Hobart - Garagiste and MONA

Crazy I know. But instead of heading somewhere warm and tropical which Sydneysiders are want to do over the Christmas break, Mr Nomad and I head to our southern most capital city. "To relax",was my general response when people would ask the inevitable “Why Tassie?”. However, I must point out that 'Hobart' and 'relaxation' over New Years are not a match made in heaven. During new years this has to be the most happening town ON THE PLANET with the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race and the Taste of Tassie Festival ramping up (hello to the 500,000 visitors on day one alone!). So not only food and wine obsessed locals and travellers, you have the extreme sport and uber-wealthy “yachties” hitching a ride into town.

First night though and nothing was stopping us from our search for Garagiste. Luke Burgess and his team have created a destination restaurant right in the heart of a capital city - novel idea really! Garagiste – this is one special restaurant. I say this for one reason that will stay in my memory and consciousness forever and will have a food type forever compared to – the oyster. “Not served on ice”, I remark to Mr Nomad, while standing at the bar, starving and not willing to wait for mere morsels at our table. I proceed to eat this oyster, it is hot. It has been steamed (NOW she looks at the menu!) Bruny Island Oyster with an 8 year old apple cider vinegar emulsion. I am one happy lady. This is hands down the best first mouthful of a meal I have ever had. This is before the bread with smoked butter. Before the wagyu tongue and before the wine. D’meure 2008 Pinot Noir. Only one of two local pinots available. Deliciously rich and full mouth feel, truly astounding with my oysters. This is a wonderful example of Tassie Pinot Noir with minimal intervention - a wine that speaks of its home. There isn't much around considering the very low yields Dirk Meure is producing. So please do yourself the favour if you come across d'Meure wine.

Other standout dishes were the wagyu with fresh beetroot. The chawan-mushi – which we are told is the best selling dish. A Japanese custard set and baked in the dish with puffer buckwheat, broad beans and the freshest sweetest little peas.  While the flavour wasn’t explosive, the subtleness of the dish was just divine. A thinking man’s dish I guess you’d call it – you had to work at liking it. Mr Nomad found it a little more difficult considering that he puts chilli or Tabasco sauce on EVERYTHING! Float float a-floatin' back to our horrifically terrible hotel room (DON'T book late November for Tassie sojourn over New Years...).

Tasmania’s Southern Wine region. Finally. We have been planning to get down here for as long as I can remember and now here we are. I am completely upside down and inside out. No matter how many times I’ve looked at maps of the region, I am convinced that MONA and Morilla winery and its surrounding vineyards are SOUTH of Hobart. So convinced, that when Mr Nomad starts hitching our ride north, my mind is spinning and I instruct him to head out of the ‘burbs south.

It is with this mindset we wonder into MONA, North of Hobart in Berriedale. I was 100% sure that MONA was south so suffice to say I was 100% wrong and hence in a state of apoplexy.

Ascending to MONA via the Ferry

Yes Hobart is pretty, and yes the Taste festival was wonderful, minus the cheapskate’s figuring out which was cheaper: the local cider or a sparkling which is available by the barrel. Apart from that, I must say the raspberries and strawberries are the best I’ve had outside of Paris. The atmosphere is amazing, especially when the Sydney to Hobart Yachts come in to the harbour. But it is the MONA and the wineries that got me here.

I had seen plans of the MONA and some of its most redeeming features being in the design industry and through intense media coverage but nothing prepared me for the onslaught of this building and its facilities. This is not just a gallery, or a winery. This is the realisation of a man, David Walsh who had great vision for his beloved home town. A winery, cellar door, world class restaurant, gallery, brewery, concert space, café, wine bar – all on a peninsula surrounded on 3 sides by the Derwent River. Sound amazing? It is. If for no other reason, this alone is worth a trip to Hobart.

Ground floor of MONA

Morilla’s tasting room is upstairs, adjacent to the Source Restaurant on the first floor of one building. If the views weren’t spectacular from ground level, try this elevated glass room. If the Syrah had been on tasting this would have felt like heaven. But the Riesling was on tasting as was the Pinot, and the Gewürztraminer which, following this trip we have decided is a somewhat glamourised alcoholic version of turkish delight.

While here, the pig/lamb on a spit with pineapple, salad and mustards are worth it. The smell permeates the atmosphere, and even the most chaste vegetarian would be questioning their food stance. So with glass of Pinot in hand, plate of swine with the Derwent River surrounding is a special slice of what Hobart has to offer. 


Some of the most amazing art works:

Tattooed Man - guessing meditation may help here...

Comment on Consumerism anyone?

Now to plan next stay in Hobart - stay at the MONA Pavillions!

Images by: Mr Nomad