Next stop: NYC

I am about to embark on an unprecedented foodie tour of New York City. Okay, so maybe others have gone before me, but my itinerary is ambitious, to say the least. It may not be possible to eat through all I have planned, but we will give it our all.

This is a trip two months in the making, ever since I spotted those super low Jetblue airfares. Hotels have long been booked, restaurant reservations have been made and modified, some a month in advance (had to make sure to get Daniel reserved for our anniversary), some exactly twenty-eight days in advance (hello Gramercy Tavern), and others exactly two weeks in advance (thanks Momofuku Ko). I've stayed up late adjusting my itinerary, called the offices of the Late Night with Jimmy Fallon show weekly for tickets only to find out they are not taping while we're there (neither is the Daily Show with Jon Stewart!), and even woken up at 6:45am my time to log-on to the Momofuku Ko reservations site, to which I had previously registered in advance (a necessity), exactly fourteen days prior to my desired reservation date (your food better be worth it, David Chang). And now the time is finally here for us to pack our bags, go, and eat like we've never eaten before.

I must forewarn you: I have made a similarly ambitious itinerary before, for Tokyo, and failed to stick to it. There were, however, mitigating circumstances then, including jetlag (sleeping and waking early is not conducive to eating a lot in Tokyo, where food halls and restaurants don't open until noon-ish, but stay open until the wee hours of the morning) and a foreign (literally) street address system that got the best of us at times. None of those mitigating circumstances will be present for this NY trip, so I have high hopes.

We'll be starting on Saturday morning with some upper West side snacks (maybe a Gray's Papaya hot dog) to warm up, and then we dive right into a three-hour food extravaganza at Momofuku Ko (where unfortunately pictures are not allowed - just wanted to set your expectations). We round out the first day with a late dinner at Cafe Boulud, which was recently renovated, and is the other Daniel Boulud restaurant I settled on after reading numerous reviews and comparisons of various Boulud NYC restaurants on nymag.com, nytimes.com and Chowhound (I'm relatively thorough, but not very creative, in my research).

Here's a list of what we're planning (hoping) to hit the rest of the week:

• H&H Bagel
• Momofuku Ssam Bar
• Momofuku Milk Bar
• EN Japanese Brasserie (reserved)
• Street carts at 53rd & 6th, 73rd & Broadway, and Dosa Man near NYU
• Corner Bistro
• Blue Ribbon Bakery
• Ray's Candy Store (egg creams and ... belgian fries?)
• Ippudo
• ChikaLicious
• Levain Bakery
• Treats Truck
• Le Bernardin (reserved)
• La Maison du Chocolat
• Bon Chon
• Balthazar (if only for some fries)
• Jean George (reserved)
• Gramercy Tavern (reserved)
• Shake Shack
• Original Soup Man (he doesn't run his store anymore, but he still supplies the soup for this franchise)
• Grimaldi's Pizzeria (Brooklyn)
• Cha-an Tea House
• Tebaya
• hidden Burger Joint
• Spotted Pig
• Katz's Delicatessen

Lower priority backups (i.e., if we can possibly squeeze in any more meals between meals) include:

• Alice's Tea Cup
• Nougatine by Jean George
• Diner or Marlow & Sons (Brooklyn)
• The Breslin (Spotted Pig's new sister)
• Perilla (maybe we'll spot Harold, Season 1 Top Chef winner!)
• Eisenberg's Sandwich Shop & Gem Spa (egg creams survey)
• Pomme Frites

If you'd like to join us vicariously on this crazy, whirlwind food journey, stay tuned for updates throughout the week!