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Hey Jensen, I'm blaming you for my injury!!!! Cheers Tom

Because I'm doing the foodblog at the moment I forgot to post this in this forum so here it goes: OMG I want to live at Jewel Bako. I want to marry Jack's sushi chef I can now never eat sushi im Australia again. As those of you in NY and NJ know last night was miserable, V and I caught a cab from the WA to JB and then she and I spent 10 minutes trying to find it. I knew I should have asked Soba what the exterior looked like -- It just does not stand out!!! We went into the restaurant and were promptly seated at the sushi bar where I had a great deal of pleasure watching the "junior" sushi chef removing the pin bones from some sort of fish (In Australia it looked like a garfish). V and I both got the omakase - mine with a sake flight and V's with the wine flight. Please note the descriptions of both flights will be limited, I was too busy enjoying the food and talking to Jack. The amuse was a silken tofu with peas seated on a slice of cucumber. I'm not a big tofu fan but this was great. We then moved on to a plate of tako, a lightly cooked lake fish, a tuna tartare and a japanese oyster. Now V doesn't usually eat oysters or tako but I swear she was watching my plate to see if I ate all of mine. Next up was a broad bean soup with silken tofu - while this was very good I would have been happy with just a normal miso soup. From here I can describe the sashimi and sushi but other than that I'm screwed - I was too busy listening to Jack and the sushi chef The sashimi was 6 different sorts - live shrimp, parrot fish. medium toro, Japanese snapper, Japanese Toro and something else I wish I could remember. The shrimp freaked V out as it was taken straight from a small aquarium, deheaded and then placed straight on the plate. The freaky bit for V was the legs on the shrimp were still moving on her plate and that really did not impress her. I have no idea where to start with the sushi as alot of posts on EG have talked about the sushi. I LOVED the seared otoro but I must admit I could have sat there at the bar all night eating sushi piece by piece. I also got a couple of extra pieces - a tako sushi and an unseared otoro sushi. Both of these were immaculate and really tasty Dessert was a coconut and lychee sorbet followed by a green tea mousse. MMMMMMM Bonus I got mine and then got to devour V's. Can anyone say heaven? I started with a cherry blossom sake and then Jack took over. To me some of Jack's descriptions had me floored for a moment until I tasted the sake. All were very, very good but the standout was the final sake (or plum wine I don't know I'm still confused). It was plum flavoured and gorgeous, something I've never tried but am going to be hunting it up somehow. I'll find it eventually. There were also a couple of sakes that Jack stated only he had in Manhattan so it was definitely worth the trip. Total bill was $337 including drinks, tax and tip Cheers Tom

Sorry misgabi, I missed this question but I'll do my best to answer it now. The things that I always crave when I come across to NY and NJ are clams, soft shell crabs, a decent hamburger, good pastrami, and a Nathan's hotdog. While they may seem basic they're my must haves and I always do. Hell after we arrived at JFK our first stop was down to City Island and Johnny's Reef - sorry egulleters but I like The Reef. For those of you who don't know the Reef - it's a DIVE!!!! Everything contains fat and you can feel your arteries hardening as you eat it. I usually start with a doz raw clams, then a serve of softshell crab with the hot sauce then back to another doz clams, mind you, you have to drink a couple of Buds with all of this to cut the fat Explaining a decent hamburger to an Australian is impossible A good burger should be MRare to Rare and a decent thickness not like the shit we get in Australia. In Aust. they're basically a processed slab of leather that you can only cook WDone. Pastrami well that's a given - I need either Katz or if we're not in that area, a quick trip to Harold's will hold me over until I can get to Katz. But that will now have to wait until the next trip Nathan's is an enough said!!! John the hotdog guy will prob disagree with me wanting one but that's just me. Australian hotdogs (unless you can find a great continental deli) are crap - 99% filler 1% something resembling meat. If only I could take back a box of Sabrett's but the wait will just make the taste next trip more worthwhile. Well now that I've pissed off the Australian egulleters about the state of burgers and hotdogs in Aust. I'll go check my email Cheers Tom

Hiya guys, looks like things are picking up around here Seeing as how my wife and I missed the big Xmas Eve dinner at the the IL's last year that's what's planned for tonight. In V's family it's a serious big deal and my MIL will spend most of the day in the kitchen doing prep for the 6pm dinner. Basically it's a seafood banquet - there will be shrimp scampi, fried calamari, lobster with drawn butter, baked clams, fried fish, some crab, alot of salad and probably some cappelini. I've been hearing about this meal for a couple of years now and am seriously looking forward to it... YUM seafood. I really wish I had a camera so I could post pics of all the food tonight but there's always next time We actually fly out of JFK Saturday night but there's still 2 days left on my "lively" commentary to come so keep it coming Hell being on crutches I couldn't get away from the computer if I wanted to Cheers Tom

Because of the fat content of a whole lamb we usually just rub the lamb with lemon juice and cloves of garlic. Combine this with the flavour of the charcoal and it's just MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM. Cheers Tom

Owen, there is absolutely nothing that will stop an Australian drinking, especially when you're with good friends and having a great time. To be honest, I thought that the sprain was relatively minor to start with - it wasn't until the next morning that I realized it was seriously screwed. As for places like TGIF and Connolly's, sometimes I seem to get cravings for mediocre food. Stuff where there is no premise that it'll be great just something to fill the gap... add to that relatively well priced drinks and I'm in heaven. The reason we're moving back here is that my wife is a born and bred NY'er, and used to work for UBS on 48th and Park. After we got married she decided that she'd like a change in her life and moved to Australia to be with me, I had preciously mentioned I'd be willing to move here but she wanted to try something new. Now after a year and with her licences expiring next year we decided that moving back wouldn't be a bad idea as I also want a change. SOOOOOOOO here we come We've spent alot of this trip checking out condo's, furniture and cars for the move back and we've decided that we'll probably move around Lincoln Park in NJ. Far enough away from NYC that we're out of the rat race but close enough for a day trip and some fun Cheers Tom

Oh no here we go - a rugby/ Australian Rules argument. Well I'm not getting into that seeing that EVERYONE knows that rugby players are mental midgets Funny though we were in a bar in Wharton last week and someone heard my accent and wanted to know if I wanted to play Union for Morristown when we come back so it looks like I'll be getting a lobotomy so I can fit into the team Cheers Tom

Basically the injury is the sprain from hell - I had a weak ankle from playing Aussie Rules football and this really just aggravated it alot more - to the extent of not being able to put any weight on it. Picture this it took me 30 minutes to "walk" from the entrance to the Port Authority to the gate our bus left from this morning. As for Connolly's, that's actually the sort of place our friends, V and I like - just somewhere to have a few drinks, sit and talk and maybe if we feel like it later grab something resembling food The bar we went to after to play pool was called snafu and they wont be getting me back there in a hurry Cheers Tom Edited because I forgot to mention V

First of all I'd like to apologize for going AWOL for nearly 24 hours. We met up with friends in Manhattan last night and ended up going to Connolys (47th between 5th and Madison) for a few drinks and catch up. We then headed to a bar called snafu - in all honesty the bar well and truly lived up to it's name!! I slipped on some metal checker plate, did some major soft tissue damage and then ended up in the ER at Newton hospital this afternoon for 3 hours. As much pain as I was in last night. it didn't stop us heading down to another Connolys for food. While I'm not going to say the food was great it was definitely edible.... we started with jalapeno poppers and onion rings. I'll admit these were pretty decent.. there was no hint of oil which for me is a major thing. We then moved onto a burger for me (Rare and good), a turkey club for my wife which she enjoyed - and to be honest I have no idea what the other 2 had. Hell by this stage pain was really starting to kick in and I had to resort to the natural pain killer of Guiness. It's times like that I'm thankful for alcohol Tonight is going to be take out Chinese from Chun Bo - at the moment that doesn't really bother me because the pain killers I was prescribed are GOOOOOOOD Onto a couple of questions I've been asked. Re the spit roasted lamb: There's actually a company down the road from the FH that rents out catering rotisseries and we usually get a great deal from them. Basically it's a large charcoal BBQ (think BIG Weber) and you're on the right track I usually set the lamb over the coals and as they burn down add more that I've previously lit and set in a 22gallon drum. By doing it this way you don't lose alot of the heat from the coals and everything works out well. The live shrimp really didn't bother me at all. I'll try anything twice so for me it was just some damn tasty shrimp sashimi Foods I miss, hmmmm that's a good question. Usually I bring a jar of vegemite but other than that I think we can pretty much get alot of our Australian favourites over here. One thing I can't get used to is Maine lobster.... in Australia, our lobster are the spiny tailed ones like you can get on the west coast and nothing like Maine lobster. Seeing as V and I are moving back here later this year, I have to admit I've stocked our cases with such things as tootsie pops, smuckers jelly and a few other things we can't get at home. Customs are going to have a field day with my bags in Sydney. I need some more pain killers but hopefully if they don't knock me out I'll be back later Cheers Tom

I have now managed to fall into the category of "unegullet" foodblog. After spending 5 hours at the NY auto show V and I headed to Time Square in search of anything resembling food!!!! Please note the weather in NY at the moment is FOUL!!! I'm absolutely saturated, walking up Broadway, getting pissed off with tourists so what do I say to V--- that's right the comment was " F^&k it TGI Fridays will do". As far as chain restaurants go in my mind TGIF isn't too bad, it's not great but when the weather is like this anything will do ... ok not quite anything, notice I skipped McDonalds, KFC and Wendys The pot stickers weren't bad (not China Town good but ok), the burger I had, while cooked MRare the way I like my burgers, was ok. Then again I didn't expect anything more than ok so at least I wasn't disappointed Tonight is drinks with V's old work collegues from UBS then god knows what, somehow I think Les Halles has gone out of the window. This is only due to the fact that V has to keep up her reputation with her ex coworkers and drink them under the table I might just follow her lead Cheers Tom

OMG I want to live at Jewel Bako. I want to marry Jack's sushi chef I can now never eat sushi im Australia again. As those of you in NY and NJ know last night was miserable, V and I caught a cab from the WA to JB and then she and I spent 10 minutes trying to find it. I knew I should have asked Soba what the exterior looked like -- It just does not stand out!!! We went into the restaurant and were promptly seated at the sushi bar where I had a great deal of pleasure watching the "junior" sushi chef removing the pin bones from some sort of fish (In Australia it looked like a garfish). V and I both got the omakase - mine with a sake flight and V's with the wine flight. Please note the descriptions of both flights will be limited, I was too busy enjoying the food and talking to Jack. The amuse was a silken tofu with peas seated on a slice of cucumber. I'm not a big tofu fan but this was great. We then moved on to a plate of tako, a lightly cooked lake fish, a tuna tartare and a japanese oyster. Now V doesn't usually eat oysters or tako but I swear she was watching my plate to see if I ate all of mine. Next up was a broad bean soup with silken tofu - while this was very good I would have been happy with just a normal miso soup. From here I can describe the sashimi and sushi but other than that I'm screwed - I was too busy listening to Jack and the sushi chef The sashimi was 6 different sorts - live shrimp, parrot fish. medium toro, Japanese snapper - and god knows what else. The shrimp freaked V out as it was taken straight from a small aquarium, deheaded and then placed straight on the plate. The freaky bit for V was the legs on the shrimp were still moving on her plate and that really did not impress her. I have no idea where to start with the sushi as alot of posts on EG have talked about the sushi. I LOVED the seared otoro but I must admit I could have sat there at the bar all night eating sushi piece by piece. I also got a couple of extra pieces - a tako sushi and an unseared otoro sushi. Both of these were immaculate and really tasty Dessert was a coconut and lychee sorbet followed by a green tea mousse. MMMMMMM Bonus I got mine and then got to devour V's. Can anyone say heaven I'm going to have to post later about the sake and wine flight - I really need more time to think about the flavours besides it's time to head to the Javits centre for the auto show. I'll be in heaven but V will be bitching Hope everyone has a great day Cheers Tom

OMG you watched that series?? I think it might have been shipped to France because no one in Australia wanted to watch it The kitchen in my FH is pretty basic in comparison ro some I've seen. Basically we've got 2 restaurant quality stoves and ovens -- they're both La Germania. 5 burners per stove top and the ovens are big enough to cook a small hippo Happily one of them has a rotisserie in it which allows us to "screw" around more with whatever we want. The only whine I have about the FH kitchen is there is NEVER enough counter space for prep --- other than that everything is perfect Cheers Tom

Misgabi, the only thing I can say about US food is everything's a hell of alot dearer!!!!! I bought 4 steaks last week in Costco and nearly had a heart attack - $28USD for four sirloins. For those Americans reading this that's what they are called in Australia - over here they're called something entirely different After beiing here for nearly 3 weeks I've now learnt - don't convert prices to AUD otherwise you'll just end up wanting to suicide Cheers Tom Edit - because I drank too much last night and my spelling sucked

Basically cooking in a firehouse is a pain in the ass!!! Everyone has a roster to follow and then dcides on the day what they're going to cook. We all put in a certain amount of $$ each week and then work to that budget ie $25 per person would get my shift about $400 for the week. We also have a great relaionship with butchers and seafood shops in our area so we get great deals:)) Other than that ANYTHING goes -BBQing ad Thai are n all time favourite at my FH. Cheers Tom

This is Tom coming to you live from the Waldorf in Manhattan :)) What a day to celebrate your aniversary, cod ad seriously trying to rain oh well Jewel Bako should definitely lift our spirits. Sake and sushi always have a tendency do that. But before that it's complimentary drinks at Oscar's bar..... a couple of martinis will do down very well especially when they're free :)) Anyway I'll report back later. Cheers Tom

I've always enjoyed cooking but I found once I joined the brigade I had no other option than to really get into it and become more adventurous. As a proby, every second night in the FH seemed to be my turn to cook and with a great ethnic diversity in our house -greek, italian, czechs, asian- the standard meat and 3 veg Australian meals just wouldn't cut it The variety that we eat in our FH is also different to alot of FH's around us - one day may be ribs, the next a curry of some sort, after that everything ranging from pasta through to roasts through to sushi if we catch the right guy on shift On top of that, every month we have a get together at someone's house (families invited) and it turns into a massive cookoff with prizes awarded at the end of the year for the best food Last November was actually my turn and we actually spit roasted an entire sheep, served up a couple of whole snapper (our red snapper in Australia are huge), added in a couple of roasts of beef and served it all with salads ranging from tabouli, to coleslaw to just a basic green salad. Unfortunately I didn't win the prize for the year seeing as how one of the other scumbags talked to his BIL, who's a lobster fisherman, and got about 100lbs of lobster, 50lbs of shrimp and 30lbs of crab - I call him scumbag affectionately Ahhhh the life of a firefighter Cheers Tom PS I didn't mention that usually just before a meal we'll get a job - so the chances of things being overcooked are usually pretty damn good

7.48am Monday morning and all is well in the world - Well except for the fact that it's sposed to rain for the next 2 days of which we're spending both in Manhattan. Seeing it's V's and my one year wedding anniversary today I decided to spoil her rotten and spend a couple of nights at the Waldorf Astoria, then have dinner at Jewel Bako. Tomorrow the plan is to head across to the Javits centre for the auto show, as for dinner that's another story - I'm tossing up between Les Halles or Nobu (even Nobu Next Door). So far Les Halles is winning out seeing that we're both big fans of "A Cook's Tour", but that's all a we'll see. For all I know we may end up meeting friends she used to work with in the UBS building next door to the WA, and just going to a bar - either one works for me Just to add more to the original intro. I spent 10 years in the Army before becoming a firefighter, I think both of these added to my interest in cooking and restaurants. The Army due to the fact that I got to travel throughout the world trying different cultures and foods, and being a firefighter because we have the brigade kitchen and all take turns trying to outdo each other with our culinary "expertise". During the Army phase of my life I was lucky enough to travel throughout Asia, a country in the Middle East (we can all guess which one), a small backwater in Africa (only one guess allowed here) and then did a stint on exchange in the US. The Asian side of things really set me off with such ingredients as lemongrass, chilis, galangal, and tumeric - I make one seriously mean curry if I do say so myself Asian influence is a big part of Australian cooking seeing we are so close and we can usually get fresh herbs and spices all year round, and we have a fairly large population of Asian background. V is a fairly "boring" cook but that's what happens when you've lived by yourself for 7 years and after getting home from work in Manhattan (a 1 1/2 hour commute from where she used to live in NJ) - but now she's slowly branching out into making and trying different things. Well it's almost that time of the morning where we head to Manhattan so I'll sign off for now and report later from the thriving metropolis of NYC. Cheers Tom

V just read the blog and said that I should describe how I make my gravy for turkey, so here it goes. Basically I start out with a homemade turkey stock. I take turkey bones (or chicken depending on whether I can get turkey) and root vegetables (celery, carrots and onions), then very slowly roast them for about an hour. They should be coloured but not too dark. I then place these in a slow cooker with about a dozen bay leaves, some sage, a touch of oregano and some dried shitake mushrooms. Because of the earthiness of the mushrooms they give the stock more body. Next you just cover all of this with water and LEAVE. Don't open, don't taste just LEAVE. FIL got yelled at 3 times yesterday for opening the slow cooker - call me pedantic that's just me. I usually leave my stock simmering very slowly overnight . When it's time I place the stock in the freezer so any fat solidifies, then skim, then push through a sieve. V's job is then to shred some of the meat from the stock and place in with the stock. When it's almost time to serve, I usually thicken with corn starch, not too much or you end up with a really floury gravy There it is people an Australian turkey gravy Enjoy Tom

What a day and all I can say is "THANK GOD IT"S OVER" The day started early with some food prep - dicing of potatoes, making of sausage stuffing, salad making, other and other veg prep and then moved onto roasting a turkey, a leg of lamb and a spiral ham. It's days like today I'm so glad my FIL has a beer machine Everyone started arriving early, about 12pm, to be precise for a very, very, very late lunch to be served at 3.30pm. Arms full of such goodies as chocolate bunnies, baked cheescake, cannolis, chocolate covered strawberrys and enough eggs to feed a mid size third world country I don't know about anybody else here but after a very full morning of cooking and food prep I never seem to be hungry when it's actually time to eat so I usually just end up picking. The table was slowly overloaded with the carved lamb, turkey and ham and then further filled with mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, sauteed mushrooms, asparagus, broccoli, stuffing, 2 types of gravy (my home made turkey gravy was of course the best ), corn and bread rolls. What a spread!!! And to tell you the truth I ate so much I can't actually describe how good everything was - the picking sort of went way out of the window today. After clearing the tables, having a few more beers, spinning a ton of BS it was dessert time. Dessert was just as much a meal as the actual main course - 1 huge chocolate fudge and vanillla birthday cake (3 of us celebrate birthdays in the space of 2 weeks), cannoli, chocolate covered strawberries, vanilla fudge cup cakes, and I made an Australian favourite lamingtons. For the uniniated lamingtons are sponge cake dipped in a chocolate sauce and then rolled in desicated coconut. Why couldn't I just stop at one cannoli - why oh why did I have to eat 10 of the damned things?? Do I detect lactose intolerance coming on?? And now we all know what time it is - it's time to the dishes. I think my MIL is one of the last people in NJ to get a dishwasher, then again who needs one she's got my wife and I I'll probably check in a little later if not tomorrow's issue will be coming live from Manhattan - lunch god knows what for lunch but dinner is Jewel Bako. I hope everyone had as good an Easter as me. Happy Easter Tom

Hmmmm that's always a bad omen when someone wishes you luck

Well today I'm going to start this blog very slowly as I had a very bad night with the youngsters of my family (read too many beers and way too many shots). I'll start with an introduction and then later today I'll post about the mayhem and madness making and devouring Easter lunch My wife is a NYer born and bred - Me, I'm Australian through and through. We met just after 9-11, when I was across here on an exchange with the fire department. AFter spending 3 weeks in NJ and NY together, then my wife (I'll call her V) visiting me for 2 weeks in Australia, we got married last April in NJ - tomorrow's the big one year anniversary. For those of you wine conniseurs, we currently live in the Clare Valley in Australia which is the home of such great wineries as Taylors, Wolf Blass, Penfolds, Barrys and MANY other smaller boutique wineries - god I could spend a day here just writing about the wineries in our area. I believe grand total it's about 120 wineries both big and small, good and bad The unfortunate part of living where we do is that restaurants and supermarkets are few and far between, and sometimes it's just basically a pain in the ass trying to get the supplies I want for a meal. Our family over here actually moved to NJ from the Bronx back in the 80's. They're Italian-American, so food is definitely a thing of importance which is great for me because good food is damn important to me too. I'm the youngest of the "kids" so I get ALOT of perks until it comes to cooking and then they basically shut the kitchen door and leave me locked in there until the food is ready They're slowly realizing that I'm a better cook than the MIL, so every time we come back for vacation I get an email from my FIL requesting various things. One day I'm going to have the nerve to tell him that grilling when it's like 32F outside is just not fun!!!!! Food wise, V and I will basically eat anything - Japanese, Chinese, Thai, Italian, Greek - you name it, we'll eat it. OK I'm lieing, the only offal I'll eat are kidneys and V will eat nothing of the sort. Call me a wuss if you like but that's just me, other than that everything's fair game.... those deer and groundhogs in Dad's backyard are looking pretty damn good. Anyone know what groundhog tastes like?? Anyway that's all for now, I have Easter lunch to hook into and make (read create ) and then later today I'll post about dinner last night and lunch today. Cheers Tom PS I hope everyone has a great Easter and just keep on smiling NOTE: sorry guys I'm yet to move into the 21st century so there won't be any pics just verbal descriptions of what we're eating

This year instead of the usual buffet at the Lake Mohawk Country Club it's a huge family affair for about 30 people at the IL's. Roast turkey, roast lamb, a ham and all the trimmings Oh and did I mention lots of beer . So it looks like Sunday will be a busy day for me as I'll be helping the MIL do all the cooking, I definitely wouldn't trust my wife in the kitchen with her. I hope everyone has a great Easter and I look forward to meeting most of you when we come back permanently in Aug-Sept. Cheers Tom

I agree.. it is a really loud and boisterous place but the food was good. I forgot to mention the service. That was very good, the waitress really knew her stuff and could answer ANY question we threw at her plus she was smiling. The smiling may seem like a miniscule thing but the number I've been served by someone who doesn't seemm to want to be there (at various restaurants) is too many to count and that can definitely sour a good night out Cheers Tom

Last night my wife and cruised into Manhattan from NJ to meet up with friends at Angelo and Maxie's. Unfortunately the restaurant on midtown is now closed so it had to be Park and 19th. We started in the bar which was noisy but a fun atmosphere and we cannot complain about the drinks at all. Two of us had "dirty" martinis, my wife had a raspberry stoli and coke and there was one club soda (nobody can screw up a club soda ). The drinks were well made and the "dirtys" had just the right amount of olive juice and olves without making them "heartburn" in a glass. We then moved into the retaurant, sat down, perused the menu's and talked BS before ordering. For appetizers we ordered baked clams, a fried calamari and the carpaccio with arugals and shaved parmesan. While everything was good, especially the carpaccio- I felt the clams and calamari were a little on the oily side, but in the same breathe you don't goto a steakhouse for a health kick . Entrees were ordered and out guests ordered the shrimp scampi and a special of chilean sea bass, both were reported to be very, very good. My wife ordered the burger which seems to be a reguler occurence for her at A&M, while I got the fillet mignon with an absolutely gorgeous bernaise sauce. I of course ordered rare and the steak was perfect, but oh god that bernaise Sides ordered were "just" garlic mashed potatoes... this was another really good choice. I finished the evening with a 10 year old port which was the perfect end to a great night. For a romantic evening A&M definitely isn't it... it's loud and full on but for a fun night with very good friends it's a very good option. The final check was $208 for the four of us not including tip ($250) and considering the quantity and quality of food and drinks I thought it was quite good value. Cheers Tom PS Being Australian was that enough of a tip??

I've already PM'd Jen and mentioned I'd be more than happy to follow after Mayhaw as that would include meals in Manhattan as well as through out NJ, and won't coincide with any flights anywhere Cheers Tom