Best Meals of 2013

I still need to think of mine, but thought I’d start the thread while the idea is in my head. I’ve travelled a lot less this year than in recent years, so my list will be shorter and less diverse than 2012 and 2011.

Hm. interestingly enough they were all homemade stuff for me.
Nothing I had at a restaurant was memorable in 2013. sad.

I think my homemade ramen was probably the best thing I remember at the moment.

Oh. I take that back. Seoul Korea fish market dinner. The fish market has attached restaurants which all they do is take the stuff you buy and cook it or slice it raw, for you. Raw baby octopus, clams, and some other fish, along with a seafood stew. yum.

Was that in Seoul, or is there some awesome fish market in the bay area?

In Seoul, Korea. I wish there was a market like that here.

I was afraid you were going to say that.

April 1.
Crown Point Indiana. Schoop’s Hamburgers. Double cheeseburger. Onion rings. Diet coke.

That’s what my wife and I decided to eat the day we eloped.

Easily best meal of the year.

That’s one hell of a burger…

Acadia and Fat Rice (both Chicago) stand out. Longman & Eagle supplanted The Bristol as my favorite all-around restaurant in 2013. On the homemade front, I had a memorable meal in Wisconsin at a lake house we rented with two other couples. My friend arrived midweek with wine reinforcements and a cooler full of steak from Publican Quality Meats. We sat at a long table with candles like grown-ups after a long day of hand-to-hand parenting. It was a great night, all you want food & wine to be.

Pizzas at Oak & Rye in Los Gatos. The first really top-notch Neapolitan pizza place in the South Bay, and it opens up a 3-minute walk from my house! Nice wines in 250ml servings too.

Abroad:
Joe Beef
The Ledbury
The Hardwick (Wales)
Although really the best meal would be the quiche, hard cider, and ice cream at the cafe by the Broadway Tower (Cotswolds) on a postcard-perfect day. Though that had less to do with the food.

Local:
Many meals at Marea, Lincoln, and Danji.
Lafayette (apps and pastas are the way to go).
Piora

Robuchon Vegas in January for my wife’s birthday. Pretty flawless meal. Second was probably Hot & Hot Fish Club in Birmingham in March.

Had my two best in Vienna this year, one night at Steirereck and the other at Silvio Nickol at the Palais Coburg. Both meals ad course after course of inventive, delicious morsels, with fantastic service - perfectly timed, attentive but friendly. What a great city - can’t wait to go back.

Food: Extebarri followed closely by Elkano
Overall: Troisgros

I really did not get out much this year, but I suppose Blackbird in Chicago would take it for me.

With a new baby this year, I traveled and ate out much less than in past years, but I still managed to have a few great meals. In no order, some highlights were:

Urasawa (LA)
Coi (SF)
Oxheart (Houston)
Louie Mueller (Taylor TX) (Beef ribs!)
Underbelly (Houston) (Inconsistent, but one especially awesome meal)

Dim Sum at Victoria Central in Hong Kong
Dinner at Marea in NYC
Dinner at Recette in NYC (for the beef carpaccio if nothing else)
Dinner at Tei An in Dallas

If you’re factoring in wine and company then I’ll have to include some memorable meals of charcuterie, cheese and locavore rotisserie chicken down in the wine storage area where people keep pulling great bottles…

La Pergola - Rome

George

E by Jose andres- Vegas
Barleyswine- Austin
Wine group dinner December 13th

A tier below:
Next- Chicago (more for being able to appreciate how that type of restaurant works)
Lucia- Dallas

Troisgros - by far the best.
Bazaar
Mozza

Farmhouse by a mile.