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In my first yr because the restaurant editor at Meals & Wine, it shouldn’t be shocking that I spent numerous time consuming and ingesting, in addition to interested by consuming and ingesting (and likewise time in airports). And 2024 was an distinctive yr for doing simply that (generally you possibly can even eat fairly effectively in an airport).
This yr, we celebrated 13 improbable 2024 Meals & Wine Greatest New Cooks, named Burdell in Oakland as our Restaurant of the 12 months, and recognized the yr’s largest traits in eating places, drinks, and cooking.
From coast to coast, over the course of tens of hundreds of miles of journey, visits to dozens of cities, meals at a whole lot of eating places, and hundreds and hundreds of bites, these are the eleven standout dishes that I cherished probably the most and nonetheless can’t cease interested by.
Squab at 4 Kings (San Francisco)
Courtesy of Pete Lee
There’s typically 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 is perhaps the Nineteen Nineties Cantopop jams that get blasted within the eating room, however the different motive is there are solely 15 squabs accessible daily, and it’s essential to get there on the early aspect to attain one. Because the saying goes, the early hen will get the squab. The entire squab, head and ft nonetheless connected, will get marinated, smoked, after which deep-fried to order, a multi-day course of that leads to rosy, succulent meat with a glistening, burnished pores and skin. Chopsticks are ineffective; you’ll need to make use of your fingers. Get in there and be the hen you’re.
Ham & Cheese, Cullum’s Attaboy (San Antonio)
Meals & Wine / Raphael Brion
All the things concerning 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, modifications with the seasons, and a latest 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 12 months — and the informal but exact cooking seems like an excellent Sunday feast (assuming your grandma cooked at a number 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 — primarily a sausage and egg roll meets a Cajun Sizzling Pocket meets French viennoiserie — is a dizzying murals at Ayu Bakehouse. You 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 exciting 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 once you assume you’ve seen all of it with smashburgers, go away it to Laotian-American chef Bob Somsith — at his evening market-esque, brick-and-mortar restaurant Lao’d Bar within the outer fringes of East Austin — to give you 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 similar time.
Wisco Fried Cheese Curds at Butterbird (Madison, Wisconsin)
Courtesy of Butter Hen
Consolation meals classics like fried hen and root beer floats are a severe affair at Butterbird. Even the coleslaw right here is critically good. However what stopped me lifeless 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 big restaurant pattern of 2024, and one of the crucial joyously sensible methods to eat caviar was on prime of a working class hashbrown. A shining instance can be the Hashbrown and Roe at Molly’s Rise and Shine, an itinerant particular that basically ought to 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 flamboyant hashbrown, for which there sadly isn’t any award (however there ought to 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, almost candy crust with a springy, chewy texture that’s paying homage to mochi however notably with out the standard sourdough tang — is not like anything on the market. The menu right here appears to be in a state of fixed, chaotic flux: latest dishes just like the wild boar lasagna served tableside and the Howdy 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 repeatedly 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 precise cuts will range based mostly on what’s in season and what’s accessible, however it’s a story informed by Jordan Rubin, aka Mr. Tuna himself, and may embody completely different cuts from the identical fish, and probably a seared model. Style the metaphorical rainbow, if it have been made 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 an enormous, new house 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 latest setup mixed quite a lot 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 actual fact, crucial meal of the day. They managed to squeeze us in. On Sundays, the complete menu is accessible, however it’s also possible to 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.