Hobart 2023

 February 22-23, 2023

   

We made a happy return to Hobart in February, timed to coincide with MONA FOMA. It's been four years since we were last in town, the longest gap between visits over the 16 years that we've been Melbourne residents. This time around, we used the local buses to explore Mt Nelson Signal Station (where I photographed the above view of Hobart), the adjacent Truganini Reserve, and then Fern Tree and Silver Falls. We always find that there's enough to do and more than enough to eat. 

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We initially arrived in time for a late lunch at the vegetarian Little Lotus Cafe, and it was an auspicious start. There were friendly staff up front taking orders at the counter, and plenty of space in the cozily-lit back room for us to take our time over our meal. I carefully dismantled a stack of crackly-crusted sweet potato and corn fritters, thickly layers with cashew cheese, and crowned with house-made kimchi and green leaves ($20.50).

Michael's scrambled stunner ($19) was one of his favourite meals of the trip. The tofu scramble was teamed with broccolini, tomato chilli jam, rice paper 'bacon', pickled chilli and polenta croutons. Hobart was unusually hot, so we treated ourselves to iced drinks - a latte for Michael ($6) and a chai for me ($8.50). 

   

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We wandered the city for the afternoon, picked up a couple of second-hand bargains, and rested with a drink at Preachers. My feet had hit their limits so we postponed the few veg*n dinner spots on our wishlist and retraced our steps to Ti Ama, which Michael had previously visited on a work trip. Ti Ama is draped from end to end in millennial pink and dotted with disco balls, with their mirror-tiled pizza oven being the main attraction. Their omni menu has both traditional and changed-up antipasti, house-made pasta and pizza.   

   

I wasn't in the mood for pizza, and luckily this led me to an exceptional gnocchi ($28). It was marshmallow-soft, lightly pan-fried and folded through with summer beans and fresh basil. Underneath it was a deeply savoury Ligurian walnut sauce and ring of melted butter. (I'm belatedly noticing that a vegan version was also available.) Meanwhile, Michael worked his way through the vegan Bubby-G pizza ($26.50), which featured a smokey capsicum base, grilled eggplant, dukkah, chopped herbs and stripes of babaganoush. Props to Ti Ama not only for their vegan options, but for their mocktail list - I had a watermelon one ($14).

   

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Before our excursion to Mt Nelson and Truganini Reserve, we lined our stomachs with proper breakfasts at Straight Up. All vegetarian and gluten-free, Straight Up was probably my favourite cafe experience on our 2016 Hobart trip. I returned to their vegan and gluten-free waffle ($18.50) - the current version is orange and vanilla flavoured, topped with poached blueberries and a chocolate and almond crumb. I prefer not to have icecream on my breakfast sweets, but I'll make an exception for the house-made berry icecream at Straight Up, because it is spectacular.

Michael did well, if not quite as well, with the potato hash ($22.50). You can probably sense from the photo above that it was hearty but not crispy, but it was piled with a pleasant mix of roasted mushrooms, tomato and herb salsa, fried tempeh and harissa.

   

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With our first bus excursion done, we skipped across to long-time favourite Thai Veggie Hutt for lunch. (We first posted about it in 2012!) Their bain marie was bustling with city workers choosing one, two or three hot dishes with rice or noodles to takeaway. Michael joined in with them for a mixed box of goodies ($14.80), but I patiently waited for a cooked-to-order plate of spicy duck noodles ($17.80). They were well worth the extra minutes and dollars - the noodles were super tender, the duck pieces large and saucy, and interspersed with crunchy veges.

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That takes us to the half-way point of our current Hobart eating highlights! More mock meats and some brilliant baked goods are still to come.