You’ve read that correctly: we’ve been dining NCR. That’s not ‘National Cash Register’, that’s ‘North of Creek Road’. In Hobart, Creek Road is the Great Divide. When you travel north of Creek Road, you can count on flannel being the primary fabric of choice for fashions, the dogs having more neck muscles than brains, and all cuisine being deep fried, salty, and bland. You know the sort: people who are so concerned with the usage of proper grammar that they say ‘yous all’ as they worry that ‘you’ could not possibly be the plural form for ‘you’. However it would seem at least one of those things is changing.
A year or so ago we started noticing that there were take-away choices in Moonah that wouldn’t repulse a respectable Schnauzer. A lovely Asian noodle place, a nice Lebanese place, even a Thai place. In Moonah! Once while Scott was waiting for some take away noodles and walking up and down the streets with Lottie, he came across an arcade. With a Japanese restaurant in it. We’ve been meaning to try it ever since. A fortnight ago Friday he phoned for reservations for that night, but they were booked up for the whole weekend. So that Monday I made a booking for last night (yes, I had to make a booking a fortnight in advance for a restaurant in Moonah). I mentioned this to someone at work, and she’s heard that Kawasemi was great and cheap. Well, last night we found out how right she was!
We both started off with the mussel soup. We were being quite extravagant as this was the most expensive soup on the menu at a cracking $3.50! For mains I had the sukiyaki and Scott had the barramundi parcel. We both felt a bit bad, each thinking we had ordered the best thing and feeling bad for the other that theirs was inferior. We both had crepes for dessert: Scott had the green tea and I had the red bean. Lovely. The decor was a bit, well, lino-y. But the food really was fantastic.
Saturday, on a gastronomic high, we headed out to Island Markets. I’ve never been to Island Markets before. It’d always assumed it would just be cheap tat – and much of it was. However Churros Cafe is located there, and it receives top marks from me. We got there at noon, just as the paella was ready to be served – the two women behind the counter picked it up off the stove while I was at the till. Scott and I had only had a few cherries and coffee for brekkie as we knew we’d be having a larger and earlier lunch than we usually do on a Saturday, so we were hungry. I ordered two large serves of the paella, and it was fantastic. And only $8. The ‘small’ $5 serve looked quite generous as well, as if the women behind the counter really like feeding people.
We wandered around the market to have a decent interval before dessert. The food market looked promising. The fish looked fresh, and Scott was impressed with ham prices. We purchased some lemongrass scented soap. We browsed through terrible books. And then we returned to Churros Cafe for dessert. I wanted churros, and Scott wanted to try the stacked souffle with toasted almonds and caramel. They were both pretty insane! There were so many great looking things on their menu that I’m afraid we’ll have to return. It’s a tough job. . .