I Don't Eat, I Devour

 Battery Point is a wonderfully quaint, quiet, picturesque suburb dotted with vintage shops and wonderful cafes, bursting with an old-world charm. The name on everyone's lips is Jackman & McRoss: purveyor of scrumptious light meals, coffee, baked goods, chutneys and preserves. A couple of hours of people watching in its brightly lit rooms while enjoying the simple yet delicious menu offerings is a lovely way of spending a relaxing afternoon. An item that I would not have considered ordering but for the online reviews is the scallops pie. I love scallops, but I don't much like pies. They remind me too much of school lunches or the frozen food asile: something one picks up and heats, with a heavy sign, because one had been unprepared or too busy.  Oh, was I wrong. As one would expect, a freshly made pie crust is not in the same league as those frozen stuff. The pie crust is flakey, dense and hearty; and the curried scallops inside are bouncy and fresh. A most satisfying meal.

 MONA is an incredible museum and art gallery (perhaps my favourite in Australia), and the food options are just as incredible. There is the wonderful Faro, of course - but I'm going to talk about The Source, a restaurant quirkily giving you the option of dining outdoors on "living tables" with moss and herbs as tablecloths, or dining indoors and risking being seated indoors and eating above a dildo.  The table we got, alas, had no dildo fun, but is a rather aesthetic piece of jade ornament. The dining philosophy is sharing is caring, so here goes.   Spiced eggplant, $28 Eggplant has always been my favourite vegetable, and I fell in love with it once again in Tasmania. At The Source, spiced eggplant is cooked with saffron and fino roast fennel, manchego cream, green olives, roast tomato broth and topped with a couple of grissini. It is rich, umami and complex. The star ingredient - the eggplant - being such a perfect vessel to deliver all these flavour explosions.  Wallab

Strongly recommended by a friend of the same name who discovered it by chance, Lucinda Wine Bar is the little sister of the highly regarded Dier Makr (where I'd failed to make a booking due to its popularity on this trip). The concept is fun: instead of a wine list, you tell the staff what you like, they bring you whatever they have opened, you taste a few and settle on your pick of the glass. The food list is ever-rotating and curated, and extremely well-priced.  Resolutely refusing to take bookings, going to Lucinda is something of a romantic affair: either you are the right person at the right time, or you are not. There is something serendipitous about the whole thing, including the artsy, beautiful, slightly unconventional clientele it appears to attract.  Bread with schmaltz, $5 Schmaltz, I learned, is rendered chicken or goose fat. Silkier and more decadent than butter, it is surprisingly light and non-greasy in consistency, with a lovely saltiness that is perfect with bread

 A tiny, unassuming little gem seating no more than 18, Templo is a neighbourhood gem in the truest sense of the word. The set menu, along with a small-ish wine list, is scrawled on a blackboard. The kitchen is semi-open, the chef calling "service" from time to time. The glasses and the drinks are lined up near the teller, to be picked up casually, as if reaching in one's cupboard at home, whenever a drink is ordered.  While awaiting the food, fresh bread is served. Drizzled with olive oil, it is fluffy, pillowy, and large loaves of them rested near the open kitchen temptingly. We ordered a skin contact wine to pair with the first couple of courses - refreshing like a white, but bolder and deeper, with strong and distinctive passion fruit notes on the nose.  The first course, the gnocco fritto, consist of little fried pieces of bread to be wrapped in cured meat along with pickle. The pickle at Templo is distinctly sweet compared to most pickles, which works very well with

 Hobart is one of the most under-rated cities in Australia, in my humble opinion. Combining culture (MONA is my favourite museum / art gallery in Australia), natural beauty, excellent whiskey and creative cuisine showcasing local produce, it is a city I could revisit again and again.  Aloft is on the wharf, overlooking the vast expanse of water carrying fishing boats out to sea. It is what modern high end Australian cuisine is all about: fresh ingredients, superb technique, and a little East-meets-West.  The set menu starts with sashimi sitting on a bed of parsley buttermilk. It certainly lives up to the name of the course - an amuse bouche. The interesting texture, unexpected flavour (creamy yet so fresh) and tiny portion tickle one's fancy and awakens the taste buds.  Wallaby is meat I don't often see in Sydney, but in Hobart, most good restaurants would at least have one course that serves this unusual meat. Here we have a wallaby tataki with miso and macadamia. The meat is