Fresh flavours: Prawn Laksa

In response to The Daily Post’s weekly photo challenge: “Fresh.”

Call it strange, call it convenient, but this week’s “Fresh” Photo Challenge happened to coincide with the very weekend I was considering preparing a Prawn Laksa for dinner.

There is just so much to love about classic South-East Asian flavours such as lime, chilli, fish sauce and coconut – the perfect fusion of sour, hot, salty and sweet. I’ll admit I took a shortcut and used a store-bought paste, but the results were still tastebud-tingling terrific (even if I do say so myself)!

I don’t cook fresh seafood all that often, so in case I don’t do so again for a while, this will also be…

My pick for OhMyGlai!’s Flavour of Month for April: Prawn/Shrimp

Mango-licious (Flavour of the Month)

If you couldn’t tell, I can’t resist a foodie blog event, so I was very excited to discover that Glai from Oh, My Glai! (another one of my fellow Blogging101 graduates) recently created a monthly challenge called Flavour of the Month. Consider me on board!

I’ll admit that I was a bit hesitant when I saw that this month’s flavour was mango, as it really isn’t one of my favourite foods at all (although I can’t put my finger exactly what it is about mangoes I don’t like…go figure!) However, there was one occasion in particular where my opinion of the humble mango was completely swayed in the opposite direction.

I was on holiday with my Other Half in Koh Samui, Thailand a few years back and we were scouring the menu for something sweet to finish off the delicious Tapas lunch we had just enjoyed (more about that in a future post). Immediately, my coconut icecream-seeking radar hit the jackpot – I was so excited that I didn’t notice that it was served with mango, and therefore missed the opportunity to politely request the dessert be served without it.

When it arrived, I couldn’t wait to sink my spoon into the cool, delicious icecream, but because I was on holiday and feeling rather generous, I decided to give the mango one last chance to prove itself.

Oh. My. Goodness.

Never in my life had I tasted something so sweet, juicy and delicious! The mango was so fresh, it was still warm from the sun that it had been basking in before it was gently plucked from the tree only several minutes beforehand.

Unfortunately the photo below doesn’t do a great job of representing the mango itself (as previously mentioned, it was the coconut icecream I was particularly enthused with, and once I’d started on my dessert, there was no stopping me until my plate was clear), but I’m sure you get the idea:

I couldn’t possibly omit mention of another magical mango moment in my life…

Although it was several months ago, I still dream about my very good friend’s delicious summer pavlova we enjoyed at a pre-Christmas picnic. She had pre-prepared the perfectly light-and-crisp-on-the-outside-chewy-on-the-inside meringue, and decorated it before our very (tempted) eyes under the trees. Instead of the traditional kiwi fruit or strawberries, she chose to give the topping a tropical twist with freshly-sliced banana and mango. It was (to say the least) absolutely di-vine!

Needless to say there was nary a crumb left! Mango-licious indeed…