The city that never sleeps is also the city that always eats, with a population of more than 8.6 million ready to prop up the most gimmicky of food trends (vegan raindrop cakes? Check. Pizza served out of a pizza box made from pizza? Double check) along with the most luxe of degustations.

But unlike my last return from the Big Apple, this time I was struck by a closing of the gap. Sydney has upped its food game over the past decade. There’s an influx of these Aussie food operators in New York too, like Greenwich Village’s Banter NYC, a Bourke Street Bakery outpost and rapidly expanding chain, Bluestone Lane. But, there’s also plenty of fresh food fads being pedalled in the Empire State that we might see locally soon.

COLD NOODLES
In the dog days of summer, New Yorkers have embraced cold noodles with gusto, and Karakatta on the Lower East Side are pulling some of the best.

Their lemon ramen is a chilled broth where wheat noodles play with slices of ice-cold lemon and land with a tray of chicken, veggies and half a soft-cooked egg.

It’s oddly restorative and comforting at the same time. Or head to Koreatown for plenty of takes on kongguksu, those cool, slurpy noodles bouncing around in an icy, nutty, soy milk broth.

CLEAN GELATO
Natural, artisanal gelato and ice cream joints are having a moment. It’s a farm-to-table approach to ingredients (ube is certainly the flavour of the day) merged with the traditional Italian method — no emulsifiers or thickeners. Turin import Grom, with their soft scoops laced with corn biscuits and Italian chocolate, piled into the best gluten-free biscuit cones I’ve tasted, are one example. Even in the thick of summer, you might need thermals to enter their climate-controlled shops (their all-natural ingredients mean scoops melt faster). You’ll find more at the now famous Oddfellows of Brooklyn.

UPSCALE MEX
The Flatiron District is now home to upscale Mexican, Cosme. It’s run by Enrique Olvera, the megawatt Mexico City talent behind Pujol, whose team handicrafts single corn tortillas and the most decadent, unctuous duck carnitas you’ll taste, alongside roasted hunks of lobster pipil, mod moles and tequila-forward drinks.

As Alex Stupak’s Mexican Empellón empire also continues to expand across the city, it begs the question: when will Sydney get more traditional Mexican food? Save for Neil Perry’s Bar Patron, it’s all been Tex-Mex to date.

PASTRIES WITH A TWIST
There’s barely a bakery or fast food joint in town that doesn’t have a vegan offering to rival its animal one, and often without the capital-V-for-Vegan branding we’ve become accustomed to seeing. In fact, many Manhattan cafes won’t charge you extra for oat milk.

Baked goods in New York have come full circle from the rainbow and unicorn-tinged hits aimed at Instagram glory (head to Supermoon Bakehouse if you’re hot for these millennial treats), to more nostalgic takes, like buttery chocolate pound cakes (admittedly, the best I tasted was a vegan version from Bread Alone in upstate NY), giant old-school cookies and pies. But if Ansel’s avocado toast ice-cream sandwich makes it Down Under, we won’t bat an eyelid, either.

GOURMET PIZZA DEG
The city of $1 slices is now home to pizza degustations. For $38 a head, you can nab the “DoughDici Experience”
at Sofia Pizza Shoppe in Midtown East, which promises cheese made from the milk of red cows that have been aged for 36 months.

At the Flatiron District’s always heaving Marta, the “Duelling Pizzas” series costs $80 a head. Pizza is naturally leavened and then pimped with posh toppings like San Marzano tomatoes at crust empire Una Pizza Napoletana, best paired with a glass from their natural wine-forward list. Speaking of vino, NYC wine lists are currently a treatise in minimal-intervention drops.

DOG DAY AFTERNOON
Pooch-friendly dining options abound in NYC. I spotted four-legged friends at the Loeb Boathouse in Central Park, Shake Shack and Chelsea’s upmarket The Wilson, who even offered a dog menu. Wouldn’t that go down a treat in the east.