The Waterfront, Sydney

My wonderful big sister Charlotte treated me and Alexa to dinner at The Waterfront restaurant as a belated birthday present. She organised the best seats in the house and we were wined and dined under the stars. We shared a seafood platter, but not just any old seafood platter, Paremsan crusted scallops, callamari with a creamy lemon mayonaise, muscles marinated in a spicy tomato relish and prawns the size of my fist. I kept it classic with a chicken tandoori pizza, served with a big dollop of tatziki and a sprinkling of roast cashews. The panna cotta served with sweet peaches, raspberry coulis and crumbled biscotti sealed the deal on a very enjoyable night!

The Yasawa Islands, Fii

Fijian cuisine is fresh and exotic. They have exhausted the uses of a coconut; coconut water as a refreshing drink, coconut milk for mild fish curries, coconut cream for the traditional cold starter ‘Kokoda,’ desiccated coconut for baking and chunks of fresh coconut for snacking. In a Fijian cooking lesson we made Kokoda (pronounced Ko-kon-da) by marinating white fish in lime juice which naturally cooks it, adding it to finely sliced tomato, cucumber and onion and finishing with coconut cream.