Breakfast at Straight Up Coffee + Food - Hobart, Tasmania

Let me make no bones about it. I like meat. In fact, I like meat a LOT!

Yes, I must admit I feel a little guilty when browsing the incredibly cute faces of the baby lambs, calves and other assorted four legged friends on Facebook pages for places like Big Ears Animal Sanctuary or Brightside Farm Sanctuary…but how can I help it if they taste so damn GOOD!?

It was a sunny Saturday morning and the whole weekend was laid out before us like a tapestry of good times. Good food (hopefully!), beers at Hobart’s inaugural Oktoberfest, post-booze burgers?, and that was before we even got to Sunday! With a strong likelihood of excessive alcohol consumption, we had even booked ourselves a comfy little room in town.

With such an epic couple of days ahead of us, it was imperative that we get off to a good start!

Straight Up Coffee + Food was Karen’s choice. Fresh, light, natural, healthy…what’s not to look forward to? Yet somehow someone forgot to mention meatless!! (that’s my story anyway…it’s actually more than likely that I was told numerous times, but to little effect)

On perusing the clipboard menu it became very apparent, very quickly, that I was going to have to take a leap of faith and embrace my inner hippie!

Not only are all dishes on the menu vegetarian, but they are gluten free as well. I can’t say that I’ve ever been overly excited by gf food in the past, but these actually sounded really tasty!

Who remembers the excitement of dipping toast soldiers into gooey soft boiled egg as a child? $10 and it’s yours! Or perhaps you’re looking for something hearty and wholesome like funghi (fancy talk for mushroom) on toast with sage, lemon, kale and cashew pesto ($15)?

I was really tempted by the miso and tahina marinated pumpkin with date and herb cauliflower cous cous and spiced yoghurt ($15.50), but in the end I couldn’t go past the toasted corn bread with grilled haloumi, olive oil scrambled egg, avocado and herb salsa ($15.50)!

Look at that and tell me you don’t feel hungry…?!!

Toasted corn bread with grilled haloumi, olive oil scrambled egg, avocado and herb salsa ($15.50)

So many awesome flavours happening in one dish! The haloumi was light and salty, perfectly complementing the fluffy scrambled eggs and the richness of the avocado. Underneath it all lay the vibrant toasted corn bread that brought a crumbling hint of the Americas to the taste buds.

Those stringy looking white things? Radish maybe? Just like a man with a cummerbund, they served no practicality other than to look mighty sexy!

Karen was lusting for something sweeter, and chose the smashed banana on toast with popped amaranth, activated buckwheat, pear, agave and soy ricotta ($13).

Smashed banana on toast with popped amaranth, activated buckwheat, pear, agave and soy ricotta ($13)

Are you serious?! That plate looked so perfect it could have jumped straight off the pages of Gourmet Traveller! Frogmore Creek, Pilgrim and Monty’s better watch their backs, because when it comes to a beauty contest, there’s a new kid in town!

While banana on toast (SMASHED, not mashed!) is a long standing favourite of many, the addition of the delicately delicious pear elevated the dish to a whole new level. Truly inspired cooking.

Overall?

This was the best possible start to the day I could imagine. Sun streaming through the front windows, illuminating the gorgeous murals sprawled across the walls. The rustic feel of aged timber under your wrists and the lilting voices of customers and staff engaged in good natured small talk. If only we could have this every morning.

…and who needs meat anyway?