Tassie in Winter

June 1998

This winter there's really only one option if you want to eat well overseas. Tasmania offers superb seafood from pristine clean waters, some very good wines, game, a good range of mushrooms, maybe Australia's first truffles soon and cheeses of all kinds.

The only question about planning a trip is how long to spend indulging because your budget will stretch a lot further than you could imagine here in Melbourne as prices are significantly lower.

A generous main course of Nigiri Special is just $14.50 and the Sashimori (main course sushi) $22 at )_*] on Victoria Dock. It's a cozy, friendly place with all Japanese staff except for one lucky apprentice chef who gets the opportunity to watch over sushi chef, Shigeyuki's shoulder as he selects and slices the fish and quickly rolls the rice.

A few blocks away in Salamanca Square on Victoria Dock. It's a cozy, friendly place with all Japanese staff except for one lucky apprentice chef who gets the opportunity to watch over sushi chef, Shigeyuki's shoulder as he selects and slices the fish and quickly rolls the rice.

A few blocks away in Salamanca Square Toshi's Kitchen can be booked out at night but there's usually room at the normal tables for Torinanban-Udon noodles in seasoned broth with chicken, $9.50. The noodles are air-freighted from Japan and the dish should, according to Tokyo born Toshi, cost at least twice as much.

We stayed high on the Glebe hill overlooking the water at Corinda, a grand mansion and garden with three guest cottages. Owners Matthew Ryan and Wilmar Bouman live in the National Trust classified house which they restored themselves. Wilmar is a florist trained in Holland who designs a colour co-ordinated garden each season, Matt, trained as an agricultural scientist, now a highly skilled carpenter who has lovingly restored the former servants quarters and coach house as well as building a "new" cottage all from old materials. All mod cons are carefully concealed within old wooden cupboards or behind old dressers. The rooms are comfortably set out with a fireplace, the fridge and pantry wellstocked for breakfast, lots of reading matter and interesting artefacts. Your peace and serenity here is only minimally disturbed by the cooing of the plump white doves who collect around the carved wooden dovecote behind the house. It's a world apart from Melbourne, a perfect place to recover after a hard working week. Corinda 17 Glebe Street, telephone: 6234 1590.

It's important to be in Hobart on a Saturday so that you can enjoy one of Australia's most colourful open air markets. Hundreds of stalls are set up each week along Salamance Place and checking them all out can keep you happily occupied for hours. If you're eating in at Corinda you can buy excellent quality Asian green vegetables and the finest and cleanest of baby spinach sold here by Hmong tribes people who settled in the Hobart hills about six years ago. The Hmong tribe come from the mountains of Laos, Thailand and Vietnam and by happy chance found their way to Hobart. At $1 a bunch, the bok choy, coriander and the exquisite spinach they grow are keeping Hobart's cooks content even in winter.

You can also taste the fruits of summer still at Hobart's Lebrina restaurant in New Town. Chef, Scott Minervini, does a superb duck dish with Kentish cherries which were cold dried by horticulturist Gordon Brown of Dry Ideas. The January picked cherries have an intense flavour, the result of a special process of slow cold drying. Gordon also dries mushrooms and his products can be ordered directly from Dry Ideas ph 62396411. Lebrina offers many very good dishes with local produce, a superb soufflé made with Heidi raclette, pickled local anchovies, steak with Domaine Blue mash and a daube of wallaby shanks. The wine list offers a fine range of wines at extraordinarily good value prices. 155 New Town Road, New Town, ph 62287775

Sea urchins processed at Sorell are used by Chris Jackman at the award winning Mit Zitrone in North Hobart. This casual looking restaurant is producing seriously good food at very low prices. Some exquisite and unusual dishes include vine leaf wrapped sardines $8.50, sea urchin custard with a wakame oyster cream and salmon eggs on toast $12, Atlantic salmon with squid ink risotto combined strangely but successfully with horseradish $16. The most expensive dish is $17.50, you can feast here for $30 per person. The restaurant is BYO at 333 Elizabeth Street, ph 62348113.

From Hobart, a pleasant day trip is to Richmond, an 1830's town, filled with historic buildings including Australia's oldest bridge (1823) on the road to Sorell. The Richmond Wine Centre does a big trade in cakes and serves enormous meals including Polish potato cakes with delicious smoked salmon and a honey cured Kassler dish. The chef is from Scotland and his plates could satisfy the heartiest of Highland appetites. And if it's 'Scotch' you fancy by next winter you should be able to try a Tasmanian malt whisky made by Lark Distillery at 50 Bridge Street, Richmond. Here Bill and Lyn Lark moved from home brewing equipment to a gleaming copper distillery in the old bakery site earlier this year. They've had enormous success with Lark's Bush liqueur (made from native pepper berries) and Tasmanian apple schnapps ($19 for 200ml) and, have a long waiting list for the whisky using Franklin barley. The 1993 distillation is already drinking well, a fine lightly malted style and once Bill has resolved a name for the precious liquid and designed a special bottle, it will go on sale sometime next year, ph 6260 2707.

Sorell is home to Seafood Processing a company where tons of salmon are cleaned, gutted and weighed before being sent around Australia and to Japan. This factory also is responsible for excellent quality sea urchin, most of which goes to Japan, oysters which go to the mainland and for abalone which all goes to South Australia for canning.

Further around the coast Triabunna is a pretty spot with a sheltered bay where the crayfish boats moor. This is also an area for scallops and abalone as well as being the rather secret home of the wakame harvest for which architect Graeme Hill has the sole Australian license The Japanese seaweed is best harvested in summer so that drying conditions will be at their best. The shorter the time for drying the better the quality of the wakame. This is delicious as a salad which we tried at KaBuKi Restaurant perched high above Great Oyster Bay Reserve on the Tasman Highway 12 km south of Swansea. Dried and powdered wakame (and some snap frozen) is now being sent all over Australia but has not yet been able to find success in Asian markets. Although a much cleaner and better product, according to Hill it is more expensive than that produced in China and Korea.

There's no escaping it, the best time to eat grey, cold, slippery, sea-wet oysters is in the depths of our grey, cold, wet winter. During July and August, Bill Marchetti has recognised the inevitable and puts on a huge range of oysters at Marchetti's Tuscan Grill. Amongst those on Marchetti's list are several varieties from Tasmania. Last month during my visit there, I visited the Freycinet Marine Farm where Andrea Cole grows and sends over to the mainland, tonnes of Pacific and not so many, flat Angasi oysters.

The Angasi, although a native oyster, is more difficult to cultivate and its season is very limited. Andrea expects to have supply from now until possibly October. And it's not for want of trying or lack of hard work, she is one of the most determined and hard working producers we met and Tasmania does breed them tough. Contracting multiple sclerosis ten years ago has not stopped her punishing work load though it does slow her down sometimes.

The ex-nurse, ex-restaurateur established the Marine Farm 18 years ago after research indicated that the Moulting Lagoon, a confluence of five rivers, was an ideal breeding ground. But growing oysters takes time, at least two years, during which all the oysters are individually handled and graded at least six times. "They don't quite have names," Andrea joked, "but I do get to know them all pretty well." Her work means starting in summer at first light and finishing well after 9pm. Her home is beside the farm shop where oysters are sold daily after 5pm. Last year she opened the two bedroomed Shuckers Cottage on her property, the rental of which includes all the oysters you can eat. Contact 6257 0140

Coles Bay is just nearby, there are swimming beaches and the beauties of Freycinet National Park to explore. The park is a wonderland of bush, waterfalls, beaches, cliffs, and the most stunning of views. Also located nearby is Geoff and Susan Bull's Freycinet Vineyard set in a sheltered valley which produces a chardonnay to match the local seafood and an exceptional cabernet. It is necessary to ring beforehand to visit here, phone 6257 8384. .

If you want to taste more oysters, continue north along the coast road to St Helens where a new variety, the Porcelain oyster is growing at Georges Bay. These oysters require grading every two to three weeks but can be harvested after only nine months. Their rapid growth produces a delicate shell that is translucent when held up to the light, hence the name 'Porcelain'. When commercial quantities are available they will be distributed in Melbourne by Spencer Wilkinson 9329 5466.

Away from the sea, in the central highlands John Bignell makes fine goat cheese and some sheep cheeses and yoghurt. His Scottish ancestors settled at Bothwell in the 1820's. Primarily a sheep farmer, John has now diversified production into goats as well as horseradish and salsify which he sends over regularly to the Melbourne and Sydney markets.

Near Exton, Frank Marchand is too busy producing the country's finest gruyere to think of anything else. A master cheesemaker from Switzerland, he came to Australia in 1974 to work with Lactos. Fourteen years ago he set up on his own and has been milking a herd of 220 cows. He has now sold the herd but still uses their milk except this winter, for the first time, he has bought in milk. A firm believer in the quality of Tasmanian and Australian milk which he says is certainly as good as in Switzerland, with the exception of that from cows fed there on the high mountain grasses. He is, however, critical of the fact that his cheese costs the consumer so much. "Our milk is a third the price, our labour costs are lower, but my cheeses cost much more than cheeses from Switzerland." The problem lies in the cost of distribution in Australia and in retailers' mark-ups.

So devotees of Heide cheese travel to Tasmania to buy Frank's cheese direct from his road side shop. It's also used in most of state's better restaurants, such as the Arcoona restaurant and guest house in Deloraine. The grand Federation mansion is a pleasant place to stay but you want to be in good appetite for the meals prepared by chef, Francis Hind. With good experience in London restaurants, he is now keen to showcase Tassie produce such as Huon Valley mushrooms grilled with a lightly poached egg on a spinach and ricotta waffle, Rannock quail, Tasmanian Tuna Nicoise and beautifully cooked lamb cutlets, bacon and pink kidneys in a delicious traditional Mixed Grill. At $15, accompanied by a large bowl of perfectly cooked vegetables, main courses here are pretty good value. Phone 6362 3443

If you head north from Deloraine, there is a spectacular drive through the Tamar Valley to reach Pipers Brook vineyard where Andrew Pirie started his wine empire 24 years ago. There are now ten vineyards under Pipers Brook ownership including that at Strathlynn, just 20 minutes from Launceston. The wine centre and restaurant here are very much under the eye of Sabrina Pirie and with chef, Daniel Alps, she has made Strathlynn an essential part of any wine and food itinerary for Tasmania, phone 6330 2388

See also Andrew Corrigan on Tasmanian wine regions and Greame Phillips on Tasmanian produce and Tasmanian wine.