The food

22 hours of travel and we’re back where it all started . Driving the freeways with little traffic , rain pelting sideways , the windscreen wipers at full speed , complete whiteout conditions, but there’s a sense of calm . We know where we are headed , the BP servo , We get there , Emma and I look at each other sideways with a glint in our eye and a skip in the heart beat . Tex is even declaring something better than what the Americans dish up for the first time since he left . Leroy? Yeah nothing changes for him , it’s McDonald’s as usual . Tex gets Oporto chicken and chips , and admits that it’s true , this stuff is so much better than back in LA.. Emma and I ? This picture says it all I devoured this pie in under 2 minutes and then gently closed my eyes whilst savouring every succulent drop of a large cappuccino. Bang ! There it is the distinctly different life of living in Melbourne as opposed to LA . The food in almost any form is superior back in Australia. I thought it was a bias based on familiarity and patriotism and I admit my bias ,but after living in LA for 2 years I thought my tastes and opinion might adjust . No , in just 3 days everything that I thought might fade is shinier than ever , and the food …….Wow , you take it for granted when it’s all you know ,but when you live in LA you occasionally think about the simple things and sigh , shit we’ve got it so good back here but hardly anyone knows .

You sit down and read the paper and the first page I turn to reinforces why we are so lucky . I smile when I read the statement Within 2 hours of settling back home we are already at a friends house watching the football drinking beer , port , wine and more . Geezus , just 24 hours ago I was on the other side of the world and now I’m here .Mate I tell you , we are absolute troopers to get off a 16 hour flight , with little sleep ,get straight on the sauce and party up .It was the kids fading fast that saved me from kicking on and a painful hangover .It was only the next day when I lay in bed with a a throbbing headache at 4 am , wide awake with jet lag that I thanked my kids for dragging us back to our beds .

It’s been only 3 days but the little things reinforce the narrative . The humour is unique and once again when I look at these bag of chips on the shelf I start laughing Who else ? Where else ? Yeah it’d have to happen here . Fish’n’chips , and institution here practically doesn’t exist over there . I know it doesn’t even rate as a culinary experience in Australia for we take it for granted , but OMG how good was it to taste a deep fried scallop , bite the top off a spring roll and savour the beautiful taste of flake ( for our American viewers flake is shark ) .Just yesterday I went down to the Heritage to have lunch with Al , the joint was empty on a Monday at lunch time and I loved that . After a while you expect to see people everywhere , here you don’t need to avoid them it can happen naturally when the country’s the size of the US and has a 14th of its population . I started taking photos like a tourist as I couldn’t get over the space , the room , the trees , oh and the food .Where else would you order a Parma ( chicken parmigiana and sausages and mash potato ) or bangers and mash ? And their taste ? Beautiful …..absolutely beautiful .

The food …. we’ve started at the bottom , the simplest , yes , the unhealthiest ……….I don’t care …….Keto ? Destroyed that fucker . Am I eating today ? Hell yeah and I can’t wait for what’s in store today . Don’t worry , I’ll be sure to let you know .