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Published: April 1st 2010
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CATCH. That was the first thing that happened. I was caught, hook line and sinker. Perhaps it was because I went to Tazzie with no real expections, other than to escape the tropical QLD summer heat and humidity, that I was caught so off guard. I was indunated by the raw natural history of the island. I was overwhelmed by something as simple as trees. Not just the variety of species but the size of some of these amazing sentinents. So much green and more green and then every other color of green thrown in as well.
Using the Lonely Planet Tasmania 2008 book as a base guide the first thing I wanted to experience was the Hobart Salamanca Market held wharf side every Saturday. High level artists and craftspeople converge with really diverse 2nd hand and collectable item stalls. Super fresh local produce is displayed in lush abundance while being seranaded by everything from a young boy, all legs and elbows, playing the flute, to gorgeous acustic guitar accompanying a high and lyrical songstress, to a full on Bag Pipe Marching Band. The whole time I walk among the river of smoothly moving people I purposely listen for the
Bag Pipe music (knowing that they present themselves in their full Highlands regalia after seeing them several days before ever so briefly at a Franklin Square lunchtime jaunt). Their music dictates my direction until their sound and sight hit my senses simultaneously and my legs stop moving as my mouth cracks into a silly grin. It just really lifts me up to be a part of all this diverse humanity.
So before jumping into the excitement of market shopping, a high summer al fresco breakfast is in order. It turns out that we came to Tazzie for the food! At first I thought it I was just very hungary and so then everything and anything tastes exceptional. Then after several really good meals, I thought ok...it's all this fresh clean air (Tasmania is on official record as having some of the cleanest air in the world!) But really it is access to all the locally grown, organic style farming, ranching and producing that "feeds" right into some high caliber and very creative cooking on this lovely little wind-swept island. I'm a pizza girl and I got my fix several times at the Quarry right on the square (they also
did that amazing brekkie too) However, I am NOT a seafood girl. I am even married to a marine biologist who was raised on delicious homecooked Italian-style seafood and I still have not aquired a taste for anything more than shrimp or maybe some fish and chips now and then.
So this is how I really got "caught" in Tasmania; because I adore my husband and love to see him happy, I agreed to indulge his desires for some fresh local sea fare. We ended up at "Catch" on Morrison Street. Their motto is "Life's too short to eat bad food" and they were not exaggerating. First we had the zuccinni fritters with some very cold Sauv Blanc (Josephy Chromy) OMG....I was so happy right then... it was just the perfect little plate of food and wine. Then we had a rocket, pear and walnut salad w/ sherry vinagrette. Just the exact right amount of dressing so that it brought out the fresh flavors of the produce with out being pushy. Philip had some sort of Chilli (Spring Bay) Black Mussels. He said it was in his top 5 (and he eats a lot of this kind of stuff). Since
I didn't taste them, I take his word for it. I had the seared Tasmanian salmon w/ a warm potato and snow pea salad and some mild horseradish cream. I was stunned....literally riveted to my seat. Here I was, gleefully eating freshly caught seafood, while making obscene moaning noises in a public restaurant. It was a disgrace really but so what? Life is just too short.....well... you fill in the rest ...
(The proof is in the pics!)
The Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens: This is how a Sunday in summer should be spent.....warm blue sky, clean cool gentle breezes full of sea scents and flowers...small happy children playing outdoors. Strolling among huge and gigantic and overwhelmingly large and massive, and did I mention very big?, trees in all their full green glory. The Japanese garden with it's bright red bridge that makes you feel instantly serene. A wooden water sculpture that evokes Pacific NW (of America) totomism. Park benches that are underrated yet so essential to the park expereince…inviting you not just to sit and slow down but also to look at as sculpture. And then you think well….what could be more important than this? And if
I sit here long enough will the answer to the question that is circling around my brain receive an answer? Philip and I sitting in the shade drinking fine red Tasmanian wine and eating locally produced cheese is really all the answer I need!
One perfect weather day when Philip and I were wandering around Launceston, sort of lost really...looking for the push bike shop, we came upon a huge sprawling blackberry bush growing entangled in a fence. The fence encircled and overlooked a car park to a rather beaten and battered old warehouse. One one side was the main highway up along the Tamar River. To my amazement, Philip started picking and eating the berries right off the bush, standing there listening to the cars speed by. I said...these aren't even washed. But really it didn't matter because it was obvious they were wild and not sprayed. Needless to say you could taste the sun in them...they melted in our mouths in a pure joy of flavor. It was like that at Kate's Berry Farm too on the east coast near Swansea. Just look at the picture. I mean there really isn't any words that can do that
justice.....go ahead...give it a shot....I would be curious what descriptions someone could conjure up to express such deliciousness!
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