This is a special post as it marks the 1000th subscriber to The Travelling Pantry – so thanks to everyone that has made it happen! It also represents the end of one journey and beginning of a new one (leaving Melbourne and moving back to the UK). 
I began the blog in order to document all the recipes my mum has passed onto me and keep track of particularly notable recent foodie discoveries. My weathered, chocolate blobbed, Pollock-esque book was looking haggard and if it didn’t fall apart or disintegrate it could burn in a fire or die in some other natural disaster, so the blog made a lot of sense! 
Food styling evolved naturally from photographing my home cooking and my love for this developed further from assisting stylists and then freelance opportunities. Melbourne has been great inspiration as well as all the people I have met – Sandra from ‘La Cucina di Sandra’ cooking lessons gave me the freedom to style her delicious food as I wanted, every dish was an absolute pleasure to work with. Alison from ‘Alison McWhirter Photography’ has been a delight to work with, photographing food as I style it. Jeremy from ‘Really Melbourne’ has given me great opportunities and then there’s the support of friends, family and my Ben (who couldn’t have been 1 molecule more supportive) and always available to eat and critique! Thank you. http://www.lacucinadisandra.com.au/ http://www.alisonmcwhirter.com.au/ http://reallymelbourne.com.au/ 
I’ll be gone for a while as I travel around a bit on route back to the UK but should hopefully find some interesting recipes along the way, which I’ll pick-up from London. This recipe could not be simpler and is basically a case of cooking the noodles, a bit of chopping and whisking together the dressing ingredients. 
Ingredients Serves 2
- Noodles, such as Soba for 2 ppl
- 1 Lebanese cucumber, watery seeds removed
- 3 spring onions, thinly diced
- 10 med-large cooked prawns, peeled, tails intact and deveined
- ½ cup roughly chopped coriander
- Toasted sesame seeds
Sesame-ginger dressing
- 35ml light soy sauce
- 25ml brown rice vinegar
- 25ml olive oil
- 1 tbsp hulled tahini
- 1 tsp finely grated ginger
Method First chop cucumber, spring onions and coriander so ready to use. Toast your sesame seeds also ready to garnish and prepare prawns. Cook noodles according to packet instructions, drain and immerse in icy cold water. 
Whisk all dressing ingredients together and season with black pepper. Drain noodles and pour over dressing, mixing in. Add cucumber and spring onion then toss to combine. Top noodles with prawns then scatter over coriander and sesame seeds. 
The Travelling Pantry 
It has also been an absolute delight to work with and to get to know you Katie! Such a bitter sweet moment – having just found you and forming a lovely friendship…only to say goodbye : ( But I bid you a fond farewell as your next Travelling Pantry adventure begins back in the UK. Will be watching with great interest – I know you will do well!
Ah that’s nice! I will bring your light next time I see you, it’s tall enough to be me….just a bit quieter and maybe a little brighter too! Haha
This looks delicious! Congratulations on 1000 followers! That is amazing! Good luck on your move.
Beautifully presented and inspiring!
Lovely! What noodles did you use/suggest?
Forgot to say! I used soba noodles but egg noodles and most noodles would work, just nothing too thin I’d say.
This looks so amazing! I have to try it out! Lovely pics!
http://xoamys.com/
Oh yay!!
Congratulations!!
Here’s to another 1000 subscribers and 1000 more incredibly tasty visuals 😀
Wow, looks beautiful! I love noodle dishes like this. Congrats on your 1000 followers! Hope all goes smoothly with your move!
Wow, this looks incredible!
Wow!! This remands me Asian countries!! So yum!
Congrats on this milestone and all the best for the upcoming move! The soba salad looks delicious and sounds healthy 🙂
You Are a Dream Katie. Loved working with you.
I’m not sure if you participate in blog awards, but I just nominated you for the Versatile Blog Award! I just wanted to let you know that I truly find your blog inspirational – it makes me want to try branching out to foods that are not necessarily in my comfort zone. Either way, keep up the great, delicious work!
Award stuff here: https://ajarofdreams.wordpress.com/2015/02/19/103-the-versatile-blogger-award/