To escape the usual "cook up a storm, entertain guests and wash up 200 plates and glasses" Chinese New Year ritual, I coerced my family to skip town for the week. So we went to Tasmania!
We picked a cute place for our family's CNY celebration at a little town called Grindalwald (about 20min drive outside of Launceston). Grindalwald, aka Swiss Village, is a thoughtfully designed town dominated by the resort with an 18-hold putt-putt and a retirement village across the road. Those who have already been to Switzerland (or any part of Europe for that matter) - It's cute but it ain't the real thing.
We spent a couple of hours there checking out the shops, taking heaps of photos (snap happy time) and had our dinner at the resort restaurant/bar. Dishes worth mentioning - eye fillet wrapped with bacon, served with pumpkin mash, rocket lettuce and Swiss brown mushroom, and the Moroccan-spice encrusted lamb cutlets with beetroot salsa. I had the trevalla fillet coated in parmesan crumbs, quite nice but top prize definitely goes to the 2 big slabs of eye fillet (medium rare and melt in your mouth!) for $28... at this price in Sydney you're lucky to get one slab of fillet, not two! Desserts were average and coffee was mediocre.
I must say, Tasmanian cafes have yet to learn the proper way of making espresso. None of the long blacks I ordered had sufficient crema on top, and generally lack aroma and body, even at places that served strong coffee. A good time was had nonetheless, though a great cup of espresso would have topped the night for me!
No comments:
Post a Comment