Inspired by eating, now made by me

Have you ever had a dish at a restaurant that thought was so amazing yet simple, feel inspired to try & make it yourself at home? I have. The things that I now make regularly which were inspired in this way are:

* yoghurt with fruit salad, seeds, fruit salad & mint from some eco-tourism resort in QLD;
* seared scallops with cous cous salad, orange, mint & pistachios from a pub in Berry
* brown rice risotto with mushroom ragu, from the vegie bar, melbourne
* thai green papaya salad, my usual barometer dish at any thai place that offers it.

Okay, so the last dish isn't so simple, but I tried making it last night because it was too darn hot. I used the recipe from the hot pink thai food book. The worst bit was shredding the papaya. I pretty much shredded my hands using a cheese grater. The papaya was slimey in an oozing kind of way, and very hard to hold onto when i was trying to grate it. The potato peeler didn't really work in taking off the skin.... It result was tasty though! I only used 2x of the small thai scud chillies, but the sauce nearly blew my head off. Next time though .... less peanut in the sauce... more as an addition instead. And I'm quartering the papaya, removing the seed, & slicing it with the food processor. A pic when I can upload it.