinced it worked as a dessert though, as I found the truffle taste in the dessert very overpowering.

White chocolate and truffle marquise - vanilla sago, caramelized macadamias, strawberry paint, fresh truffle. $18

Around the back of the marquise was a thin shaving of fresh black truffle.  Fascinating, as I'd never actually seen fresh black truffle before. I picked it up and couldn't stop smelling it - there were so many aromas in there - garlic, leather, mushroom and a zillion more I couldn't identify.

Even though we didn't order any coffee or tea, we got some complimentary petits fours - yay!  The round truffles were chocolate-mints, and the biscuits were mini-shortbreads drizzled with chocolate.  Just quietly, I liked these better than the truffle-infused dessert.

Complimentary petits fours

On our final morning in Launceston, we returned for breakfast.  Stillwater have a good breakfast menu with a very strong focus on local produce - savoury french toast, vanilla poached fruits, muesli and a range of hot breakfasts.

Coffee was blindingly hot, but once it had cooled down to a drinkable temperature it was rich and satisfying.

One tea, one latte

Sandra had a decadent breakfast of pancakes with apple and cinnamon syrup and lemon mascarpone.  I had one mouthful - delicious! - but it was extremely rich, and she only managed to eat one of the pancakes.

Pancakes, apple & cinnamon syrup and lemon mascarpone. $15

I was a little more restrained, and had a very simple breakfast of toast, butter and jam.  I must admit that the main reason I ordered this was because I wanted to try Ashgrove butter!  We'd visited the Ashgrove cheese factory the day before, and I desperately wanted to try their creams, milks and butters, but they didn't do samples of them, and I couldn't really buy any of those things to bring home.

Toast & jam toasted ciabatta, Ashgrove butter & house made jam. $7

The butter was very pale, almost like a whipped butter.  Combined with the crusty ciabatta and chunky house-made berry jam, it was a fabulous little breakfast!




To help me discover Tasmania, Tourism Tasmania generously provided return flights and car hire for the trip.  However, I selected all accommodation, tourist destinations and restaurants personally and visited as a paying customer.

Hot water bottle, extra blanket and foodie-guide to Tassie!

I know Hobart is a bigger city, but I'm glad we chose Launceston.  Not least of all because we got to stay at twofourtwo!  Once we'd decided on Launceston, I did a bit of googling, read about twofourtwo here and thought it looked pretty fabulous.  I looked at their own website, saw the the prices were within budget, and promptly booked it online.  Too easy!

twofourtwo
242 Charles St
Launceston TAS 7250
Ph: (03) 6331-9242
Website

The twofourtwo apartments are located just outside of the city centre, close to cafes, restaurants and delis.  While we visited, the reception was closed for renovations, but the owners Alan and Katie kept us in the loop - calling us beforehand to arrange key pick-up, and making sure they popped in to say hi and make sure we felt welcome.

Vertigo Stairs!

At this stage in my life, the only hotels I can afford are soulless business hotels or mediocre travel taverns.  So I think its fantastic that boutique accommodation is becoming more common. They are generally a bit cheaper than the big hotels, and have a lot more personality.  With twofourtwo, it was so nice to see the individual touches that the owners add to personalise the experience. It seemed like they thought of everything to make your stay more comfortable... like the hot water bottle and extra blanket they put on the beds! And the apples on the pillows. Cute!


I was also impressed that they had a DVD player (with a good selection of movies!), CD player, iPod dock, menus of local restaurants... and a comfy couch with heaps of fluffy pillows, blankets, and a mega-selection of food magazines!

Little puzzles for extra fun!

Candy!

Nice bathroom stocked with Tasmanian toiletries and a jacuzzi tub!  After all that driving, it was such a treat to soak in a hot relaxing bath.  Doubly decadent as Melbourne's water restrictions mean I don't take baths at home.  The walls of the bath were pretty high though, so would be difficult for anyone with mobility restrictions (as would those stairs!)


Now the fun part - the kitchen!  It was fully stocked with tea, coffee, bicuits and all types of equipment (you know I checked!), sandwich press, espresso machine, plunger, dishwasher...


Fridge stocked with brekky provisions, like bread, eggs, tomatoes, milk and OJ.

 On the 2nd shelf there was cheese, smoked salmon and crackers - yum yum.  We didn't actually end up cooking breakfast (we were too busy going out to cafes instead, hehe), but if you are more energetic than me, you could make a pretty fab breakfast there!

Pot of herbs on the balcony, guests are free to pick and use these!

Pretty balcony

We loved it!  Twofourtwo was a really wonderful spot for a weekend away.  Next time we go to Launceston, I'd definitely wanna stay there again!

To help me discover Tasmania, Tourism Tasmania generously provided return flights and car hire for the trip.  However, I selected all accommodation, tourist destinations and restaurants personally and visited as a paying customer.

When I started planning my Tassie trip, one of my key aims was to try as much local produce as possible.  As soon as the flights were booked, (and maybe before, hehe), I was eagerly searching online for restaurants that would satisfy...

Black Cow Bistro
Cnr. George and Paterson Street
Launceston TAS 7250
(03) 6331-9333
Website


A mere 5 minutes from our hotel, (although I soon came to realise that nothing in Launceston is very far at all), the Black Cow Bistro is a chic steakhouse located in a historic building that was once a butcher.  The dim lights, red paintings and simple decorations create an atmosphere that is warm and welcoming.  It was just what we needed after such a hectic day: work, flying to Launceston, figuring out how a Ford Falcon works, navigating our way through the Launceston streets to the hotel, dumping our stuff and - finally! - sitting down to dinner.  Aaah.


After we ordered, we were asked if we wanted some bread, which came with a lovely lemon-infused olive oil and balsamic vinegar.  It was warm and crunchy, and I loved the cute presentation!  But I must say I was a bit miffed when I saw the $4.80 charge on our bill, as there was no mention of bread anywhere on the menu, and we weren't told it was an extra.  Bread not included?  I think that's a 'sin' for which Stephen Downes would automatically deduct 2 points.  I'm not that harsh, but I would have liked to have been told about the extra charge first.

Ciabatta - $4.80

But, onto more positive things.  The menu clearly states the provenance of each of the items, and apart from my interest as a food-loving tourist, it was so nice to see the obvious pride that the owners have in Tasmanian produce.

For starters, I had half a dozen Pacific oysters from Moulting Bay in St. Helens.  Just natural, thank-you!  The best way to eat oysters, in my opinion.

Freshly shucked Pacific oysters, Moulting Bay (St Helens, East Cost, TAS) (6) - Natural with lemon cheeks - $16.50

These were amazing!  Brilliantly fresh and sweet.  I could have easily eaten dozen(s) of these, but there was still more to come.  I do love oysters, but don't often order them in restaurants - if they're not absolutely perfect they're such a disappointment, and there's always that moment of trepidation before you eat the first one.  No such problems here though; they were fabulous.

The mains comprise a range of different steaks, with one fish dish and one chicken dish.  According to the menu, vegetarian options are available too,but you'll have to check with your waiter as they're not listed.


We both ordered steaks - all come with baked Dijon mustard potatoes, and complimentary mustard.  We were both a bit extravagant and got truffled béarnaise.

Sandra had a 200g eye fillet, well done (why, oh why?!)...

Eye Fillet Swift Australia (Longford, North Tas) 200g served with baked Dijon mustard potatoes and truffled bearnaise sauce - $34.50

I was much more ambitious, and ordered a 400g rib-eye.  Meat on the bone = win.

Rib Eye, Clover Country Meats (Ulverstone, NW Tas) dry hung 21 days on the bone 400g+ served with baked Dijon mustard potatoes and truffled bearnaise sauce - $41.00

Knowing that my main would be very rich, I ordered a light side of rocket salad.  The soft and peppery leaves complemented my steak perfectly, mopping up the béarnaise and steak juices.  (I always order my steak rare, rare, rare!)

Yorktown Organics baby wild rocket, roasted pine nuts, grana padano & merlot vinegar dressing - $6

We also got a cauliflower gratin - such a classic accompaniment for a steak!  I've never made cauliflower cheese myself, but after this I really think I ought to.  The sprinkle of chives on top added another dimension of flavour, and stopped it from being too rich.

Cauliflower and parmesan gratin - $6.20

As you can imagine, after all of that food there was no room for dessert.  In fact, I'm ashamed to admit I couldn't even finish my steak, delicious though it was!  The desserts cover the classics - sticky date pudding, banana and toffee tart, crème brûlée and so on.  Next time I'll have to pace myself a bit more or choose a more modest steak so that I can try the desserts.

At about $120 for 2 people, I thought the meal was quite good value (noting that we didn't have any alcohol), and the service was both efficient and friendly.  Black Cow Bistro was a lovely spot for a nice, relaxed dinner, and a great introduction to Launceston.



To help me discover Tasmania, Tourism Tasmania generously provided return flights and car hire for the trip.  However, I selected all accommodation, tourist destinations and restaurants personally and visited as a paying customer.