So who’s the winner?

This is my last week in the land of plenty and this will be the final post. At least in New York.

I am joined by brother number two who comes with culinary skills equal to some of the city’s finest big chow providers and so the contest begins.

There’s no need for the gratuitous posturing though!

In fact we have seen a few contests during his stay including two squirrels fighting over an acorn in the park, the Brooklyn Nets taking on the Boston Celtics and the New York Knicks taking on the Chicago Bulls. The squirrel fight turned out to be the most entertaining.

In summarizing the visit and the food (its mostly about the food of course) there is little doubt that this city of varied smells, sounds and towering structures (cheesecake) has no equal in the world. We have already tried Scotland and found it wanting.

But I’m not so sure it has it all. Not absolutely.

The burger from McDonalds in New York is easily as rubbish here as it is back home.

And I am convinced we do snowmen better.

And are these creatures actually real dogs?

And lets remember that I easily produced the best burger in New York.

Now what can brother number two bring to the table.

How about Mac’n’Cheese

Tasked like heaven and even New York hasn’t produced anything of that quality yet!

And as for the lasagne…

You would have thought New York could have done better with its Italian population. But no…

It has left us cold

However…

I cannot forget what New York has given me and my series of visitors. Cheesecake to die for, chilli dogs and sandwiches we can only dream of ever finding on one of our cafes. It has pushed its way into our thoughts and hearts like nothing else and for that reason, New York takes it by a furlong.

I fly next week home to the Bonnie land of my youth and am glad I am doing so.

But I will miss New York. Thank you for having me and Merry Xmas.

Thanksguzzling

Now we come near the end of my food adventure and sadly my nearest and most expensive (I mean dearest) has flown for wintrier climes. Now instead of giant cakes she must tolerate mediocre slices left over from yesterday’s poor sales. She will stumble into potholes instead of cellar doors, she will run round the Inverness distributor road instead of Central Park and she will no longer have to leap from the road to avoid mad taxi drivers (oh hang on, that’s just the same isn’t it?).

Worse. I will soon be coming back to all that too!

Nonetheless before she left me stranded here all alone she did do some more eating.

Picture above halfway through a small delicacy to take the edge off her appetite prior to dinner.

New Yorker’s take thanksgiving seriously. They don’t thank anyone for going into their shops and spending money but they do get all ‘have a happy holiday’ and smile a bit more. And as soon as thanksgiving is out of the way the Xmas trees came out lining the streets and introducing us to a new street trader desperate to get you to part with your money. It’s full steam ahead to Kris Kringle’s big day here with shops lit up, amazing window displays and at every turn a different take on sparkliness.

Getting into the spirit of it all, for our thanksgiving we decided to thank farmers for keeping cows overfed and for hens producing daily protein pills.

All home cooked of course but wonderful fresh ingredients from the amazing http://www.traderjoes.com/ on Broadway/72nd Street. This supermarket is like a maze and you can remain lost in it for days.

My good lady was also treated to the best burger in New York prepared the same way

but on a different day. Honest!

Dessert came direct from Trader Joe’s hot air balloon factory.

That’s one to show our local bakeries back home.

Here’s some more balloons.

As our holiday weekend treat (apart from enjoying the Macy’s parade of inflatable advertising) we took a trip to Coney Island to enjoy the sea breeze and to see New York folk enjoying the beach.

It was closed of course.

But there was still a few birds about enjoying the attractions.

The attractions being our lunch…

Sourced at the amazing Nathans http://www.nathansfamous.com/

Which thankfully was open.

We considered trying Nathan’s challenge which currently sits at 69 hot dogs.

But as you know neither of us has much of an appetite…