Sandy Mart, it’s Korean for ‘eat me’ – Hobart, Tasmania

I bet you didn’t know that did you? Get educated folks.

Just because we live nearly 10,000km from the kimchi capital of the world, doesn’t mean you need to go without, in both regular and radish varieties! Likewise for the worlds most underrated alcoholic beverage, makgeolli. For only a little more than what you’d pay for a longneck you can try this quality ready-for-summer beverage instead!

As for the noodles, well, who doesn’t love noodles?! Some taste like manna from heaven, others I wouldn’t touch with a pair of extra long stainless steel “they’re already awkward enough so let’s raise the difficulty level to I am Death incarnate!” chopsticks.

Sandy Mart have been doing business down on King Street, Sandy Bay (next door to Dome) for six years now. Considering the typical paper-thin resilience of such establishments it’s a pretty good sign they must be doing something right.

Get down there and try something new. As they say, a change is as good as a holiday!

As an aside, it’s funny how researching these blog articles takes me down some unexpected rabbit burrows. In this instance it was an old favourite, Rita’s Bite, and a new discovery of a now-defunct blog by Tassiegal. Of most interest were the comments on ‘Rita’s’ article that took a very quick diversion from Sandy Mart and over to our old mate Graeme Phillips and his opinions regarding Smolt, Marque IV and local food doyen Paul Foreman. If you’ve got a few minutes it’s worth a read!

What are your thoughts on these tiny pockets of international flavour? Have you got any favourite snacks worth recommending?