Cambodian Lime Cured Beef Salad

I made this from a recipe in Gordon Ramsay's Great Escape Southeast Asia book. The beef is cured in lime juice, garlic, fish sauce, palm sugar and lemon grass, which leaves it tender and refreshingly tangy. I chose to serve it uncooked, as the lime juice "cooks" it anyway, but you can give it a quick sear if you prefer. The salad consists of cucumber, green beans, radish, capsicum, Thai basil, Vietnamese mint, shallot, chilli and baby Cos lettuce, and is garnished (second photo) with crushed roasted peanuts.

This was a very satisfying salad with plenty of fresh flavours to set your tastebuds alight. My favourite way to eat it is to take a lettuce leaf and wrap it around some of the other ingredients, like a spring-roll, much more fun than a knife and fork!

Jordan's, formerly of Darling Harbour, Sydney, Australia

While we were in Australia earlier this year, The Man took me to Jordan's in Darling Harbour, which I learned a short while after our holiday has sadly closed its doors on that location, but promises to re-open somewhere new, soon. We had the hot seafood "platter" which was really two tiers jam-packed full of everything wonderful from the sea, as well as various side dishes. Once Jordan's opens again, we will be sure to make a return visit, this was one of the best seafood platters I have had.
On top there was a pot of steamed mussels, whole prawns on skewers, peeled prawn skewers, half a grilled crayfish, grilled Moreton Bay Bugs, a basket of battered fish and chips, oysters Kilpatrick and au natural.
On the bottom tier there were two sweet, juicy crabs, more whole prawns, a mixed seafood salad, and delicious curried crab, along with some dipping sauces, lemon quarters and cut fresh fruit. Eaten at leisure with a nice bottle of Sauvignon Blanc (from New Zealand, of course!), we enjoyed the beautiful view across the harbour and even managed to fit in a chocolate dessert platter afterwards! Such a shame that they no longer have that prime spot, and I hope the new location is as good, or better!

My "The Works" Kiwi Burger

Ever since I was a kid, I have been obsessed with huge, juicy truck-stop style burgers. My mum makes a pretty awesome one, but her version is a little smaller than mine. This is my ultimate pig-out burger. We aren't talking polite, easy to eat, fine dining here. This is gluttony on a plate.
From the bottom up: A toasted, buttered King size sesame burger bun; fried onions; slices of beetroot (from a can); thick, medium rare home-made beef patty with plenty of flavouring from onion, fresh herbs, garlic and a few other secret ingredients; lots of Edam cheese melted onto the patty while its still in the frying pan; grilled free-farmed streaky bacon; fried organic free range egg, sunny-side up; a slice of canned pineapple; sliced fresh Beefsteak tomato; some nice fresh fancy lettuce; a swirl of tomato sauce and mayonnaise on the top bun, et voila!
Must be served with hot potato chips, which you may or may not finish, depending on your appetite. You'll have to excuse the amount of salt on the chips in my photo, The Man likes his liberally salted.

The best seafood pizza...

This is a Lobster pizza The Man and I had at the South Beach Restaurant on Mana Island, Fiji, in 2010. It was DELICIOUS. I'm not going to say that it was a perfect rendition of a genuine, authentic Italian pizza, because it wasn't. But the base was not too thick, the edges were crispy but not impossible to cut through, and the toppings were a wonderful combination of fresh lobster, prawns, onion, capsicum and a light, fresh tomato sauce base, with lashings of mayonnaise on top of it all. YUM.