Best Dish of the Year

[rich]

I know we have about 10 more days and something could change, but what has been everyone's best dish for 2006? Two categories: at a restaurant and home (cooked by you or another)

Restaurant:

Blue Hill at Stone Farms (August) - 90-minute poached egg served over wild roasted mushrooms. Outstanding flavor and richness. The yolk made a perfect sauce for the earthy mushrooms - Dish of the Year.

WD-50 (Honorable Mention - February) - Shrimp Cannelloni. Beautifully presented and exquisite taste. This would be the winner in any other year.

Home:

Bacon & Eggs - Deep Fried Poached Egg topped with seared Serrano Ham & Salsa Fresca (December). Terrific texture from the egg combined with the richness of the ham made this my favorite creation of the year.

Mussel Puffs (Honorable Mention - June) - Adapted from a 1945 Gourmet Magazine recipe, this dish features chopped mussels sauteed with herbs, butter and wine, placed back into shell and baked. The result is a light, yet intensly flavored, puff with great texture (stemming from the panko sprinkled on top).

Edited December 22, 2006 by rich (log)

[Nathan]

restaurant: lamb course at Alinea.

Honorable mention to the wagyu and watermelon course.

home: well, in my Hamptons share I came up with the perfect burger:

untoasted everything bagel halves serve as the bun. two patties, topped with pats of butter then grilled. bacon on the grill alongside. bacon between the patties -- added cornichorns and A1 steak sauce (just a little).

Honorable mention: risotto with morels and chanterelles. beef broth and msg. caramelized onions. touch of truffle oil.

[Bricktop]

Restaurant: Not a new dish by any means, but the "Oysters and Pearls" ( at quotes) at Per Se was perfect. It would be a fixture in the "Name the top 2 things you've eaten in your life" list. The other spot would rotate.

Home: Last February, I made a braised short ribs ravioli so good I couldn't believe it was me who made it.

[H. du Bois]

Home:

Bacon & Eggs - Deep Fried Poached Egg topped with seared Serrano Ham & Salsa Fresca (December). Terrific texture from the egg combined with the richness of the ham made this my favorite creation of the year.

Interestingly, this very same item was my best dish of the year as eaten at someone else's home. It was spectacular and simple, both at the same time. I still keep thinking about it.

Restaurant dish - for this year, honestly, I haven't got one. (The one meal that keeps popping up in my head was from a year ago, while I was travelling). Either I've got to go out more, or vary my restaurants - all these new American cuisine restaurants using greenmarket products and name brand purveyors can taste an awful lot alike.

[rich]

Home:

Bacon & Eggs - Deep Fried Poached Egg topped with seared Serrano Ham & Salsa Fresca (December). Terrific texture from the egg combined with the richness of the ham made this my favorite creation of the year.

Interestingly, this very same item was my best dish of the year as eaten at someone else's home. It was spectacular and simple, both at the same time. I still keep thinking about it.

Restaurant dish - for this year, honestly, I haven't got one. (The one meal that keeps popping up in my head was from a year ago, while I was travelling). Either I've got to go out more, or vary my restaurants - all these new American cuisine restaurants using greenmarket products and name brand purveyors can taste an awful lot alike.

←

Ms. du Bois is being very nice and I thank you. I experimented with her and got lucky. It just as easily could have turned out to be a disaster. So thanks for your adventuresome palate and willingness to be my guinea pig.

[Sneakeater]

Are you saying you scooped H. up from the floor and threw her on the grill? Or are you using the term in its non-culinary sense?

[rich]

Are you saying you scooped H. up from the floor and threw her on the grill?  Or are you using the term in its non-culinary sense?

←

If she's able to answer, then the answer is the latter. If not...oh well, sorry H.

[Bueno]

Restaurant: It's a tie.

ADNY - Butter poached Maine lobster, rainbow of salsify/mango/hearts of palm, "jus de la presse". Perfectly poached lobster (which in itself is nearly orgasmic), lots of great texture interplay between crispy and unctuous, and a fucking phenomenal lobster sauce that was lifted to new heights with subtle notes of mango. Just delicious.

Peter Luger - Porterhouse for two. What can I say? The most perfect specimen of meat I've ever put in my mouth. Just absolutely perfect. Nice char, exactly medium-rare, full of rich, beefy flavour, and surprisingly, very pleasant service. One of the best meals of the entire year; but the best steak of my life.

[tupac17616]

RESTAURANT

Not sure if this is cheating, but...

Manresa in Los Gatos, CA on 8/28/06 - Corn and tomato salad "new version", seaweed granita

Absolutely the finest thing I've ever had the pleasure of eating. Period. I wish I'd taken notes on this during the meal (not coincidentally the best meal of my life, but that's another thread). Warm corn puree was at the bottom. Topped by the most refreshing gelee imaginable (Cucumber was it? Or lemon-cucumber? Something like that). Several perfect little heirloom tomatoes suspended in the gelee. Seaweed granita creating a marvelous textural and temperature contrast on top. Basil oil drizzled atop the whole thing and a few tiny basil leaves to crown it. The interplay of the textures, temperatures and flavors was tear-inducingly perfect. I lack the words to do it proper justice, but suffice it to say that this a dish I'd sooner refer to as "revelatory" or "life-changing" than simply "great."

Very distant runners-up (but excellent in their own right, and putting this thing back in NYC ):

Per Se on 5/2/06 - "Terrine" of Hudson Valley Moulard Duck "Foie Gras" -- Washington State Rhubarb, Spiced Shortbread, Garden Mache, Rhubarb "Mignonette" and Toasted Tellicherry Pepper "Brioche"

Even with all the stupid quotation marks, an absolute thing of beauty. I'd had foie gras terrines many times before then, and have had it many times since, but this particular dish is ingrained in my head as the Platonic ideal toward which all the others have only strived. The texture was absolute perfection. The flavor pairing, delicious. The dish? Incredible.

Per Se on 11/7/06 - Mascarpone Enriched Kabocha Squash "Agnolotti" -- with Hobb's Shore Applewood-Smoked Bacon, Honey Glazed Cranberries and Perigord Black Truffles

This dish had so much going on in such a small amount of space, yet it did not taste overly busy, if that makes any sense. The tastes, textures, and aromas were so harmonic. Better yet, they were symphonic, encompassing such contrast and focus at the same time. The smokiness of the bacon. The sweet-tart pop of the cranberries. The earthy aroma of freshly shaved truffles. Hot creamy squash and mascarpone filling in a perfectly al dente pasta casing. Absolutely remarkable dish.

HOME

Soft-Shell Crab BLT on 7/6/06

Two beautiful fried soft-shell crabs with applewood-smoked bacon, avocado, homegrown tomato, lettuce and chipotle mayonnaise served on toasted pain de campagne. Eaten outside on the back patio as late afternoon faded to evening, relaxing without a care in the world. Gotta love summertime...

[tupac17616]

ADNY - Butter poached Maine lobster, rainbow of salsify/mango/hearts of palm, "jus de la presse".  Perfectly poached lobster (which in itself is nearly orgasmic), lots of great texture interplay between crispy and unctuous, and a fucking phenomenal lobster sauce that was lifted to new heights with subtle notes of mango.  Just delicious.

Bueno,

Thought you might appreciate a picture I took at dinner last week...

[vivin]

WD-50

Baby spring lamb with banana consomme. Simple yet perfect dish. The smell, taste and texture is filed away in my memory.

[Bueno]

Tupac, you're killing me with that photo! Thank you for posting it. Man, just look at it. It's deliciousness personified! Great choices for your dishes of the year too, bud. Even your "home" dish reached new heights. Bravo!

[freshherbs]

Restaurant:

Perry St: snapper with caramelized radishes, tarragon, and grapefruit. absolutely amazing--creamy fish, tart citrus, a little spice from the radishes--very complex and delicious. touched all parts of the tongue