This brief visit was no exception. Tate lost no time sampling all the bath products and the hotel-monogrammed bathrobe (see photo). Lucky for us, because he probably hadn’t showered in days… we tend to practice what we preach, i.e., dirt is good. [Although I can’t imagine this would have held true if we’d had girls – who knows?] Anyway, the boys got nicely spiffed up for dinner because we were about to make a pilgrimage to the restaurant of one of their culinary heroes: Bobby Flay.

As luck would have it, we did not run into him at Mesa Grill that night. We really didn’t expect to given that he’s on television so many times a day but we hoped it would happen anyway. In his absence, however, the restaurant was flourishing nicely. We started with a bowl of perfectly spiced tomato soup (my pick) that came with charred corn, blue corn tortillas, avocado + queso fresco – everyone loved it. We then shared three entrees: pan roasted shrimp with creamy green chile rice + chipotle garlic butter (Dane’s pick), roasted ‘hacked’ chicken with five-chile mole, pickled red onions + roasted tomato tamale with key lime butter (Tate’s pick) and New Mexican spice rubbed pork tenderloin with bourbon-ancho chile sauce + sweet potato tamale with crushed pecan butter (Paul’s pick). We were almost too full for dessert but managed to power through a pineapple upside down cake that I really liked but the others were just ok with.

The next morning, we got up early to search for the previously elusive Wafels and Dinges truck (http://www.wafelsanddinges.com/). It took a bit of asking around before we found it in the Financial District since I could not decipher Thomas DeGeest’s heavy Belgian accent no matter how many times I listened to his recorded phone message (this from someone who has lived in Belgium!). In case you are interested, you may get up-to-the-minute info on the truck’s location by calling 1-866-429-7329. Direction difficulties aside, the Liege-style (crispy outside, tender inside) waffles were well worth the effort. Paul had his with spekuloos spread (kind of a warm, graham-crackery flavor) and it rocked! The secret of the waffles’ exterior crunchiness is pearl sugar which I am still trying to find locally (if anyone knows where to find it in the Bay Area, please let me know).

Later that day, we be-bopped up to Levain Bakery again and emerged with about 10 pounds of warm cookies to haul home to California. I just want to say “damn” about twenty-thousand times that we cannot get these in our area! It’s a compelling reason to move to New York to be sure.

We also made a very brief stop at Daisy Mae’s BBQ in order to devour another mammoth beef rib and collect a prize to bring home to our darling mutt, Scout. She cried over this bone, I kid you not. We raced from Daisy Mae’s to the hotel, picked up our bags and headed home. Overall, another great chapter in our culinary adventures.

After a brief nap, we took a moderately expensive taxi ride to Brooklyn so Tate could realize one of his 2010 goals: eat a BLT at Choice Market. Fans of “The Best Thing I Ever Ate” will remember this small restaurant from the ‘with Bacon’ episode. Our friend, Dave, who lives nearby, met us for lunch. Five BLTs were ordered and quickly consumed… delicious! To this day, Tate still describes the sandwich with a combination of awe and longing. Dinner that night was at my favorite NYC establishment: Balthazar. The boys were excited about the fries, dubbed the ‘BEST’ by Bobby Flay in the ‘Totally Fried’ episode of “The Best Thing…” They didn’t disappoint, neither did the perfectly cooked steaks and my selection of spring pea ravioli.

The next morning, we raced down to Clinton Street Bakery, made famous (at least to us) in an episode of “Throwdown with Bobby Flay” (most of our tv-watching is on the Food Network, in case you didn’t notice). The Clinton Street Bakery makes, hands down, the best blueberry pancakes I’ve ever eaten. That, plus the sugar-cured bacon, was enough to make me pre-diabetic, but it was so, so good. Later that morning, we decided to double down on the sweets and try to find the Wafels and Dinges (Belgian waffle) truck. Even though we were in the right place, we missed the truck by about half an hour (they sold out early). So we found a cute little lunch place (also a chain, I believe), Financier. Everyone had salads (Greek, Italian, etc.) and we resolved to find the truck on our return visit the following week.

In hindsight, it was better we didn’t find the waffle truck just then. In the afternoon, we trekked over to the upper West side and went to Levain Bakery to sample their chocolate chocolate cookies (favorite of chef Rocco Dispirito). The taste (and calorie content) were off the charts! We ate them fresh from the oven and they were crispy on the outside and moist/chewy on the inside. It would be so nice to know how they do this but it is a closely guarded secret (that not even Rocco or Bobby Flay can get out of them… a bummer for those who live on the West Coast).

That night, we had an early dinner at Daisy Mae’s BBQ on the recommendation of TV Chef, Michael Symon. He raved about the beef ribs in another “The Best Thing…” episode so it was definitely on our culinary radar. We walked up to the counter and innocently ordered two beef ribs and two sides without looking at the price list. When the woman behind the register said, “Eighty-three dollars,” my jaw dropped. Each 20-oz beef rib was a whopping $38. We quickly re-thought things and decided to start with one, just in case it was too much for the four of us. Turns out, it was just enough! Tate insisted on saving the 10+ inches of beef bone for our dog, Scout, and we wrapped it up to go (we carried the bone to Connecticut for a few days and then to Maine, finally throwing it out just before returning for a last, 24-hour stop in NYC).

My apologies for the lack of photos; we brought our little Nikon Coolpix camera instead of the multi-lens Canon Digital Rebel and I don’t like to photograph food with a point-and-shoot.

To be continued…