Perfection

New York is home to all sorts of attractions. There are some many places here that have been in movies or on TV. Like, I guess the Real Housewives of New Jersey filmed right around the corner from me last week and I live right around the corner from the Cake Boss! Those are all pretty cool, but I am not one to get all caught up in the lives of the rich and the famous. I mean, they are real people too, only all of America knows their face.

There is one place I have just been DYING to go to. A few years ago, I was watching Throwdown with Bobby Flay on my favorite channel, The Food Network, where Bobby challenged a cookie bakery to make the perfect chocolate chip cookie.

Now, the perfect chocolate chip cookie is my ultimate quest in life. I went through this crazy baking stage last summer where I was determined to open a bakery during my life time and I baked cookies every other day. Unfortunately, it resulted in an increase of my jean size, but, at least I can say I made some headway on my quest. I learned I prefer large cakey cookies rather than crispy, and that requires more flour in the dough. Tons of chocolate chips and walnuts added to dough that has chilled for over a day in the fridge also produces good results.

Anyway, Bobby challenged Levain Bakery to create the ultimate cookie.

Levain was started by two female triathletes who were in search of a filling snack, on the healthier side, to replace the thousands of calories burned from training. So they created this monstrous cookie which is larger than your fist that is bursting with walnuts and chocolate chips. Mmmm, heaven!

Of course I was drawn to an athlete run bakery. From the moment I realized that Levain was in NY, I've been on a mission to go there. And I got my opportunity this week when I visited Colombia. I walked a good 30 blocks to save $2.25 for the subway trip, but I splurged and bought a 4 dollar divine treat. In other words, the perfect chocolate chip cookie.

Needless to say, Bobby lost the fight. I experienced the taste of the true winner.

Now, my life would only be complete if I had the recipe. Hmmm, maybe I need to take up a second job...