T
his could not be right. It could never be an epilogue yet as we are not about half way in the mark of our epic journey in Dom’s Hobart ‘wok-a-bout ’ and his restaurant's wild wandering adventure business. For your curiosity I was already kind of a great ‘little student cook’ once and had all my friends coming around for dinner most nights. For when you were a full-time university student living far away from home you have to look after yourself well and the first thing you have to learn is how to cook so you won't go starving skipping meals and all that which would eventually be all detrimental to your studies and basic well-being.. As well as living away from my initial host family environment I have to straight away learn how to be independent self-reliant and being self sufficient on a tightly balanced stringent student budget funded by my parents who were not rich and had other siblings to support overseas. In any case I cook well dress well and study well. I chanced to know the honorable Duncan Qoulhoun Kerr and honorable Michael Aird very well then because as student friends they used to raid my fridge frequently especially after their tiring and hungry pub crawl. |
| humble beginning |
I remember back in the days when dining was only about Chinese and Italian and the rest is just meat and three kinds of vegetables offered it is then hardly worth your while to prove an idea especially a new one. Yet in an uncanny way we still possess the feeling that told us we must prove a point and that we were damn sure we’re right and we knew we could do it even though all the odds were against it.. We may also relish a real challenge in life in order to sell our skill or expertise so that we feel an achievement of self-fulfillment of sorts. Besides, - you would always ask yourself over and over again the question- is it not a truism that where there is “nothing ventured there is nothing gained”… or that if you dare not to Struggle you dare not to Win? You may also feel that this is the right place and the right time to launch an idea just because nobody was doing it first. For me that was spice. In any business I suppose one should not be too over-optimistic because soon enough I realise how wrong I was.
In some ways I was ahead of my time by going into an Asian Spice store selling just about everything spice and encompassing even Japanese crockery’s and kitchen ware. There weren’t enough people demanding them. Besides such exotic products were generally unfamiliar. There was only enough room for one Asian grocery store and not two or more at that time. There were then no major influxes of migrants into Tasmania or Asian students for that matter. For those who did patronise my spice den I would personally make sure that they were amply supplied with relevant recipes and advice as how to use ingredients they purchased before cooking them. Some customers were good regular buyers especially those scouting for fresh lemon grass, coriander, galangal, fresh ginger, red chilies and shrimp paste but you can hardly say the same for people who goes for dry spice or condiments. You may see them only once or twice every two or three months. However this is quite a different story with restaurant customers because they come back for more when they are hungry. Spice on the other hand has a longer shelf life than cooked food.
I begun to think I must have been streets ahead of time. People were just not ready yet for a real Spice market like in Melbourne or Sydney. There were none of those proliferating Curry clubs & societies and self-learned cooks and hospitality class and Asian Cookery Classes as it is nowadays. Nor were there teeming overseas students that throng the Asian grocery stores like it is today. The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Organisation centred at the Antarctic Division did help matters to some extend by prolonging my cash flow. But then that was rather seasonal because you hardly get scientific team going down the cold continent around winter. My immediate thoughts back then were to start combining running a small eatery outlet in conjunction with the operation of Spice centre . This way I could remain financially viable and economically sustainable. That was the year 1991 when I gradually started to return to what I know best. Back to the old grind so they say. Perhaps a little bit better than straight merchandising that spelled no bounds on capital stock spending.. I could also offload some unfamiliar lines and use them up at my eating outlet. The little eating outlet was to be called the Liverpool Street Teahouse café.
Bear in mind that I only run a restaurant one at a time. I am only a small tiny fish in a vast ocean of other fishes. Blackman’s Bay would have been my fifth and my last and perhaps my proudest.
Herein I have just been handed a newspaper cutting from one of my dedicated ex-staffs. I thought it would be nice for me to share this with you because it shows how heart warming and caring most of my customers are. They send well-wishing messages on my email as well to which I ampublishing just the kind here . Special mentions must be made of the following as well as those well- wishers who sent cards and gifts; Evelyn and Arnold, John and Lena , Haans, Dick, and many others that were not able to be present at our final weeks. Until my next post I say cheerio to wherever you are. Keep well and take care.
