I’m pleased to be hosting the Carnival of Cities on The Gooseberry Fool for the first time. Since this is a food blog, I was especially keen for posts with a culinary connection and I wasn’t disappointed. I hope you enjoy this week’s menu.

* Gray at SoloFriendly on great Thai restaurants in her hometown of Burlington in Vermont. It makes me hungry just thinking about it! We are blessed with great Thai in my home town of Sydney but sadly it is not something that London does well.

* London does, however, have reasonable Mexican food. Jessica at Ripe London was none too impressed with the offerings at Tortilla in the Angel-Islington or Mexicali in Notting Hill, but she does rate Taqueria in Notting Hill. This also happens to be a favourite of mine - terrific tacos and heavenly horchata.

* Wanderus on why Portland, Oregon is the microbrew capital of America. Cheers!

* Samir on living in Dubai and the contrasts with his hometown of Bombay - and a slice of life at an Indian-run cafeteria serving sandwiches, roast chicken and chai tea near Lamcy Plaza.

* Jon on the DC Traveler treats us to a Sunday brunch with a difference at a Washington DC cafe with drag queens.

* Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago is going organic and Stefanie at Focus Organic wants a tomato, basil and mozzarella panini.

If all that food has left you needing to burn off some calories, then it’s time to get active.

* The Q Family call into Cozumel in Mexico for some snorkelling and Starbucks on their Carnival Cruise. (They recommend the fajitas at La Laguna Beach Grill).

* CAE on VWXYNot? describes her love affair with her adopted city of Vancouver. I thought it was a lovely city when I visited, oh 10 years ago now, and all those gorgeous pics of kayaking make me want to go back. Either that or move home to Sydney - I could have a kayak there too!

* Jason Loper on Zola Jones Designs on a bike ride around the lake front in Chicago.

* Random Musings takes us boating on Lake George (is that a town?) and hiking on Prospect Mountain in the Adirondacks in upstate New York.

* Dave Cano on why his first impressions of Coney Island in Brooklyn, NYC were wrong.

* If It Feels Good Do It tells not-quite-all about a bachelor’s weekend in Las Vegas.

Time for a bit of culture, fun and relaxation?

* Leslie Carbone delves into history in Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia.

* See how the other half lives with a peak inside a $9m penthouse apartment in Miami on Michael Emilio’s small business and real estate blog.

* Me, My Kid, and Life heads to Cannes for a short film festival. (Although she was there on business, a girl’s still got to eat and she found time for a shrimp spring roll, Thai rice and chicken in curry sauce).

* Adventures in Daily Living takes the kids on a fun-filled trip to Seattle, where they ride trains, buses, monorails and merry-go-rounds

* Andrew at the Cyprus Informer takes us on a journey to Kyrenia in Cyprus. His blog is usually quite commercial, but this post is not, and it really does sound like a beautiful town.

Thanks to everyone for taking part and apologies for the late posting - my broadband was up and down like a whore’s drawers last night.

Submit your blog post to the next edition of the Carnival of Cities using our carnival submission form. Please only submit one (non-spammy) post and keep it on the topic of cities and (midsize and bigger) towns. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

The Gooseberry Fool is hosting the Carnival of Cities for the first time next week. This is a weekly event celebrating cities (and midsize to large towns). My travel blog, Roaming Tales, has hosted the event twice before and it’s always an interesting trip around the world to different cities.

Submissions are accepted for any posts on the theme of cities but this week I am particularly keen to read any posts with a food related theme. Perhaps your city has a fantastic restaurant or farmers’ market? Or perhaps food featured prominently in your travels to more far-flung city destinations?

This week the event is hosted on Where Next?, the travel blog on Away.com, and it seems the entrants were channelling my interest telepathically because there is already a bit of a culinary theme happening, with posts on the Linwood Sausage Factory in Cincinatti and the Oyster bar in Grand Central Station in New York.

Please send the entries as usual via the carnival submission form. Entries received after Tuesday lunch time (British time) will be sent to next week’s host, so be sure to get your entries in early. Posts should be no more than a week old. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

Cupcakes have been very chic ever since the Magnolia Bakery moment in Sex and the City. There’s usually a queue around the block at this unassuming bakery in Lower Manhattan. There’s a spin-off further uptown, not to mention a host of copycats like Little Cupcake Bakeshop in Brooklyn and the Buttercup Bake Shop in Midtown. London is right on trend with the famous Hummingbird Bakery in Notting Hill, which my friends in West London swear by, or Treacle in Tower Hamlets, near the Colombia Road Flower Market.

Cupcakes are everywhere in the blogosphere as well. In the past week alone, I have seen rich chocolate cupcakes with vanilla bean icing on Love and Olive Oil, ice cream cupcakes and raspberry almond cupcakes with chocolate ganache on Joy the Baker, Persian love cupcakes on Gigi Cakes, and After Eight mint chocolate cupcakes on Rosie Bakes a Peace of Cake.

I think one of the reasons they are so popular is that they are just so damn cute! See these coconut lemon curd cupcakes on Cafe Lynnylu to see just how photogenic they can be.

But to me, it’s totally a matter of style over substance. I am committing food blog heresy here but I think cupcakes are totally overrated. Surely I can’t be the only one?

They look pretty but they generally taste rather boring - dull and dry with excessive amounts of icing to compensate. I have had cupcakes from these famous bakeries and I have had well made homemade cupcakes and my attitude is the same. Give me real cake any time.

Proper cakes are far more interesting - they are usually much moister and have greater complexity of flavour and texture. Cupcakes have their uses - they’re great if you are catering for a fifth birthday party - and I’m not saying they actually taste bad (if I had to pick a favourite flavour it would be red velvet). However, there isn’t a cupcake on the planet that wouldn’t taste better as a full-size cake.

If you want individual serves then muffins, tarts or cookies are fine. But miniature cakes just defeat the purpose - assuming the purpose is to taste good, rather than look pretty, that is.

If you are visiting the West Country in England, there is one thing you should know. It is compulsory to eat cream tea in Cornwall and Devon. Seriously.

Cream tea is scones with jam and clotted cream and proper black tea in a teapot. In Australia we usually call this ‘Devonshire tea’ but this is wrong on two counts. Firstly, there is great dispute between Cornwall and Devon over who first invented the artery-clogging afternoon tea, so some might argue it should be called ‘Cornish tea’. (Just as there is now dispute between the two counties over the origins of Cornish pasties, and between Australia and New Zealand over pavlova). Secondly, the key to cream tea is that it is made with clotted cream. Whipped cream is just not the same.

Clotted cream is made by cooking the cream to reduce the liquid, and it is thick and yellowy, often with crusty bits. It tastes quite different to butter and doesn’t have the same melting properties. A scoop of clotted cream looks like vanilla ice cream, but unlike ice cream or whipped cream, you can serve it with hot apple pie (for example) and it won’t melt.

When I went to Cornwall, I was told a legend about the origins of clotted cream. The story goes that a Phoenician sea king who had been blown off course taught the secret of clotted cream to a Cornish housewife. This may even contain a kernel of truth since the Lebanese and Turks still make something very similar today. But, apparently there is another legend from Devon, involving a princess who lived in an oak tree and some ‘piskies’.

Cream tea is to be found all over Cornwall and Devon. This one (eaten yesterday) is from a little tea house in a village in Dartmoor, Devon. My favourite places are farm houses that serve homemade cream teas during the summer, but the tea rooms in the towns are not bad either. I have had cream tea in other parts of the country as well but it’s not the same - in the Cotswolds it felt like a honey trap for the tour buses and American tourists. It was lovely in Yorkshire but it was a full meal with sandwiches as well.

I do believe it’s a crime to go to Cornwall or Devon and not partake of at least one cream tea. But a mini cream tea is definitely allowed - the serves tend to be generous and it’s all rather filling and fattening.

With my Phileas Fogg cap on, I have hit the road for a month. It’s a mammoth world trip, combining Australia, Nicaragua, Hong Kong, Cambodia, Malaysia and Thailand. Nicaragua was obviously a detour but it’s for work so a girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do!

All this has left me with plenty to write about, from the phenomenal steaks of Nicaragua to the spicy salads of Cambodia. I have profiled two restaurants, one in Hong Kong and one in Bangkok, and I have partaken of far too much airline food. In fact, it seems I have partaken in too much food, full stop; despite my best efforts, my clothes are tighter now than at the start of the trip. However, my blogging desires have been stymied by the lack of a sturdy internet connection and, most importantly, time.

Normal blogging service should resume soon.