Tasmania — Food and Dining
Cuisine
There are many quality seafood restaurants: in Hobart the waterfront streets and piers are the center of the city's culinary scene. It is here that the annual Taste Festival takes place and for seven nights, usually over the New Year period, local produce and wines are celebrated alongside cultural events. North Hobart offers more diversity with multicultural restaurants and cosmopolitan cafés.
Regional specialties:
• Some of the best seafood in the world is available in Tasmania, including Angasi oysters, rock lobster, crayfish, scallops, Atlantic salmon, blue-lip mussels, rainbow trout, wild and farmed abalone and ocean trout.
• Tasmania is full of award-winning cheeses, such as those from the King Island Cheese Company.
• Tasmania grows 60% of Australia's apple exports and is sometimes referred to as ‘the Apple isle'.
• Leatherwood honey, from the rainforests of western Tasmania.
• Boutique producers of extra virgin olive oil benefit from the island's cooler climate to produce smaller quantities but better quality olive oil.
Regional drinks:
• Pinot noir wine. Pirie is the flagship sparkling wine produced by Pipers Brook Vineyard.
• Tasmania produces two popular and good-quality lagers: Boags and Cascade.
Nightlife
Hobart's waterfront area, Salamanca Place, is the home of many night-time haunts in its old stone warehouses. Small, traditional-style pubs, open all day and into the small hours of the morning, are a special feature here.
Halo, Syrup and Curly's are the club names to watch out for in Hobart. Launceston has Lonnie's, Reality and Hotel Tasmania to keep the young crowds happy, while you can find live music in O'Keefe's and Irish Murphy's.
Hobart boasts Australia's oldest theater, the Theater Royal (www.theaterroyal.com.au), and the city's concert hall is the home of the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra (www.tso.com.au), generally considered to be one of Australia's best orchestras.
