How I stumbled upon this particular tour is escaping my mind as I write this, but I bought a ticket for the Near North Food Tasting and Cultural Walking Tour... it's run by Chicago Food Planet.

For $40, I got a 3.5-hour tour through the Gold Coast, Old Town, and Lincoln Park neighborhoods. We stopped at eight different establishments... all considered rare or off the beaten path... among them: a Jewish deli, Tea Gschwendner (over 100 locations in Germany and Europe, but only 2 in the U.S. and both are in Chicagoland), a spice shop, and of course, a pizza joint.

Here's my slice of Bacino's specialty stuffed pizza... consistently voted best Chicago-style stuffed pizza in the city. They call the sauce "the boss of all sauce." They're not exaggerating. The thing's just plain delicious...

It also happens to be America's first heart healthy pizza... and you'd never know it if I hadn't just told you... go get some... they're in the 2200 block of Lincoln Avenue. Seriously, folks, only here has pizza reached perfection.

Here's our group checking out The Fudge Pot on Wells Street while the family owner does a batch of caramel apples. Here we tasted their secret-recipe chocolate butter-toffee. We had a whole platter to ourselves... it was delightful...