Each year, I do a blog anniversary post listing my top 5 meals of the previous 365 days. I wanted to create a post highlighting the individual dishes that made me smile and kept me coming back for more. I haven’t really ranked anything, nor created a limit for the number that can be shown here; these are the ones that really struck me this year.

Below are my favorite dishes in 2012, in alphabetical (by restaurant) order.

5×5 Chefs Collaborative Dinner @ Melisse (Santa Monica, CA)
Angelini’s Homemade Spaghetti Chitarra alla Norcina with Sausage, Spring Truffles, Parmigiano-Reggiano

Perfect al dente pasta, a little bit of meaty sausage, cheese and truffles created a simple, well-balanced plate of flavors. So good!

Angelini Osteria (Los Angeles, CA)
Lasagna Verde “Omaggio Nonna Elvira” with Beef and Veal Ragu

Hearty, rich and soul-satisfying. Is it the veal and beef ragu that elevates this dish so much, or is it the cheesy bechamel or the housemade pasta? Probably all three.

Kohaku (Tokyo, Japan)
Fried Oyster and Chestnut with Truffle Sauce

The oysters were so delicately fried with a crispy outside and juicy inside. Shaved truffles and an addicting truffle sauce really took the dish to greater heights.

LudoBites Best of Foie Gras (Los Angeles, CA)
Foie Gras Black Croque-Monsieur

One of Ludo Lefebvre’s most well-known dishes was the perfect send-off to the now-banned ingredient. Squid ink-dyed bread was toasted just right, with an oozing foie gras terrine on the inside.

Pierre Gagnaire (Tokyo, Japan)
Taraba Crab Meat, Wild Mushrooms Fricassee with Autumn Fruits, Bouillon of Sauternes

This was an umami-packed broth that was just so delicious – earthy and slightly sweet. Topping it with lumps of sweet, fresh crab was a perfect touch.

RyuGin (Tokyo, Japan)
Premium Sea Urchin from Hokkaido in Lace Wrapping Deep Fried Rare with Edamame Beans Paste

The textures in these bites were so memorable, with a light crispy batter and soft, silky uni. It tasted amazing too, with the clean sea urchin flavor coming through beautifully.

RyuGin (Tokyo, Japan)
Wagyu Beef Filet Grilled on Charcoal with Assortment of Vegetables

My second trip to RyuGin delivered this highlight. Here, the over-the-top fattiness of Japanese wagyu was in the form of relatively lean filet mignon; the opposites created a fantastic middle-ground. The result was something that was extremely tender, yet also very juicy and succulent. Crisp veggies provided just a little bit of textural crunch to lighten things up a bit.

Tsujita LA (Los Angeles, CA)
Tsukemen

I’m not sure how many times I’ve had this bowl this year, which justified a cross-town trip multiple times (and even a trip to the main branch in Tokyo, which serves a very similar bowl). I still remember loving it from the first bite: the thick, al dente noodles and umami-packed soup. I just wish there was a way to keep the soup hot throughout.

Happy eating in 2013!

11/28/11

Today marks two years since I started this blog. It has been quite a year trying new foods and meeting new people. There’s been so many memorable food experiences (both good and bad), but in keeping with “tradition” I’m going to try to sum up and rank the top ones. It’s not necessarily the most delicious, more like most memorable – the experiences that will stay me going forward.

This list won’t include last night’s meal from The French Laundry given that I have yet to fully digest it (literally and figuratively); there’s a good chance it would’ve cracked this list though.

So here we go, here are my top 5 meals of the blog year:

5. Urasawa (Beverly Hills) - 6/18/11

A reliably excellent meal, to me Urasawa is the ideal special occasion restaurant in LA. No molecular gastronomy here, everything is kept very simple. Flavors are thoughtful, clean. Urasawa’s plating and sushi-making is so meticulous, yet seems so effortless at times. And it’s the best sushi I’ve ever had, by far. I just wish it wasn’t so damn expensive.

Pictured: sesame ice cream, red bean, black truffle, gold flake.

4. Wolvesmouth (Los Angeles) – 1/15/11

My first underground dining experience was fascinating. One man, Craig Thornton, put together a suite of interesting and tasty dishes with a very small team in a downtown loft. One oven. Four burners. I haven’t been able to go back since, but I’m sure I’ll have my fill at an upcoming 40-course meal next weekend.

Pictured: Dungeness crab, meyer lemon, malt vinegar sabayon, old bay profiterole, mustard mizuna.

3. Breadbar Japan Benefit Dinner (Los Angeles) – 5/16/11

This was a relative bargain at $110 for a meal featuring such names as Urasawa, Manzke, and Cimarusti…especially as all proceeds went to Japanese earthquake relief. The food lived up to expectations, including one of the best (in both presentation and taste) dishes I ate all year – Cimarusti’s soymilk panna cotta with sea urchin, geoduck and wasabi (pictured).

2. é by Jose Andres (Las Vegas) – 3/26/11

Everyone was seated at a small counter where we could watch as each of the ~20 dishes took shape. Maybe the most intimate and personal of the meals I had during the year, almost each dish came with a story from Jose Andres’ experiences in food. The food was very good, and the service may have been even better. A clear step above the Saam Room at the Bazaar.

Pictured: A whole lobe of foie gras baked in salt then sliced, yielding one of the best foie gras preparations I’ve had.

1. KCET Uncorked @ Bouchon (Beverly Hills) – 6/13/11

Easily the best meal I’ve had at a Bouchon, but that alone wouldn’t make this list. Thomas Keller was in the restaurant for this special event and dined on one course at each table. He sat right next to me for the cheese course. That experience pushes this one straight to the top.

Pictured: carnaroli risotto with summer truffles, English peas, sweet pea shoots & parmesan mousse.

Honorable Mention (in chronological order):

Test Kitchen: Closing Night (Los Angeles) – 12/13/10 The closing of such an intriguing concept, and an all-star chef cast to send it off.
Commonwealth (San Francisco) – 12/28/10 Just a very good meal. I returned two days ago and it was even better.
Spago (Beverly Hills) – 2/25/11 23 courses at Wolfgang Puck’s flagship is my longest meal ever.
Joel Robuchon (Las Vegas) – 3/28/11 Truly an extravagant meal, but just fell short of this list.
Walter Manzke @ Biergarten (Los Angeles) – 4/10/11 Tons of meat, fantastic french fries and craft beer from one of my favorite LA chefs.
Test Kitchen Reunion (Los Angeles) – 9/19/11 Another all-star chef cast came together to celebrate Test Kitchen.

See also: First Anniversary: Top 5 Meals

Today marks the one year anniversary of this blog (I can’t believe it went by so fast). For the longest time, my friends had been telling me I should start a blog, and I’m glad I finally gave in. I’ve met a lot of people and have had a lot of great experiences (dining and other). One year and 103 posts later, I wanted to recap with some of my best meals of the past year. This list is not necessarily the most delicious…nor necessarily the most memorable…but a mix of those that I haven’t really defined.

So here goes my top 5 meals of the last year:

5. Sushi Zo, 9/10/10

This was kind of a distant fifth, as I felt pretty strongly with my top 4 – but my fifth place took some thinking. My Sushi Zo meal was very good, but its memory is somewhat overshadowed by my Urasawa meal the next day. This meal was better than my last time at the ‘Zo, so much that I remembered thinking to myself “whoa, this was really good…was Urasawa this good?” That thought lasted for all of approx. 20 hours, but the fact that it challenged my memory of my previous of Urasawa dinners spoke volumes.

4. Scarpetta, 10/25/10

This probably isn’t in my top four delicious meals of the year, but it was up there. This dinner was memorable for being on opening night and having Chef Scott Conant personally serving up each dish while we were seated on the kitchen counter. That, plus the sheer decadence of having a bunch of courses with shaved black & white truffles. I still vividly remember that spaghetti.

3. LudoBites 5.0, 9/2/10

I don’t know how I was lucky enough to manage 7 trips to LudoBites in the past year, but this was my favorite. Ludo’s menu changes so often and is so eclectic in its variety, sometimes the dishes align with your personal tastebuds and sometimes not so much. Everyone has a different reaction to each meal. For me, this is the one that had the most highlights. Some of the more memorable dishes were the raw wagyu over somen noodles, poached egg and potato mousseline, john dory and the caramel souffle with fleur de sel ice cream. Sigh.

2. The French Laundry, 12/23/09

This was one of the main meals that inspired this blog. Given the difficulty of a reservation and the countless praise heaped on the restaurant, there may not be another restaurant in America where a diner’s expectations are higher. Although I had been here before, it was everything I had hoped for and more. Most memorable, however, for the white truffle risotto.

1. Urasawa, 9/11/10

Lastly, number one. I remember walking out of Urasawa happy and immediately wondering when I would be back. Of all the restaurants I’ve been to, Urasawa most clearly displays an utmost commitment to quality. The restaurant does not open unless Hiro Urasawa is present, and it’s evident that Hiro-san painstakingly scrutinizes every step of the process from when he gets the ingredients to when it enters a diner’s mouth. The results are worth it. Hands down my favorite restaurant in LA, and one of the best meals I’ve had.

Honorable mention, in chronological order:
The Restaurant at Meadowood, 12/26/09
Providence 5/14/09
Totoraku, 8/7/10
Test Kitchen with Walter Manzke, 8/25/10
WP24, 9/1/10