Written On Tea, Sandy Bay, Tasmania

Nearly every Friday night here in Melbourne, Em and I head off to our favourite asian restaurant in Victoria St, Richmond. Since we were on holidays in Hobart, we obviously weren't going to be able to pop down to Victoria St. So our little Gourmet Traveller 2011 Australian Restaurant Guide came in handy once again.

We headed back to Sandy Bay, about 20 meters from another restaurant we visited earlier in the trip Shoga. The place was called Written On Tea. It was a strange little place, half of it in one room seemed like a really nice, swanky bar or restaurant and the other room, seemed like one of the cheaper unrenovated take away places on Victoria St, Richmond. Despite us making a booking, we were still seated in the dodgier looking, colder room at the front. On the positive side, at least we were getting a real Victoria St experience, in Tasmania!

We started with the Pan Fried Pork Dumplings. They were sticky little Gyoza type parcels, however somewhere along the line, somebody forgot to pan fry our pan-fried dumplings. They were as good as any I'd had in Melbourne - minus the lack of pan frying.

These little dumplings that we had next were very similar to the Shao-long Bao that you get at Hu-Tong in Melbourne. In fact, they could have been Shao-long Bao, because they had that little bit of broth in the bottom that burns your whole face when you bite into them and they explode!
They weren't quite up to the standard of Hu-Tong, but they were definately up there. After eating all the Gyoza type dumplings it was a bit of a struggle getting through these!

Finally we ordered some Duck with Basil and steamed rice. This was probably some of the best duck I've ever eaten. It was really delicious. The duck was lovely and tender. However, the basil wasn't what I was expecting. It was Italian style Basil, rather than Thai style Basil - which I found to be a bit odd, but seemed to work ok. Maybe they just read the recipe wrong? A tasty dish all the same.

The service left a lot to be desired, whilst most of the staff were friendly enough, they definitely weren't attentive and I had to get up to go to the counter to ask if I could order our food.
The room we were seated in was pretty cold, because the front door kept being opened for people coming in to get take away. We would have preferred to have been seated in the nicer room, especially since we'd make a booking. At one stage one of the waitresses came to us and said "ok, your table is ready now", so we thought we were getting moved to the good room. But the boss lady told the waitress off and we were told that the waitress made a mistake.

The food overall was above average and would fit in very nicely in Melbourne's China town. The prices were very reasonable and if you're after a cheap night out and aren't concerned about sitting in a not so sexy restaurant, then Written On Tea is a top spot.

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Choga, Sandy Bay, Tasmania

1/4 Russell Crs, Sandy Bay, Tasmania (03) 6224 4570

This was my first introduction to Korean food and I’d have to say that I was a fan! We’d heard that Choga do the best Bibimbap in Tasmania. By just looking at the tiny restaurant from the inside or outside, you probably wouldn’t believe that. But then again, how much competition around Hobart can they really have?

It was a freezing cold day outside, so a Bibimbap was definitely called for. If you’ve never had Bibimbap before, I found it to be I guess like a Korean Special Fried Rice. It’s sizzling rice in a piping hot bowl. Common toppings according to Wikipedia are cucumber, zucchini, daikon, mushrooms, spinach, soybean sprouts or tofu. There will usually be some kind of meat on there too like beef, chicken or seafood. The other usual topping is either a fried egg or a raw egg yolk.

When the dish is served to you, it literally comes out sizzling. I mixed up my rice and toppings which basically left it looking just like the Special Fried Rice that most Australians would be used to. It was the perfect lunch to have, while it was freezing cold outside. It wasn’t too much warmer inside, so it was great to have a warming meal.

When you get to the bottom of the bowl, the rice that has been sizzling on the bottom of the bowl is golden and crispy and adds to the many textures already in the dish.

Since I’d never had Bibimbap before, I don’t really have anything to compare it to, but it was very, very tasty and I’d definitely head back to Choga if I was in town again and in the mood for some Bibimbap.

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Angasi, Binalong Bay, Tasmania

The internet is a brilliant tool for lovers of good food, especially when on holidays. A recent holiday in Tasmania took us to a beautiful place called Binalong Bay on the North East coast. This is an area known for it's amazingly clear water and bright red/orange rocks in an area appropriately named Bay of Fires.
When searching the internet for somewhere to have dinner around Binalong Bay, the same name kept popping up, again and again- Angasi Restaurant.
Named after a type of oyster, Angasi is apparently one of the best places to eat in Tasmania. Well, so they say. A quick browse of their website, we noticed that they do breakfast as well as dinner. Considering it seemed quite pricey for dinner, we thought we'd check it out for breakfast and make sure it was up to scratch before lashing out the big bucks for dinner.

We sat out on the balcony, which has a simpy amazing view over Binalong Bay- probably one of the best views i've seen from a restaurant, ever! Even if the food is terrible, at least we had a nice view.

Em' and I both ordered the Angasi Breakky, which consists of eggs, bacon, tomato relish and sourdough - pretty standard breakfast fare. The meal itself was also very standard. The bread was toasted solid and difficult to chew, even with your back teeth! The poached eggs were stringy and average, the bacon was ok, but nothing special there. Nothing on the plate was inspiring me to come back for dinner, but we were still open minded about dinner.



That was until we heard a conversation between the waiter and a customer. There was a table of 3 girls and 3 guys, sitting just behind us. The guys all ordered fried eggs, the girls all ordered poached. The waiter served the 3 guys their scrambled eggs and 2 of the girls their poached eggs. He then spoke to the third girl who had not been served her breakfast - it went a little something like this:
Waiter: "Would you mind if your eggs were fried, instead of poached?"
Customer: "Why's that?"
Waiter: "The chef is just having trouble poaching your eggs, he keeps trying but they just won't poach. You know when the eggs JUST WON'T POACH? It's one of those days."
Customer: "Umm... Ok, I'll guess I'll just have fried eggs then.

The customer then waited another 10 minutes for her fried egg, while her other breakfast companions finished their meal. What the hell??? How can a chef not be able to poach an egg? Fair enough you might stuff up an egg or two, but you can get it right eventually. How can you just go back to a customer and tell them that the chef can't poach your eggs - yet he managed to poach the eggs for the other two customers on your table?? That is terrible!

Needless to say, after hearing that, we didn't go back for dinner. My recommendation- if you're in Binalong Bay, cook your own breakfast or head into St Helens to one of the cafes there.