:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/Restaurant-Editor-Best-Bites-2024-FT-BLOG1224-Kamayan-2466bdd9336848599f8b4d1bff87d9f7.jpeg?w=1920&resize=1920,1267&ssl=1 "The 11 Greatest Dishes Our Restaurant Editor Ate in 2024")
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In my first 12 months because the restaurant editor at Meals & Wine, it shouldn’t be shocking that I spent a number of time consuming and ingesting, in addition to occupied with consuming and ingesting (and likewise time in airports). And 2024 was an distinctive 12 months for doing simply that (typically you possibly can even eat fairly nicely in an airport).
This 12 months, we celebrated 13 unbelievable 2024 Meals & Wine Greatest New Cooks, named Burdell in Oakland as our Restaurant of the Yr, and recognized the 12 months’s greatest developments in eating places, drinks, and cooking.
From coast to coast, over the course of tens of 1000’s of miles of journey, visits to dozens of cities, meals at tons of of eating places, and 1000’s and 1000’s of bites, these are the eleven standout dishes that I beloved probably the most and nonetheless can’t cease occupied with.
Squab at 4 Kings (San Francisco)
Courtesy of Pete Lee
There’s usually a line to get into 4 Kings, the red-hot new-school Cantonese restaurant in San Francisco’s hilly Chinatown. One of many many causes for this line could be the Nineties Cantopop jams that get blasted within the eating room, however the different motive is there are solely 15 squabs obtainable every single day, and you have to get there on the early facet to attain one. Because the saying goes, the early hen will get the squab. The entire squab, head and toes nonetheless hooked up, will get marinated, smoked, after which deep-fried to order, a multi-day course of that ends in rosy, succulent meat with a glistening, burnished pores and skin. Chopsticks are ineffective; you will want to make use of your arms. Get in there and be the hen you realize you’re.
Ham & Cheese, Cullum’s Attaboy (San Antonio)
Meals & Wine / Raphael Brion
Every part in regards to the French-influenced, brunch-only, new-school diner Cullum’s Attaboy in San Antonio screams indulgence, from the at-cost truffles (when in season) to the mounds of caviar, from the tableside Champagne cocktails to the profligate use of butter. There’s the quietly named “Ham & Cheese” — a toasted sandwich with ham and gruyère, stacked excessive in a pool of béchamel that’s served not on a plate however a sizzle platter — a spellbinding extra that simply borders on the indecent. However then the traditional French omelette with hollandaise comes out, and all bets are off.
Roast Duck at Burdell (Oakland)
Meals & Wine / Eva Kolenko
The preparation for the aged and roasted Sonoma duck, one of many mainstays of the menu, adjustments with the seasons, and a current model concerned cherries alongside duck drippings, in addition to an impossibly scrumptious soiled rice studded with braised duck leg meat and duck offal. There’s massive grandma vitality at Burdell in Oakland — Meals & Wine’s 2024 Restaurant of the Yr — and the informal but exact cooking looks like a wonderful Sunday feast (assuming your grandma cooked at a few of the Bay Space’s greatest eating places — something’s potential).
Boudin Boy at Ayu Bakehouse (New Orleans)
Courtesy of Sam Hanna
The Boudin Boy — basically a sausage and egg roll meets a Cajun Sizzling Pocket meets French viennoiserie — is a dizzying murals at Ayu Bakehouse. One can find Greatest Cease boudin alongside soft-boiled eggs, ensconced inside tremendous flaky laminated croissant dough, leading to that complete crispy exterior and heat, savory inside interaction. Served alongside chili crisp for dipping, it’s an exhilarating marriage of a bunch of cultures colliding, which is about as New Orleans because it will get.
Lao’d Smashburger, Lao’d Bar (Austin)
Courtesy of Lao’d Bar
Simply if you suppose you’ve seen all of it with smashburgers, depart it to Laotian-American chef Bob Somsith — at his night time market-esque, brick-and-mortar restaurant Lao’d Bar within the outer fringes of East Austin — to provide you with a real, new take. On this marvel of an umami bomb, Somsith makes the caramelized smashed patty out of an fragrant and savory selfmade Lao pork sausage, topping it with rice-fermented pickles and a jeow bong-aioli slaw. He winds all of it along with bacon and American cheese, and it’s completely bursting with each Lao and American flavors, all on the identical time.
Wisco Fried Cheese Curds at Butterbird (Madison, Wisconsin)
Courtesy of Butter Chook
Consolation meals classics like fried hen and root beer floats are a critical affair at Butterbird. Even the coleslaw right here is critically good. However what stopped me useless in my tracks have been the Wisco Fried Cheese Curds. Primed in buttermilk, tossed within the fried hen dredge, after which deep-fried, the native cheese curds are sheathed in an otherworldly, gnarled outer shell. Basically chicken-fried cheese curds (simply, uh, with out the hen), they gloriously crackle, making all different cheese curds seethe with jealousy.
Hashbrown and Roe, Molly’s Rise and Shine (New Orleans)
Meals & Wine / Raphael Brion
Copious caviar was a large restaurant pattern of 2024, and probably the most joyously sensible methods to eat caviar was on prime of a working class hashbrown. A shining instance could be the Hashbrown and Roe at Molly’s Rise and Shine, an itinerant particular that actually must be a part of the common menu. Topped with chives and an umami-heavy anchovy crème fraîche, it’s a spectacular achievement within the style of the flowery hashbrown, for which there sadly isn’t any award (however there must be).
Pizza at Leopardo (Los Angeles)
Courtesy of Bonjwing Lee
The wood-fired “neo-mochiko” pizza at 2011 F&W Greatest New Chef Joshua Skenes’ newish LA restaurant Leopardo — sporting a bulbous, practically candy crust with a springy, chewy texture that’s paying homage to mochi however notably with out the normal sourdough tang — is not like anything on the market. The menu right here appears to be in a state of fixed, chaotic flux: current dishes just like the wild boar lasagna served tableside and the Whats up Devil pizza (with fermented chilis, wildflower honey, and pepperoni) each look like lengthy gone, however that’s what makes frequent revisits at Leopardo much more worthwhile — shock, delight, and the potential way forward for pizza.
Tuna Sashimi Tasting at Mr. Tuna (Portland, Maine)
Courtesy of Mr. Tuna
Whereas handrolls make up the majority of the menu at Mr. Tuna, the recurrently showing however off-menu particular that’s the tuna sashimi tasting will knock your socks proper off into Portland’s Again Cove. Pure and unadorned, the particular cuts will range based mostly on what’s in season and what’s obtainable, but it surely’s a story instructed by Jordan Rubin, aka Mr. Tuna himself, and may embody totally different cuts from the identical fish, and presumably a seared model. Style the metaphorical rainbow, if it have been fabricated from sustainably caught tuna from the northern Atlantic.
Pig Tails at Petra & The Beast (Dallas)
Meals & Wine / Raphael Brion
2019 F&W Greatest New Chef Misti Norris relocated her Dallas restaurant Petra & The Beast to a giant, new area in late 2023, which granted her entry to new but wholly novel fundamentals like a walk-in fridge. The transfer allowed for a extra formidable and expanded menu, together with much more charcuterie and an adventurous brunch. In the meantime, the tea-braised pig tails, a foundational (but everchanging) dish stays on the menu. A current setup mixed a wide range of mushrooms like ham dashi-braised king trumpets and pickled seashore mushrooms, offering continued proof that Norris is simply so punishingly good at deftly layering a number of components and flavors collectively into what quantities to seismic shocks.
Longsilog at Kamayan (Atlanta)
Courtesy of Kamayan.
I made the error of exhibiting up for Sunday brunch on the standout Filipino spot Kamayan on Buford Freeway in Atlanta on a Sunday at 11:15 a.m. The place opens at 11 a.m., and I had missed the memo that crowds line up earlier than it opens as a result of brunch right here is, in truth, crucial meal of the day. They managed to squeeze us in. On Sundays, the complete menu is offered, however you can even get brunch-only gadgets just like the longsilog, a breakfast dish served with garlic fried rice, eggs, and Filipino-style candy chorizo that’s completely bursting with taste. It’s all I would like for breakfast now.
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