At the time of my last post I was about to embark on some time in New York. After a few days here it's easy to see why people are so passionate about this place. It's a pretty awesome city to look around, and if I had to live in the US, this is one of the places I could do it.

So far we've done the MET, the American Museum of Natural History, been on the subway, seen Times Square, been honked at by irate taxi drivers, and to a few department stores (which cost more than all the other attractions combined). But this is a food website, and surely what you want to know about is that thing on the left.

That's the first course of the seven course menu of Chef Vongerichtens Assortment of Signature Dishes at Jean-Georges, a three Michelin starred restaurant at the South-West corner of Central Park. It's a soft boiled egg, topped with vodka infused cream. Oh yeah, and caviar. This is one of the dishes that Jean-Georges is famous for, and it's indicative of the rest of the menu. It's simple food in terms of complexity of ingredients, flavours or textures, but extremely well executed. And while many of the ingredients may not be particularly exotic, they are....showy. And expensive. Lobster, foie gras, and caviar. Frog's legs, garlic soup, scallops and squab also made the list.

It certainly wasn't cheap, even factoring out the bottle of Californian chardonnay (another good American wine, damn it) and the strong Aussie dollar, it was probably the more expensive meal we've ever eaten. I'd describe it as flawless, but that's perhaps a tad strong, so instead I'll say it was without flaws. I can't legitimately complain about anything they served, or how it was served, but it wasn't quite as mind blowing as I would have liked for the price. It comes down to personal preference, for what it is it's fantastic. But since starting this site I've decided I prefer cuisine that's a little more daring or creative.

Last night we dined at a Thai/Japanese place around the corner from our hotel after a long day out museum-ing, but today was another food oriented type day. Lunch was spent at The Oyster Bar, a New York stalwart that resides in the bowels of Grand Central Station. The setting is far from glamorous, but you don't come here for the surroundings. You come here for the selection of oysters, and what a selection it is. Sarah had a half dozen varieties, and still barely scratched the surface (incidentally, I had a beer and some fries).

We wandered the afternoon away exploring Central Park, well maybe about a third of it. I knew it was big, I never really knew how big. But I'm again getting off topic. Dinner was a short cab ride (which I also love here) down Park Avenue to Les Halles Brasserie, the restaurant that made Anthony Bourdain famous.

Sarah and I both really enjoyed Anthony Bourdain's book, "Kitchen Confidential". So when we started planning our trip to New York we decided we had to make it here. There are actually two Les Halles in town, one on Park Ave and one a lot further away, I'm not sure which one was the original. We turned up about twenty minutes before our reservation (cab issues), and had to wait at the bar for about forty before our table was ready. It was busier than we had expected, when we were finally seated there were still a bunch of people waiting for tables, and when we left there had to be 30 people queuing. I'm not sure if it was this popular before the book, but it can only have done good things for its business.

The room itself was pretty loud and crowded and I didn't much go for their choice of music, but most importantly the food did not disappoint. From the house made rillettes to the beef short ribs, and (obviously) the steak with pommes frites, we were happy campers. The portion size was generous, even the dessert (a chocolate creme brulee) was large enough for Sarah and I to share without clashing spoons.

So that's almost it for our NYC adventure. We have a couple more days in which to find a hotdog, see a Broadway show, and a few other miscellaneous attractions. But the next post I make will probably be from Boston, or failing that back in LA before heading to San Francisco.

Since my last post we had a chance to see a little more of Los Angeles. And the only thing I could think as we drove around was "wow". And not always for the way you might think. We bought a ubiquitous star map and began on what can only be described as a slightly stalkerish tour of Beverly Hills, looking at famous peoples houses and being reminded that some people simply have too much money. More still have too little taste.

Also, forget everything you've heard about Hollywood. For the most part, it's not fancy, it's not glamorous. It's a giant hole. There's a reason why, when The Oscars are on tv, that the cameras never venture far from the red carpet, or even turn around and look at the opposite side of the street. When our guide (Sarah's cousin Vanessa) asked if we would like to get out and wander about the "walk of fame", I was busy making sure the car doors were locked.

But this is a food blog, so I should at least mention food a little. For morning tea we went to Sprinkles, a cupcake bakery in Beverly Hills. Delicious, sweet and moist with a disturbing amount of flavoured icing, it's like a heart attack in a cake mould.

For lunch, as promised, we arrived at Hooters in Santa Monica. It's basically everything you expect and less. Waitresses in small and tight clothing wandering about making it very awkward to look about. I simply didn't know where to look, so I spent most of my time there staring at my food. The wings were okay, the burger less than average. It was like McDonalds, but slightly bigger and drier; and delivered by a singlet with a face. I turned down the chance to get my photo taken with a Hooters girl, and it's fair to say I won't be back.

That evening we cooked a meal for our hosts (including poached pears in port and pastry and then were off early the next morning for the East Coast. That's where you find me now, lying on the bed at The Pod Hotel on East 51st street, after demolishing the best part of a "small" pizza bought around the corner on 2nd Ave. I'm not sure of the name of the pizza place, but it was past the first pizza place but not as far away as the third. I've been in New York no more than a few hours and I already love this place.

Tomorrow is to be filled with culture, and then what will hopefully be the best meal of our lives (so far), it's certainly at the best internationally regarded restaurant we've ever been.

We finally made it! We arrived at Melbourne Airport characteristically early, only to have a half hour delay boarding our direct flight to LA due to it arriving late (allegedly). Once we did board we were informed there had been a slight mechanical fault with one of the engines and the engineers were on fixing it. Once fixed we pushed back from the gate to the taxiway, started the engine, turns out it wasn't fixed, were pulled back to the gate, re-fixed, tested, and away. We'd been sitting on the tarmac for approximately 3 hours by this stage. At least they brought us water and snacks.

A short 14 hour hop across the Pacific and here we are in LA. After a quick drop by admissibility control for Sarah (her passport threw up some flag which resulted in them having to ask her questions like: "when have you been denied entry to the US before?" (never) and when were you last in North or South Dakota?"(never). This was all cleared up in the end and we made it to Sarah's cousin's house near Venice Beach. We had a brief wander around the beachfront and jetty before crashing for a couple of hours due to jet-lag.

For dinner we went to craft, a restaurant owned by some form of celebrity chef - Tom Coicchio, who is apparently one of the judges on America's Top Chef. It's also some food festival going on in LA at the moment, so the menu was limited to a "Dine LA menu", a tapas type affair with entrees, sides and desserts shared by the table, and a choice of mains. Sarah had Diver Sea Scallops (which were huge) and I had the Braised Beef Short Ribs. Why don't we get this cut in Australia? It has got about the same meat/fat ratio as pork belly, but with beef. And the fat flows in deliciously melty fatty goodness throughout the meat, rather thatn just on the top. We "went native" and also got a bottle of shiraz (or Syrah as they prefer) from the Napa Valley. It annoys me that America can make good wine, it's so much more fun to pretend that it's all to crass over here, it makes us feel superior.

And speaking of crass......
Day 2 in LA - Disneyland
Sarah had been excited about going to Disneyland for, well pretty much ever. She maintains that when she was younger the other kids at her school used a Disneyland trip as a sort of status symbol. Now a short 20 years later she showed them.

I won't say much about The Happiest Place On Earth. Maybe just one tip for anyone planning their own trip to The Magic Kingdom (sorry, I love the amount of names they've come up with), if catching the shuttle from LAX, just because a bus has a sign on the dashboard that says: "Disneyland Express", that doesn't make it THE Disneyland Express. Turns out it might just be some guy in with a mini-van and some spare time. But hey, he got us there.

On the bus home (a different bus run by a more reputable bus company) Sarah decided we should do some real, traditional modern American cuisine. So she's currently out getting Mexican take away.
Tomorrow will be spent touring LA (the touristy stuff, Beverly Hills, Hollywood, that sort of thing) although there has been some talk of lunch at that great American institution Hooters. Just so we're clear that was NOT my idea.

Tomorrow my wonderful Gourmet Wife Sarah and I depart on a much needed three week holiday to the United States. As is out wont, we are intending to do quite a few food centric activities. Including, but not limited to:

We'll be doing LA, New York, Boston, San Fransisco, and Las Vegas. I'll be blogging the best of what we find, as well as posting photos and tweeting the journey. We've booked in with Dave to do a podcast the weekend after we get back, so I should have plenty to say. But for now I'm off to finish packing.

So as many of you may know (especially those of you who found the site via the article), GourmetHusbands.com featured as one of eight Melbourne food blogs in the Herald Sun Extra Food liftout. Us, along with: Breakfast Out, Eating Melbourne, Eating With Jack, Fitzroyalty, Melbourne Gastronome, Totally Addicted To Taste, and Where's The Beef? were described as eight of Melbourne's best food blogs that review. I have to say, after being in this game only a year I felt quite honoured to be in such company. One thing I would like to clear up is the quote attributed to me by the Herald Sun was actually from Dave, I sent them a quote that sounded a lot less like a wanker.

While the section on blogs took up half the page, the real action came before. The article itself, on food blogs, was mostly devoted to an interview with George "I don't like bloggers" Calombaris. For someone who is obviously a talented chef, successful restaurateur, and extremely media savvy, something about this interview seemed absolutely bizarre. It's just bad PR. I won't go too far in my analysis, instead I'll just point to the great article at Eating Melbourne, where you'll find the thoughts of most of Melbourne bloggers accurately reflected.

Now like I mentioned, I'm new to this game. However, when everyone's third favourite Masterchef judge comes out and says bloggers "have no idea about restaurants. They've no idea how they're run", something really got to me. I think the reason it annoyed me so much is that while I may write about the food that I eat, I'm a paying customer first, and a writer second. I wonder how many professional critics can say the same (I'm thinking zero). I'd just like to point out that I willingly make concessions for a restaurant that is having a bad night, and most bloggers do the same.

On a final note is the downright odd quote from George: "what does wind me up about it is that you're not able to respond to them".
Read that again.
Has he ever seen a blog? There's a comments button right there. On every one. I'm yet to find a print review with such an immediate right of response, I've tried clicking my mouse on the paper but so far nothing has happened.

Anyway, rant over. I hope those of you who have found our site through either the article, or links from other people mentioning it, have a look around. Feel free to make use of comments button, everything on this site is opinion, everything is open for debate, and that's half the point.