There I was, wandering through the Flatiron around lunchtime, dazed and hungry, uninspired and unimpressed, when it occurred to me: a-HA! Wafels and Dinges! Waffles for lunch! Quite random say you? Not so. Walking up Fifth Ave, I had just remembered that the first annual Madison Square Fall Market, supporting local vendors around the area, was going on just a couple of blocks away. The Madison Square Market is, as I was chillingly reminded by the gracious lady working at the W&D booth, similar to the upcoming annual Union Square Holiday Market that's been going on for over ten years now (I say chillingly because that market always signals the commencement of bitterly and unbearable New York winter weather).
At this mini-me version of the Union Square Holiday Market, New Yorkers can find an array of vendors selling from around the area selling different jewelries, arts, crafts, lotions, and other items in a mini strip of a block lined with white booths. Just across the street is an even smaller section of booths that form a small square, each white booth housing some of the most delicious, tasty, and notable foods found around the area. Foods including waffles. And I don't mean your average joe IHOP or Waffle House waffles found on an exit off I-95. I mean wafels.
Wafels and Dinges (pronounced with a hard "g") was cooked up by Thomas DeGeest, a real iron man who swapped his jet-set lifestyle as a consultant for a chance to serve New Yorkers real waffles -- like those found in DeGeest's native Belgium, and to batter (to smithereens) the conception that every waffle has to taste like a frozen Eggo.
Wafels and Dinges first started driving its school-bus yellow truck wheels around the city in 2007, so in NYC street food terms, it's pretty much a veteran and pioneer (one of the first to use Twitter to inform followers of the trucks' locations) in gourmet food trucks. (Side note: I should really be ashamed of myself because one of the trucks used to be parked outside of the Trader Joe's at Union Square for so long, which I walk by a million times a day, and in all these (2) years, I never tried their waffles. Who knows, maybe I was always full when I walked by the truck or wasn't craving a sweet fix, so I could never justify the indulgence that W&D had cooking way in its waffle makers)
Wafels and Dinges, this year's Vendy Award winner for Best Dessert Truck, has two specialty waffles. The first, the Brussels waffle ($6) -- or, excuse me, wafel, is of the thin, light and crispy variety that most of us are used to. The other one, the Liege wafel ($5), is thick, soft, and chewy--and doughier than the Brussels kind with chunks of sugar mixed in the dough. The Liege is made from yeast to form a dough, so it essentially tastes like sweet bread, while the Brussels is made from batter, lending it that lighter texture and taste. The menu offers one complimentary topping. This booth was totally stocked with their usual toppings (strawberries, bananas, nutella, belgian chocolate fudge, dulce de leche, whipped cream, etc.) and fancy-pants cast-iron waffle makers. I was primed. (Mind you this was a big deal for me because I was in dangerously close proximity to Shake Shack -- on a rainy day -- Shake Shack + rainy day + October = short line. But I was feeling daring and strong - IRON strong.)
Since this was my first time I decided to go all out and ordered the Liege wafel with speculoos (I had no idea what speculoos was before this, but the lady working there told me it's basically a graham cracker dessert spread. It is not available for sale in the U.S. so iron man DeGeesst brings it back from Belgium) It is apparently their specialty-check menu above-and came highly recommended, so I went for it. I got my wafel with speculoos, topped with powdered sugar, and I was all squared away.
I'm not someone who generally opts for something sweet like this (especially as a replacement for lunch), but I was happy I did.
It was delicious. It was definitely a far cry from the waffles found in Food Emporium's frozen aisle -- it was truly a gourmet wafel. You could taste the quality. You could also taste the sweet -- you could convulse in shock over the sugar penetrating into and throughout your veins. Indeed, it was thick, soft, chewy, doughy, and heavy -- in a comforting, indulging, I'm-not-going-to-eat-anything-but-vegetables-for-the-next-seven-days type of way. The speculoos was rich and sweet. It literally tasted like graham crackers or biscuits in spreadable form, with a consistency very similar to peanut butter (so it took some help of the tongue to get it all down....).
This gastro adventure was particularly exciting for me because I had never tried speculoos before so it was something totally new for my palate -- a pleasantly palatable surprise! It was very sweet, perhaps a little too much so when I'm looking for something sweet but small (I guess in that case I could opt for the Brussels wafel).
Whenever I'm in the mood for a sweet indulgence, it's good to know you're there, Wafels and Dinges.
Leggo my eggo? Sure, go ahead. A Liege wafel smothered in Belgian gooey goodness will be my shoulder to cry (and munch) on.
Be happy and Carpe Diem!
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