H is for Hackett

I originally thought of doing H for Hawker, so I'd have an excuse to revisit Rocksalt. But I don't have time for that in the near future, so I'll save that for the next go through the alphabet. Meanwhile, I was feeling vaguely ashamed of never having even visited Hackett, because it's just one suburb over. Of course, this nearness is the very reason that I haven't gone. I have a decent local already.

I decided to pop in to pick up some milk and catfood, and check the place out. It turns out that this is an easy one to write up, because there's very little there. It's rather sad-looking at the moment, with a large shop boarded up and wire-fenced off, and another standing empty. There's an odd-looking op shop cum community centre, and a hairdresser with a plaintive notice in the window about supporting local business.

Hackett has one restaurant, the King Ruby Chinese, which offers a very traditional Western-Cantonese style menu. They do home delivery to my area, but I honestly can't remember if we've had it or not. We're not big on Chinese: both the bloke and I prefer Vietnamese or Thai.

And finally there is an IGA. This one has a Local Liquor outlet, and otherwise it's straight groceries. No deli counter, no hot chickens, just fridges with pre-packed deli items. The fresh meat section is very small, but it does include Gourmet Game roo and Lilydale free range chook. The fruit & veg section is also small, but the produce looked fresh and quite reasonable in quality. There's a good range of standard groceries, and a few more unusual lines for an IGA, like Maggie Beer, Outback Spirit and Chilliman. It's quite a decent little supermarket. If I lived next-door, I'd be happy to have it as my local. But it's not somewhere that I'll go out of my way to visit.