The Australian advantage!

This feast of seafood is a great illustration of what it's like to live in an Australian coastal city. I would add "in summer" to that, but, really, this is what it's like all the time! Seafood is easily available, relatively cheap and of extremely high quality here in Australia; we really are so lucky.
These are 2 large platters of fresh prawns I enjoyed for dinner at my godparent's house a few days ago. One platter was covered in homemade mayonnaise, and the other was served with a Japanese dipping sauce of light soy sauce and wasabi - a combination that was perfect for a Summer meal! My godfather even went to great effort to present his prawns in a perfect, artistic circle; he feels a sense of presentation competition now that I have this blog, and I was only too happy to reward his efforts by posting a photo on this site!
This was the final dish of a multi-course seafood dinner that started with an enormous platter of cold, fresh oysters (very cheap here in Melbourne) with fresh lemon and cracked pepper, followed by an incredible seafood risotto - made with fresh scallops, prawns and fish. The secret ingredient, I was told, was the champagne added to the fish stock when cooking the risotto rice. A great tip! And a good excuse to open another bottle of bubbly at this holiday time!