As a Californian, now living in New Zealand with 20 odd years spent in the Caribbean in between, my cooking style has had a lot of different influences. After several years in other businesses, we finally came to NZ 7 years ago, and with no experience other than eating in a lot of them, we opened a cafe! Our firends thought we were nuts, and in retrospect, we were. But, even though it is HARD work, we love it. It always amazes me how few people know how to cook, or enjoy doing it. There is tremendous pleasure in preparing something, even something simple, and having it brighten up someone else's day. Right now, I am on a Pork Belly kick -- thrice cooked (par-boiled, browned, braised) 'Dong-Po' is the best. I have also been enjoying doing a whole, oven roasted local Salmon with herb mayo lately for dinner parties. I also love to play with Asian inspired marinades - getting the blance of sweet, salty, sour and hot just right. My mother loved Mexican food, and definately past the taste on to me. I always loved my m,om's enchiladas and tacos, and often whip up something like that quick for dinner. When I have more time, I make home-made Tamales. It's time consuming, but worth it. We have a hard time getting decent whole roasting turkeys here in NZ, but there is nothing like spending a day preparing 'the works' for a holiday dinner. I recently catered for a group of 18 - 22 for 18 days straight. I had prep support ffrom the cafe (they were able to make all the cookies, muffins, cakes, etc) but I single-handedly managed all the main dishes, plus the orgization and ordering supplies. The group was so impressed they gave me a gift certificate and I had a real Sally Field's moment: They like me! They really like me! Serving things at dinner parties, not realizing that they weren't things that everyone liked or had tasted before. I was shocked when an important client turned up for the lovely roast lamb and said he had never eaten lamb before! Corned Beef was another one.