Eating my way through Launceston.

Nutella Hot Chocolate. Inside Cafe Launceston. 

Eating is one of my favourite past times. I see this as quite a productive past time because you may as well get more out of chowing down than the sustenance alone. I love cooking delicious things and then eating them in place of more convenient and sometimes more nutritious options but what I especially love is eating out. I love walking into a cafe/restaurant/shop etc. and feeling like a welcomed guest. I love the simple agreement that you enter into when you walk in that says simply 'this is what we offer, we believe in it, we hope you do too'. There's just nothing like bonding over food and all the things that go along side it.

So this post has been prompted by the last 36 hours I spent eating my way through Launceston. I knew immediately when my friend Alice moved north for work a few months ago that it would provide the perfect opportunity for a gourmet tour of the city that I had previously only really stayed in before or after guiding trips. Such stays usually involved me sleeping at a backpackers, wandering the aisles of Coles for something I could eat for breakfast the next morning and getting a takeaway meal of tofu vegie stirfry (pretty exciting stuff, especially when you do it once a week for 3 months).

This trip was going to be different and here's how it went.

Friday

Arrived in time for lunch. Made the walk from the CBD up Charles Street to Aroma's where we enjoyed over priced but delicious olive pizza and chicken and pumpkin risotto. It was good food to whet the appetite for things to come.

Wandered Launceston's small but interesting selection of boutiques, I particularly loved the ranges at Home Body (for now) and Justin Paul (for when I am a wealthy middle aged babe with a liking for italian leather bags and cornflower blue cashmere).

Made just enough room in my stomach for half a chocolate mousse cake and a pot of Prana Chai at Sweet Brew. This cafe is super cute. It's tiny, the staff are the perfect blend of chatty and polite and the coffee is also top notch.

Rolled back to the car to drive to Alice's via a trip to collect the other member of our food tour (Laura) and a quick stop at Cocobean, a small shop filled to the brim with some classic and some more interesting chocolates including a Boag's Wizard Smith Ale Truffle. I bought a few for 'after dinner' but I'm pretty sure I ate them all before we got home.

7pm saw us walking into the Black Cow Bistro, a place that has been near the top of my where to eat list since it opened more than five years ago. I was about as excited as one can be to eat steak. Everything was amazing. You must go. You must order the carrot and cauliflower sides and a steak of your choice. You will enjoy. Thank me later.
P.S. this meal cost a metric shit tonne but it was worth it. I noticed that dining in Launie is about 10-15% dearer than what I am used to paying for similar things in Hobart but I think this might adjust once the community starts to appreciate all the deliciousness that is on their doorstep!

Nursed my huge bulging gut to the car, sat in a moderate amount of discomfort until we got home where I could lie down. The steak was worth it.

Saturday

We woke to a super clear and cold morning, just the way I like them. Off we went to a 9:30AM booking at Blue Cafe in Inveresk. The other girls ate prosciutto and herb croquettes with poached eggs on charred asparagus with hollandaise. Looked lush other than the pork factor. I had the sweet corn fritters which I can never refuse when I see them on a menu. They were served on a board with half a wedge of lime and tabasco with chopped cherry toms, avocado, chilli jam and yogurt. I thought I'd struggle to eat so early after such a stuffing the night before but I managed, mainly because they were so delicious.

Off we went to check out the Harvest Market. More food to eat there and less produce than the Farm Gate Market in the south but still very worthy of a wander. We tried some tasty jams and I bought some brownies (wattle seed and walnut and a salted caramel) that I am going to annihilate when I stop feeling sick.

We spent the next hour looking at furniture I'll never own in the Design Centre before heading to Inside where I tried on THE MOST AMAZING GREY ASYMMETRICAL WOOLEN COAT EVER and then consoled myself for not being able to justify buying it by drinking a nutella hot chocolate. This is probably the best hot drink known to man. It is literally an enormous scoop of nutella in the bottom of a large glass with steamed milk poured over the top. Heaven.

Feeling slightly nauseous and with our top buttons undone we got in the car and started the drive south.

My next post won't make you feel so jealous, I promise.

Dee x

Where we ate:

Aroma's Cafe Restaurant
272 Charles Street
Sweet Brew
93a George Street
Cocobean
82 George Street
Black Cow Bistro
70 George Street
Blue Cafe
Inveresk Railyards
Harvest Market Launceston
Cimitiere Street Carpark, every Saturday 9am-12noon
Inside Cafe
10-14 Paterson Street