Salamanca market, Tricycle cafe & Barilla Bay

We arrived to rainy Hobart, Tasmania very early in the morning. Picked up the car and straight to St. Ives that told us that we were unable to check in till at least 1pm. We headed to Salamanca market which was barely 2 minutes away by car and started exploring in the light rain that failed to dampen our moods. And also despite waking up at 4am to catch the 6am flight, we were in rather high spirits.

Hobart Day 1 – 8am start at the Salamanca market

It was too early to check into our room so we drove and headed straight to Salamanca market. Despite the light rain, locals were already out with shoppings bags and tourists (like us) were out with undampened spirits, hoodies, beanies, scarfs & cameras. Mister and I shared a quarter of a sourdough bread that is stuffed with quince. The qunice jam was beautiful and not too sweet but will prefer if the bread wasn’t that hard.

There was so many different stalls and I do go a little crazy and hyper when I visit a new market. Darting around everywhere and go Ohhh and Ahhh! The fresh vegetables and fruits were screaming to be eaten.

And there were stalls just selling nic nacs. One man’s trash is definitely another man’s treasure. And then Mister and I lost each other. I was actuallly busy picking up winter accessories while Mister went in search for food.

And he found this creperie. It was absolutely delicious. We ordered a serving of spinach and mushroom crepe that came with a tomato chuntey.

The crepe was very thin. The spinach and mushroom filling was very earthy and well seasoned. The chutney had a slight sweetness that went very well with the whole dish. I wanted more but we had to save ourselves for other goodies as we went through the rest of the market.

We had a quick taste of the oliebollen and it was rather disappointing. It was too dry and very hard! We only had half of it.

I really liked the vibe in this market. Very vibrant. Very boho in a way. And look at all these gorgeous looking apples. You would think I will be able to find good ciders around here as well? But I didn’t. I probably did not know where to look. Unfortunate for me!

The Salamanca Arts Centre houses galleries, retails shops and a nice little courtyard where I found this basker.

10.37am – Tricycle Cafe

Highly recommended by @nolajames, we headed to Tricycle Cafe for breakfast. Yes, after eating our way through the markets, we had some room left for breakfast. This is such a cute little cafe. Tricycles are hang on walls and ceilings, and proudly showcased everywhere. I was told that some were bought by the owners and some brought in by locals! How cute

Fairtrade coffee beans are used here and they do make decent coffees. The baked eggs are highly recommended. Googey eggs are baked with a tomato base that lends a tangy sweetness to the dish. Feta cheese and sumac makes up the topping. The sumac give it a rather middle eastern ‘feel’ . And also we had freshly baked sour dough bread to dip into the eggs. I told @nolajames that this baked eggs are better than the ones served at Birdman. Big compliment!

Not planning has its pros and cons. Looking at the map, we assumed that we could drive to Bruny’s island. With some time to spare before we could check in, we decided that we could head over to Bruny’s for some oysters and then back to St. Ives to check in. But of course, we needed to ferry ourselves and the car across to Bruny’s. Duh! We decided that we were better off doing a day trip the next day instead and so headed back to Hobart and to Barilla Bay to get our oyster fix sorted first.

Tired from driving and the early start, we decided to rest and have a meal at Barilla. The oysters were definitely fresh but thought it tasted a little flat. It was not as meaty as I liked it to be but did have a nice sweetness, a firm texture and an ivory sheen.

We ordered a Barilla Bay oyster pie. It is a beef and oyster pie that is cooked in a spicy sauce with a stout reduction. We thought the pastry was really light, flaky and buttery. However, the oyster was lost in the pie and also it lacked seasoning.

Barilla is probably about 5 minutes drive away from Hobart airport and so it is good place to come and grab some oysters before leaving. And also they will be packed in an insulated package with ice pack. Just make sure to call before hand.

This is just a little taste of Hobart. To view more of beautiful Hobart and Tasmania, please head over to my flickr album and @th013 flickr album.