Monday, December 17, 2012

Best and Worst 2012

In the spirit of the countless "In/Out" lists that populate magazines during late December, I have assembled some of our own.  Take a gander and comment as cordially as you see fit.

[All opinions are of the author only]

Best

New Food Truck: Porchetta
New Bakery: Loaf
New Cafe: Hummingbird Bakery
Triangle Twitter: Triangle Localista
New Food Stand: Monuts
Triangle Food Company Mascot: Esme (This and That Jam)
New Restaurant Space: The Cookery Front Room
Anticipated Opening for 2013: Cocoa Cinnamon
Food Blog: David Leibowitz
Jewish Pastry Pic: http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8293/7548854782_f7a98a84ab.jpg (Chocolate Rugelach via David Leibowitz)
Radio Food Shows: The Splendid Table; Taste Matters
New Cookbooks: Faviken; Bouchon Bakery
Celebrity Takedown: Pete Wells on Guy Fieri
Foodie Movie: Jiro Dreams of Sushi
Internet Pie Pic: http://tartsbytarts.tumblr.com/image/29378072163 (Blueberry Anise-Hyssop Pie, Tarts by Tarts, DC)
Internet Food Videos: http://vimeo.com/16077855http://nyti.ms/N0qDxx
Food Article: http://www.slate.com/articles/life/the_completist/2012/09/pepperidge_farm_cookies_what_i_learned_about_life_from_the_milano_the_verona_the_geneva_.single.html
Kitchen Gadget Purchases: OXO POP Container for holding compost; OXO Immersion Thermometer
Triangle Vegan Chef: Matt Props
Berenbaum's Hand Pie: Thai Peanut
New Products at Berenbaum's: French Coconut Tartlets; Bialys
Berenbaum's Customer Reaction: The woman at the South Durham Market who unapologetically dropped f-bombs throughout her multi-sentence praise of our tartlets.

Worst

PR Move: Durham Farmer's Market trying to boot the food trucks/stands from Hunt Street.
Restaurant Closing: That aspiring New York deli that tried to make it on 54 in Chapel Hill -- I already forget its name.
Opening: The Cupcake Bar, Durham.
Food Business Closing: TROSA Grocery Store
Moment for Locavorism: The day Reliable Cheese announced its closing.
Food Trends: Pickled Ramps; Extreme Foraging; International Destination Restauranting; "Rediscovering" Brisket
Berenbaum's Customer Reaction: Mr. M who tasted Ruch's Famous Kimchi, found it offensively spicy, and spat it into his hand and then threw it into the street.  This was also the best compliment imaginable for the kimchi, as kimchi that doesn't offend somebody's palate is probably weak tea.

2 comments:

  1. Ar - this is one of my fav posts of the year.
    Lots of comments:
    How have we never been to Pastrami Queen?; Esme sure is a cutie, but I say she and Jah should be co-mascots; Dad makes a lot of fun of Lynn RC - glad to see I'm not the only one =)

    ReplyDelete