Pauly's Pizza New Norfolk

I did a Google search of our local pizza place, Pauly's Pizza and discovered two interesting things: firstly in 2020, Pauly's won best pizza in Hobart. Impressive, no? The other wonderful thing I discovered was an amazing dude who goes by the name of Tas Daz Down Under. Tas Daz is a Tasmanian chap who I assume lives not far from me and does YouTube food reviews.

Courtesy of New Norfolk and Derwent Valley News:

Tas Daz, who was featured in the article, rated Pauly's very highly (he goes on to review several of Pauly's Pizzas). I think he's hilarious and also a metal head for bonus points. I also love that he reviews local restaurants. Not just fancy schmancy ones (like a certain blogger *loosens collar*) and it has inspired me. Now that I live in the small community of the Derwent Valley I want to support local and if my blog gets another customer through the door of a locally owned business than it will have been worth it, and thank you Tas Daz, as you have gotten me through two doors already and more to follow. (Burger review coming soon).

I'm going to link his video below, however be careful, I started watching and ended up still watching four hours later.

Pauly's Pizza - Lamb Souvlaki & Mega Meat Lover's Pizzas : Tas Daz Down Under

Let's get down to business... Pizza business!

So Gudge and I make the drive into New Norfolk to try a couple of Pauly's Pizzas.

It's very handy that they have the pizza sizes on the front windows, and with eyes as big as our stomachs we decide on a family each. I go for a Supreme (bacon, onion, pineapple, capsicum, mushroom, cheese) and Gudge opts for a Pepperoni (salami, pepperoni, capsicum, cheese) at $18 each or 2 for $35).

The store is clean, anything-but-fancy, however the staff are lovely and attentive. We place our order and are told it will be around fifteen minutes so go for a little wander through New Norfolk.

On our return an older gentleman is leaving the restaurant and holds the door for me. "Thank you, enjoy your pizza" I remark, "I will, and you will too, trust me" he responds.

We collect the two heavy boxes and take them down to the park for Pizza Picnic.

...I hope we do

I start with a piece of my Supreme, the very large, very hefty Supreme. It is absolutely delightful. The base is excellent, great crunch on the bottom and crust. Fantastic amount of toppings, and perfect balance of flavour. Overall a very excellent pizza.

I also try Gudge's Pepperoni. All the fantastic elements of mine with the punchy, spicy flavour of cured sausage.

It's so big it doesn't fit into a photo!

Okay, so I love Pauly's Pizza. They're not trying to be anything else, they're just doing pizza the way Domino's wishes it could do pizza and I enjoyed it a lot.

We have almost a whole pizza for leftovers (edit, I ate a cold piece while writing this and it was STILL amazing) so I think these are great value for money. Judging by the amount of people in the store early evening Wednesday, I believe Pauly's has proven themselves to the local community and has an obvious following. I applaud their award of Best Pizza and can certainly say these are the best pizzas I have had in some time.

Address: 34A Burnett St, New Norfolk TAS 7140

Phone: 1800 728 597

Bushy Park Roadhouse Burger

So, you know there's those times you just want a burger reminiscent of those your parents used to get you as a kid? Or is that just me?

I have lovely memories of a accompanying my parents to a market or auction and after being very good, getting to share a burger.

This is not your gourmet $25 burger that has become the norm and don't get me wrong, there is a very special place in my heart for a gourmet burger, however sometime I just want a burger a plain old burger.

Our local store, post office (where we collect our mail) and petrol is the Bushy Park Roadhouse and the girls there have just been so welcoming to us since we've moved here, they are the heart of the community they also go a great little take away and today I just felt like a good old burger.

photo courtesy of realestate.com.au

I order a burger with the lot and a small chips.

Although the burger has been in the warmer is still tastes lovely and fresh. I like the way that the burger bun gets soft almost line a bao when it's been in a warmer for a bit. The 'lot' includes a beef patty, cheese, bacon,. egg and BBQ (or tomato as an option) sauce but no salad. It's just... good! It made me very happy. I had the option of chicken salt on my epic crinkle cut chips and I happily took that option. These chips are perfect, just perfect. I had these sitting out on my patio as it the first day of spring and the weather was wonderful.

The craziest part... old fashioned prices... burg and chips, 11.50!

Nice to have a good takeaway so close to home.

Bushy Park Roadhouse

525 Gordon River Rd, Bushy Park TAS 7140

take a left at this sign and head about 500m down the road

Gretna Green Hotel: Our New Local

So, we moved to the country. 

Well in fact we bought a house in the country. I almost can't believe it myself. It's simply wonderful. It's peaceful and quiet, friendly and quirky.

We are quite a way away from, well anything, except the local shop, the local market I work at on Wednesdays and a lovely little pub. Quite a historic wee pub actually, built in 1849 that's EIGHTEEN FORTY NINE and licensed continually since 1862, holy smokes, that's 159 years, (thanks Microsoft calculator).

image courtesy of homely.com.au

The pub has recently been purchased by new owners, and we thought we'd go down and have a meal and support the new owners.

As we pull up to the carpark (90 second drive from home to be accurate) we are surprised by the amount of cars in the driveway, it looks packed. We pull in, wander past the utes full of fire wood and interestingly, deer carcasses, and make our way to the bar.

The place is indeed packed. We had only been once before and it was well, there may have been tumbleweeds, so it was a joy to see the place filled with jovial locals.

We are informed that food may have a little wait, but we are not bothered, but instead grab a couple of drinks (I have a Sav Blanc and a Cascade Draught for G $12) and a menu to decide. We mosey roadside which has recently been revamped with extra tables, chair and firepits and of course the beautiful surrounding countryside.

The menu reads like a classic pub menu with most of the things you'd expect but are never disappointed to see. 

We decide on a garlic bread to share $5.50, Parmigiana for G $23 and the seafood basket for myself $30.

Warning aside, the food didn't take too long to come out at all.

I believe it was an epic amount of garlic bread for the price. Great flavour on lovely crisply toasted bread.

It is really difficult to show the sheer size of Gudge's Parmi... it had some serious girth. He reckons it was one of "the better ones I have tried in his life" and that "the chicken was very juicy", he loved the tomato sauce.

My seafood basket was all perfectly cooked and came with I believe was flathead (?), calamari, scallop, prawn cutlet and seafood bite.

The chips were very very good. I am a chip snob and these were without fault (please feel free to click 'chips' in the labels to hear me whinge about or praise chips). I have to say it, the retro curry pasta and egg salad was awesome, I absolutely loved the nostalgia of it. The home made slaw and green salad were both super fresh.

Do you know what? This is honest, real, in no way pretentious pub grub. From a doozy of a country pub.

We'll absolutely be going back, and if we're ever allowed visitors back to Tassie we'll take them too. 

We didn't get a chance to meet the owners, but I hope to very soon, and I wish them all the best.

Agrarian Kitchen Eatery

The year is 2020. 

It's been 9 whole years since I started writing this blog while living in Edinburgh, Scotland. 

Truth be told, I actually read this blog quite frequently. I still show it to people, mostly in reference to my travels. But to this day, I am still so proud I did this blog. It has become a decade long diary.

I have actually had a few requests to keep the blog going. I am touched. I did not know anyone read nor cared. Thank you.

So back to the food. 

The year is 2020. I now live in Southern Tasmania. The Covid virus runs rampant around the world, but here our restrictions have eased and with businesses opening again and my birthday looming I tell Gudge we're going to be having a lovely lunch.

The Agrarian Kitchen Eatery is located in New Norfolk, a quaint little town north of Hobart and has won a plethora of awards including Australia's Best Regional Restaurant.

We book in for a set lunch on a cool Saturday in July. 

The setting for the restaurant is a historic building which once was home to an Insane Asylum. Most of the surrounding buildings remain unused. I have to wonder how soon they will all be developed into apartments and pigeon holes for sushi franchises and gyms. But for now, it is simply charming.

We make our way in. The room is bright and open, a fireplace along one wall crackles away allowing us to defrost our fingers.

We are introduced to our beautiful waitress Millie, who explains how important the use of local and seasonal produce is, with everything served either being grown on site, or from the local area.

We start with an apricot and elder-flower gin cocktail and for Gudge a Bruny Island Lighthouse Session Ale.

The restaurant no longer provides an a la carte menu but instead offers a set menu which changes weekly based on supply of produce. We sip our drinks and peruse the menu.

I am very excited to try the Burrata as well as the potato cakes. 

A note: in Tasmania potato scallops are called potato cakes.

Before too long, Millie delivers our first offerings, home made sourdough with home made butter (maybe I should omit 'home made'- lets just assume everything from here on out is home made), beautiful Burrata with dried peppers and oil and amarillo carrots with albacore pate. 

The bread and butter is absolutely sumptuous and I can assure you, I wish they had left the loaf on the table. The Burrata which is a mozzarella cheese with a cream centre is soft yet chewy with such a subtlety which is sensational on the bread with oil.

However my favourite was the albacore pate. We are informed that the albacore tuna is caught off Eaglehawk Neck and is a combination of the flesh of the tuna combined with tuna "sardines" meat that they have salted and preserved. It is absolutely rich and incredible but not fishy just, indulgent.

To add to the spread comes a charcuterie of pickles, prosciutto, salami and terrine. Both of the cold meats were sensational (and made onsite) but the terrine was absolute bliss and on the sourdough with the pickle was just something else all together.

And then, out come the beautiful, golden, crispy pillows that are the potato cakes, they are just as good as you'd imagine a perfect (potato) scallop to be!

We are both incredibly excited for the pasta course. We are told that both the broth and filling of the tortellini are made of rooster which has a bigger flavour than chicken and this is certainly true. This dish is as wholesome and warming as any chicken noodle soup you've ever tried. I could have had a cauldron if it. Oh... and the pasta itself! Why don't I made homemade pasta? There is absolutely nothing like it, nothing.

That reminds me of a story from around ten years ago. See the green in the picture- that's nettle, or stinging nettle as it is known. When living in a Edinburgh I decided to engage in some gardening. I went to the yard and decided to attack some weeds, no gloves of course, I'm not a baby. Minutes later and hands on fire- I discovered what a stinging nettle was.

The main, as if by fate is PORK BELLY my favourite, it is nothing short of perfect. Served with sharp and tangy mustard greens and a beautiful rich green corn polenta served with an egg yolk (under the cheese) and the combination is just incredible. The pork is salty and fatty and lush, the polenta is just unreal, so very indulgent and the greens were just perfect to cut through off of that richness. With the main I have a glass of Rose (of which I did not get the name) and it is a perfect match.

We are then treated to a wedge of herbed goats cheese with crackers. It is salty and not at all overbearing and does a wonderful job of cleaning the palate for dessert.

For dessert we are treated to bread ice cream, yes bread ice cream. The milk is infused with the previous days bread to produce something that is just divine, velvety, not at all savoury and the crunch of the accompanying roasted breadcrumbs are just... yum.

The pavlova is the best I have ever had. I honestly applaud anyone that can make a chewy meringue, it should be in a different league to any other meringue- that texture is heaven. The tropical fruit takes me back to Queensland. 

Gudge and I both comment that the dessert is our favourite course. We also note how wonderful it was not to have to rely on overly heavy foods for a mid-winter set menu. Everything was very well balanced but still comforting. This I think is a real feat.

We leave on a cloud- such an enjoyable experience- the food, service and ambiance were all to the highest degree without any trace of stuffiness or snobbery.

This restaurant to me, is Tasmania.

The Agrarian Kitchen Eatery

11A The Avenue

New Norfolk  Tasmania  7140 Australia

e: eatery@theagrariankitchen.com

t: (03) 6262 0011

Sono Portside

A very thoughtful gift from my best friend of a gift card for Christmas and the fact that Papa is a retired explorer now about to head off on another mission felt like a great reason for us to indulge in a delicious lunch at the beautiful Sono Restaurant at Portside Hamilton.

Sono took out the award for Best Japanese Restaurant in Australia in last years' Restaurant and Catering Awards. Having eaten there before, I knew it was well deserved.

photo courtesy of The Weekend Edition

My father visited Japan not long ago and the cuisine was one of the highlights for him. Me, I just love pretty much anything Japanese and am a fiend for good quality sashimi.

It's a scorching hot day in Brisbane, and we start with a refreshing beer. I order a Nigata Sparkling Mango Beer ($14), and papa, a Suntori Premium ($12).

The Mango beer reminds me of the fruity undertones present in many German Kristals, lots more "beery" than a Matso's and quite creamy.

Having already assessed the menu situation I pipe up immediately to suggest a Large Sashimi Platter might be in order ($55). Dad makes his choice of  Gyu Tataki (Seared Wagyu) ($18) and Scallops with Miso Mayonnaise ($23) we choose to round the meal out with Potato Salad Japanese Style ($14).

The service is impeccable here, the wait staff so pleasant , efficient and smiley.

First to come out was the Wagyu. It was delicately seared, still showing the gorgeous marbling that Wagyu is known for. I haven't raved about Wagyu in the past when I've had it as a steak, but I think that's because to truly appreciate it, it needs to be served just like this.

Accompaniments of garlic, ginger and chili all fresh and minced, finly cliced spring onion and soy to dunk. By adding combinations of each made for such a wonderful mouthful. A touch of lemon pushed it up a further gear.

Next out was the delicious potato salad and green salad.
As German's we know potato salad, and this one was deleicious...mashed, seasoned perfectly... would have as a meal on its' own.

 The large sashimi platter is stunning. Absolutely beautiful presentation and fresh, fresh fish, including but not limited to: salmon, salmon belly, tuna, kingfish, snapper and trevella.
The salmon belly was perfect, as was the regular salmon and tuna, but when fish is this fresh, you just tastes beautiful.

Our scallops with miso mayonnaise came out just after our sashimi, and the scallops were lovely, but it was the totally drinkable sauce that made this dish, we ended up saucing up everything and asking for a spoon so we could savour every last drop.

We enjoyed every bite and every moment of this lunch. It would be very easy to go overboard and order a million meals off the menu, but it would certainly rack up on the bill quickly.

I can't wait for my next visit though.

Eating Hobart Again

My Gudgeon and I visited Hobart recently. I wanted to show him the city I one day wish to live in.

I remembered how beautiful and friendly it was, I had almost forgot how good the food was down there.

I'm here to remind you.

We arrived to our North Hobart airbnb early afternoon on the Tuesday, had a couple of beers and had a little Google to see what was around. We stumbled on an amazing sounding menu from a little nearby pub called The Winston Alehouse and Eatery, a really interesting menu of modern American. We wandered down to have a look.

Painter's Cottage. https://www.airbnb.com.au/rooms/14952758

The pub itself was really lovely, an older style with a jovial crowd enjoying the daylight savings evening.

We decided on the Eggplant Parmy Burger and the Deep Fried Burrito and side of pork. With mac n cheese sticks to start, but everything to come out at the same time.

Mac n cheese sticks were scrumptious as mac n cheese anything should be. The Parmy buger was amazing so much flavour, perfect textural combinations and great chips. The burrito comes with an array of sides, it's super crispy on the outside and the insides of rice and beans is so tasty. I love that you can add which bits and bobs from the sides as you want to.

We decide already that this is not only one of our favourite pubs ever, but this is some of the best Americana food either of us has ever tried. Also proving that this kind of food can still be fresh and crisp and not just drowning in cheese and oil.

Day two: we have coffee from what will become our favourite coffee shop, Providence Cafe. Perfect coffee every morning of our trip, and very handy being right across the street. We head off to Richmond (my favourite, and Australia's oldest bridge), Pirates Bay, Blow Hole and Devil's Kitchen then Port Arthur) I pack us ham and cheese croissants and crackers and dip to take with us. We also have a sneaky fish and chips overlooking Pirate's Bay. 

Providence Cafe

 This day happen's to be valentines day, which neither Gudge have any time for, so we have party pies, pizza and beer for dinner after our adventure. It was great.

Day 3 we start with a light breakfast of croissants, topped with spinach and feta dip, and a side salad of tomatoes and basil from our Cottages garden with some Tasmanian Camembert.

Today is our downtime day. We have a wander around the boutiques along Elizabeth Street in North Hobart then make our way into town, checking out the Waterfront, Salamanca, City Centre. We stop into another great little pub called Republic Bar and Cafe for an afternoon beer in the beer garden before a little relax at home before our dinner date.

I had reserved us a table at The Point Revolving Restaurant atop the Wrest Point Casino. I chose this particular restaurant for a few reasons. Firstly it had REALLY good reviews, I thought the views would be spectacular, I thought it might be a bit naff, (I LOVE naff), and lastly I LOVE casinos.

We start with a glass of Tassie bubbles for myself and a Beer for Gudge overlooking the water.

We then head up for our 7 pm booking. The sun had been setting around 9 pm while we had been there, so I thought it would be really nice to spend a few hours watching the change from daylight through twilight then nighttime.

We weren't disappointed with the view. 

We order a bottle of Jansz Bubbles and have bread brought to our table. It's served with locally produced Tasmanian Butter... VERY happy cows. 

Our amuse bouche is absolutely gorgeous, buttery cod wrapped in nori, served with rice, saffron cauliflower and enoki muchrooms.

I start with 3 local oysters with shallot vinaigrette, they are perfect. So fresh.

Poor Gudge doesn't eat seafood, we'll have to work on that if we do ever move to Tassie. He's missing out.

I've mentioned this many times before: I love steak tartare. I love steak and getting it in it's purest untouched form is such a delight.

The steak is just beautiful, and not overpowered by mustard, onion or capers, just flavoured and seasoned to perfection. The traditional egg yolk and capers are served as emulsions with crispy bread. One of my most enjoyable tartares yet.

Gudge orders the quail ras el hanout, barley, labneh.

The Ras el hanout is a north african spice mix, the labneh is the soothing yoghurt mix.

He loved this dish.

For my main, I order the prawns- cooked at your table, flambe, Mediterranean with eggplant caviar.

As we are ready for our main however, they tell me the prawns tonight wont be the way suggested on the menu, but in their more popular 'lemongrass curry' style, which didn't bother me initially and watching them flambe was very theatrical.

However as I began eating, I was disappointed, I didn't want curry prawns. Especially at $55! 

The waiters were very apologetic, and I felt for them, as they themselves had just been told this. But If I had known, I probably would have selected something completely different from the menu. 

A fairly mediocre main, unfortunately.

Gudge rates his main of potato gnocchi, pumpkin, pepitas and spinach very highly. I taste it: Instant food envy.

He always rules when ordering Vege mains. 

A delicious side of broccolini with truffle butter. 

We don't order dessert but get a lovely, dramatic (and complimentary) treat...

Delicious frozen, gilded chocolate coated ice cream balls, that have the table next to us gasping with delight and envy.

Our waiters were so divine, personable and friendly, the service was excellent, and the pure novelty of a 77 minute 360 degree rotation was worth the visit. Such a shame about my prawn main, but there is no way I will let that detract from a truely memorable experience.

And actually not naff at all.

We spend the rest of our evening drinking Ameretto Sours and playing roulette and have a really nice night.

It's saturday and we're off to Mona, we decide to have brekky at our favourite coffee shop before heading off. Perfect coffee as usual, and for me a fantastic toastie: poached chicken, avo and cheese on turkish. It's fantastic.

Gudgeon enjoys his avo and haloumi on sourdough very much.

After a wonderful day at Mona (you HAVE to go!), we look for a bite for dinner, we stop into Capital, who let us have a table without a reservation, dispite being booked out! I'm so glad they did, our pork belly, gorgonzola and mushroom pizza is AMAZING!

 As is our cheesy garlic bread. We probably could have fit in another pizza. it's base was perfect for me, and the toppings were a great combination and just the right amount. I also love that it has no red sause, a trend I am really moving on from.

Our last day we stop into local cafe Room For A Pony, as Providence is closed on Sundays. Even though food had a wait of 45 minutes, I'm so glad we got to try this place. It was full of happy dogs and good coffee

My three cheese on toast is the thing dreams are made of.

Gudgeon's avo and smashed feta with poached egg does the trick too.

I love you Hobart.
Be back soon.