Taste of New York 2007

"What do you mean, there's another room?"

I looked at my friends HungryMan and Nosher in amazement. I could barely get my mind around all that was going on in the room we were standing in. Wylie Dufresne of WD-50 was dishing out popcorn soup, the 9-week-old Los Dados Restaurant was frying up churros and dipping them in dulce de leche and chocolate, Morimoto was passing out yellowtail pastrami, Buddakan was offering miniature red-pepper-spiced bigeye tuna spring rolls with scallions and chives. The folks at Allen & Delancey had just explained to us that a "puree soubise" was made of sweet white onions (it tasted lovely with the salmon-roe and pickled lemon-topped onion knishes). We'd also eaten oxtail croquettes, grape leaves, buttery pumpkin tortelli with sage and amaretti, goat cheese custard, leg of lamb smothered with Romesco sauce, watercress dumplings from Chinatown Brasserie, a "Manhattan" cocktail of shrimp, squid and vermouth... and there was another room? (This wasn't counting the vast amount of alcohol being served. I was trying to abstain in order to use my calories for food instead of drink.)

"Oh no," I said. "I don't know how much more I'm going to be able to eat." HungryMan and Nosher didn't seem at all perturbed. They swept me into a much larger room which was filled with even more food and much more alcohol. I relented and accepted a bottle of Champagne Nicholas Feuillate.

"How are we going to do this?" I asked. There were four giant rows of food. We decided to walk around counterclockwise. At this point, my appetite was really falling off, but I managed to down spicy shrimp bruschetta from Devi, a milk chocolate with salted caramel treat from Payard (how could you skip that), and some pumpkin spice gelato from Ciao Bella. HungryMan was savoring a braised lamb sandwich on brioche. "OK, I think I"m finished," I said.

But then we walked over to the Blue Hill stand, where Dan Barber's offering was an amazing homemade V-8 and buttermilk panna cotta concoction topped with a cracker and baby greens... it was sweet, salty, crunchy, creamy, custardy and vinegary. "One of the best tastes of the evening," we agreed. And then there was Jacques Torres with his seasonal pumpkin, candy cane and gingerbread truffles (I hid them in my bag, there was no way I could eat them at this point), and smoked sirloin with truffled fingerlings from Craftsteak, and... and...

"OK, just one of these little corn avocado things from Zarela and some fluke with crispy garlic from Anthos and Tocqueville's coddled egg truffled grits with cured veal strip. That's enough. Enough!" I was serious this time.

But then I saw Pichet Ong, master of the sweet-and-savory dessert. Chevre cheesecake with huckleberries and small green pools of basil oil... I was a goner.

For the rest of the night, I tried to maintain some kind of coherent conversation with HungryMan, Nosher, a gentleman from Zagat and the famed Amateur Gourmet. But I don't think I did a very good job, as I was pretty delirious by then. Nosher remarked that he was wondering how he was going to be able to go to work the next day.

For anyone who hasn't been to this annual event, I implore you to go next year... you will come away with two months' worth of dining experiences in just one night.

New York Magazine's Taste of New York, Puck Building (293 Lafayette).