More of Hobart 2023

February 23-26, 2023

   

Since our primary reason to be in Hobart was MONA FOMA, we relied on festival food trucks and supermarket snacks to cover several of our meals. Here are the main meals we fit around those festival times.

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Rude Boy was emphatically recommended by our friend Toby. It was also open late enough for us to grab dinner on our walk back from the cinema in North Hobart (where we saw the excellent Women Talking). Rude Boy is a loud and loudly decorated bar that's proud of its rum and fried chicken. The formula here is to order a plate or a burger and build up the components. I convinced Michael that a large plate ($33) would be enough to cover the two of us, and it definitely was! Our plate comprised fried mock meat in Old Bay seasoning, with rum BBQ sauce and a side of fries ($8). All of the seasonings and sauces were great, and the mock meat was of the dense and chewy kind.

   

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We also had multiple friends urging us to visit The Little Poet. It's a spacious Taiwanese patisserie with a very distinct atmosphere - decorated in layers of beige and white, with tinkling piano music, cushions, tasteful flower arrangements and... cute bubble tea plushies! The menu is all vegetarian with abundant vegan options and clearly marked gluten-free dishes. There's all manner of sweet and savoury, from dainty bites to hefty meals.

   

When we first visited for breakfast, Michael was aiming for the latter and ordered the Little Poet Big Breakfast ($24). The vegan egg was just tofu, but smothered in a nice hollandaise. The vegan sausage and walnut-based foie gras didn't make a strong impression either, and Michael's not keen on this many salad leaves at breakfast. The sum of this dish's parts was pretty good, though, with thick sourdough, tomato, mushrooms, and flawless avocado.

   

Meanwhile, I branched out into banana chocolate crepes with soy cream ($18). I don't come across crepes often and these were lovely, with that distinctive slightly elastic texture, and presumably coloured with butterfly pea (which Little Poet also offers in their iced lattes). The accompanying ramekin was stacked with perfectly ripe banana slices topped with a proper, cocoa-heavy chocolate sauce.

   

We returned for breakfast the next day, and I was ready for something savoury. The vegan version of the Taiwanese egg pancake roll ($7) suited me to a tee. The batter was just a bit thicker and more fried than the crepe; I was tired of mock meat and chose vegan cheese (+ $2.50) and mushrooms (+$3) from the nine fillings available and clumsily but happily dredged each piece through the garnishing soy and chilli sauces.

It's no coincidence that this allowed me room to try some sweets (pictured top)! The little bites of brownie and lemon-glazed cake ($3 each) were excellent, but the chocolate bear cookie ($5) was unbeatable for cuteness. We were too early for the full cake range to be on display yet, so here's hoping we make it back for morning tea one day.

   

After an ambivalent big breakfast, Michael was completely won over by the Taiwanese sesame paste cold noodle ($19). There was lots of variety in the noodles, veges and tofu strips and the sesame-peanut butter-soy sauce was a winner, and a refreshing change from his usual breakfast habits. It also didn't get in between Michael and a chocolate croissant (pictured top, $3.50).

While we could have happily returned to Little Lotus or Straight Up for seconds, or visited another cafe we've enjoyed in the past, I'm glad double-dipped on the variety of veg*n foods offered by Little Poet.

   

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The Sunday Farm Gate markets are typically our last food stop before departing Hobart and these days they're adjoined by Bury Me Standing bagels. The menu's got something for everyone gluten-tolerant, from (real meat) hot dogs (Shaunagh has alerted me that these are vegan!), to the classic cream cheese and a cashew-based vegan schmear. Though there are multiple bagel flavours on offer, deep down we're both everything bagel-ers. BMS were all out of regular cashew schmear so I fell back on classic cream cheese ($9.50), but there was jalapeno cashew schmear to spare so Michael had a pickle-filled Top Notch Bagel ($10.50). It's a very comforting way to start a Sunday and end a holiday.