When he and I were interns, we frequently purchased Fairlight cookies (I favor the chocolate chip and ginger spice varieties) as a reward for ourselves after a night of call. Although our conversations included topics such as politics, medical education, and the foibles of the hospital, we frequently talked about cookies. Such discussions brought us comfort at strange hours of the night and made us laugh when the day stretched into its 26th hour.

After he completed his internship, he and his wife moved across the country to New York City, where he is now (I trust) a highly competent and respected resident in emergency medicine. Our conversations about cookies and other baked confections have since dwindled into semi-annual affairs.

My appreciation of cookies is legendary. Many people think of me when they encounter cookies. Colleagues (and the occasional brown-nosing medical student) buy cookies for me if they sense that I am having a rough day—they all know that I will immediately smile and express deep gratitude.

It doesn’t take much.

Several months have passed since I last corresponded with my friend. When my eyes alighted upon the e-mail he sent to me this morning, I was already pleased—

—and I snickered when I read the contents of his letter: He had found a worthy chocolate chip cookie in New York City—and he wanted me to know where I could find it (74th Street and Columbus on the Upper West Side, for those of you who are reading from Manhattan).

This is remarkable news, primarily because he had bemoaned the lack of excellent cookies in New York. Seattle boasts several excellent bakeries and cookie factories (see Fairlight above; see also Cupcake Royale, Cougar Mountain Baking Company, and Larsen’s) that sell their wares at low prices (though nothing will ever beat Diddy Riese in Los Angeles).

This Manhattan cookie apparently costs a whopping $3.50.

My cookies consistently receive high ratings from all who consume them, so in case you’re not in Manhattan (or Seattle) and would like to experience the joy of eating a fantastic cookie, read on:

CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES (based off of the Hershey model)

2 1/4 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup light brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
2 cups chocolate chips

Key step #1: Think warm, gooey, lovey-dovey thoughts about the cookies while you are mixing the ingredients. There was a randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blinded study in the New England Journal of Medicine a few years back that demonstrated, with significant statistical significance, that thinking “warm, gooey, lovey-dovey thoughts” while baking will improve the gustatory experience of the eater by at least 50%.*

Combine flour, baking soda, and salt in separate bowl. Mix butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar until fluffy. Add vanilla extract and eggs. Then mix dry ingredients with wet ingredients. Add chocolate chips.

Key step #2: Put the dough in the refrigerator until it is thoroughly chilled. This helps with molding the cookies to give them that aesthetically pleasing round shape when putting them on the baking sheet.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Roll dough into 1-inch balls (or smaller; small cookies look extraordinarily cute and, in conjunction with the lovey-dovey thoughts already mixed in, somehow taste better) and space them about 1.5 inches apart on a baking sheet. (I personally line the baking sheets with parchment paper.) Bake for about five to seven minutes on the top rack, or until edges just start to brown. Remove cookies from the oven and allow them to cool on the baking sheets for about one minute.

Remove the cookies and place them on a wire rack. Allow them to thoroughly cool before packing them up for consumption.

Makes about 48 soft, mouth-watering, delicious cookies.

* No, of course not.