Perfect Day - dinner

Absolutely not even slightly close. Way too many contenders.

Braised lamb shanks with mashed potato.
My alchemy dish. You don't taste this at the beginning. I tried tasting it at the beginning once. So completely revolting. Two hours slow braising later. Incredible.

BBQ Baby back ribs, shoe-string fries, baked beans and coleslaw.
Was introduced to baby-back ribs during my American sojurn. There isn't a ribs culture here in Australia. Check any butchers. The ribs get cut in half. So they don't sit properly in the BBQ. If I order in advance I can get these magnificent fred flintstone sized racks. Beautiful. I make do the best I can. I subscribe to the, remove the membrane, dry rub, slow cook for several hours, then baste in the last hour with a bbq sauce made with the same set of spices in the rub.

Medium rare Rib-eye, side order of asparagus.
Can never beat a steak. Of course if I can go and hit a steak house like the Breakfast Creek or Morton's even better. With Morton's I'll get a dry martini to start and horse raddish on the side. Breakfast Creek dropped a notch to me when they stopped serving Guinness on tap.

Twice cooked pork belly
In our anti-fat obsessed culture this is a no-no. But this is a yes-yes. Best that I've had was at a degustation dinner at Aria Sydney. The fat was amazing. I just wanted to keep eating it. The skin was so crisp. The contrast of textures...

Beef Wellington, roasted potatoes and brussel sprouts
The pivotal Christmas lunch. Mum went all out. Serving a multi-course lunch. I've done roasts for lunch on the 25th. But these days I've got air-conditioning, and do the turkey on the BBQ. I've started making wellingtons myself these days. Its my bachelor evening dinner. I've diverged from Mum's traditional recipe. I've taken a shine to Gordon Ramsay's interpretation. I fully suspect that its got to do with the mushrooms and hot english mustard that goes into the mix.

Beef Strogonoff with egg noodles
Childhood comfort food classic. Beef, mushrooms and mustard. Am I seeing a theme here? Although I know the egg noodles in their little nests were also a big hit.

Spaghetti Bolognese
Started with an alchemy gist, nice to end with it. The mix of beef and pork mince, onion, celery, carrot, tomato, beef stock, herbs. Eat it straight-away, great. Leave it an hour or more, amazing. I'd like to leave it a couple of days one time. Just to let it get even better. Never been able to leave it that long.

My mouth would be happy around any of these. My realization is that except for the pork belly I cook all of them. The belly is only a matter of time. I've got some Bangalow pork belly downstairs in the freezer...