Fresher Than Fish

If you dig deep among Tasmanian fishermen and suppliers it is perfectly possible to find here in Hobart the same live Rock Lobster and live Stripey Trumpeter that grace the Tokyo Fish Market and the tables of Australia's handful of world class restaurants. But dig a little deeper and you can find sashimi fresh fish that would not normally be considered as available in Tasmania. This plate of Coral Trout, Moreton Bay Bug Tails, King Prawns and Spanner Crab came to my table recently at about 6.30pm on the same day as it was landed in Queensland. And it can be done every week, along with the likes of line caught Rock Cod, Pike and Bluefin Tuna.

With fish so fresh there is little you need to do to prepare a banquet. The prawns were eaten with brown bread and a Spanish Chardonnay vinegar. The crab was picked and served with a Chinese dipping sauce made up of finely chopped ginger and spring onion mixed with sugar and brown vinegar and soy sauce, all stirred together and simmered then allowed to cool.

The Coral trout was treated to equally simple treatment, stuffed with handfuls of coriander and spring onions and partly squeezed lime, topped with diced chilli rubbed with oil and salt and pepper and then roasted for an hour at 180C. It was served with steamed snow peas and plain rice.

The Bugs, so fresh and green, cook beautifully in minutes, pan fried in butter mashed with lashings of crushed garlic and flamed off with a good slug of Pernod. This is food anyone can cook with no fuss. The Bug tails mix beautifully with lightly sautéed Oyster mushrooms from the Huon Valley.

Washed down with ? Well for lunch try a bottle of Freixenet Cordon Negro the world's largest selling sparkling white at $14 a bottle. It works a treat.