Australian lamb offered at skyhigh prices in New York City

Although almost impossible to find, it comes with a high price.

The rack of lamb was selling for $US32.99 a pound, which converts to $US72.73, or $A103 a kilo.

That's easily double the price of similar lamb racks in Aussie supermarkets.

Having just returned from an extended holiday in the Big Apple, it was a surprise to find a beef steak hard to come by.

Lamb was expected to be a rarity (especially at those prices) but surely not a prime cut of beef?

This home to the biggest carnivores on the planet - the US accounts for about 20 per cent of all the beef eaten in the world.

Our first night in the Big Apple, my wife and I struck up a friendship with some Texans in a bar over the hit American TV series Yellowstone.

One of them was wearing a windcheater emblazoned with the show's name - Yellowstone is just a big a hit there as it is here.

Americans love their cowboys, and their rich pastoral history, surely the place would be dripping with meat.

Sheep, not so much, they had been sullied as "grass maggots" on Yellowstone after all.

After spending a holiday in New York these past three weeks, I was interested in what the locals ate, and how they ate it?

There was lots of meat on offer but it was mostly of the processed kind.

The famous hot dogs of course with a surprisingly small bun.

Street vendors were everywhere offering their home-grown invention smothered in mustard, onions, cheese and any combination you dared.

Hamburgers were of course big business as well - again the street vendors and the diners offering all sorts of combos.

Huge slices of pizza for a dollar.

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There's no potato shortages we could see, everything came with fries whether you asked for it or not.

The Yanks love their burgers so much at sports games they serve the salad in a separate bag. You get your burger with meat, bun and cheese and a bag of lettuce, tomato, pickle and sauce separate - you add it in if you want or bin it if you don't.

A few diners offered a steak and grocery stores had some cuts available but for a good price.

Restaurants were the best place to find a steak if you could afford it.

On a tour to Pennsylvania, we were taken to a steakhouse in Philadelphia for their famous Philly cheese steak but were surprised to find it was mushed up beef smothered in cheese in a bun. Still, surprisingly tasty and cheap.

Many times we passed a grocery store I would drop in to check out their meat display, looking for lamb mostly.

Most of what we send to the US goes as grinding meat, which pattie manufacturers add to their mince to bring down the fat content (ours is much leaner).

Most of the lamb was imported, from New Zealand or Australia.

Grocery stores were your best bet if you wanted to buy it, none were found at diners or even low-end restaurants or pubs.

Australian sheepmeat has tariff-free access to the US under the Australia-United States Free Trade Agreement.

In 2021-22, Australian exported $A1.2 billion of sheepmeat to the US.