Welcome to Gil’s list of my favorite dishes in 2024. These dishes were selected not for complex culinary preparations and exorbitant price points, but for the simple preparation of dishes that taste as if they were prepared by a chorus of angels in a celestial kitchen. These are the dishes most indelibly imprinted on my memory engrams…the first dishes that come to mind when I close my eyes and reflect on the past year in eating. As with previous yearly compilations, every item on this list was heretofore unknown to my palate before 2024. Every dish was a delicious discovery from within New Mexico’s sacred borders. In chronological order, my “best of the best” are:

January, 2024

In 2024, an esteemed panel of judges selected Annamaria Brezna O’Brien of Santa Fe’s Dolina as a semifinalist for the prestigious James Beard “Best Chef – Southwest” award.  Among the culinary gems for which Dolin is known is chicken paprikash.  Dolina’s chicken paprikash (organic chicken cooked in browned butter, white onions, Hungarian paprika finished with sour cream and dumplings) is the very best I’ve ever had,  Chicken paprikash is a paragon of comfort food.  It’s rich, superbly seasoned, balanced and absolutely delicious.

February, 2024

in 2024, Albuquerque’s Burque Bakehouse was a finalist for the James Beard Foundation’s “Outstanding Baker” award, one of the nation’s most prestigious honors recognizing leaders in the culinary and food media industries.  The Bakehouse offers breads and pastries you won’t fine elsewhere.  My favorite is the kouign amann, a superb pastry which originated in Brittany, a region in Western France.  What sets it apart from similar pastries (such as the cronut), is that it’s delightful crunchy (thanks to the caramelization of sugar) and gooey at the same time with pronounced, heavenly notes of caramel.

My favorite event of every year is the Roadrunner Food Bank’s Souper Bowl and it’s not solely because I’ve been asked to judge the metropolitan area’s best soups for twelve years.  Held on the Sunday following some ballyhooed football game means it’s soup season.  You won’t find more variety and comfort food deliciousness than at the Souper Bowl.  2024’s winning soup was the green chile cheeseburger soup from Slate Street Billiards in Rio Rancho.  This enchanting elixir tastes very much like a green chile cheeseburger.  A very good one!

April 2024

If a trip to Silver City was solely to experience La Vie Est Un Bistro’s transformative French onion soup the trip would be worth it.  At first bite we declared it the best French onion soup we’ve ever had as we pondered its uniquely wonderful flavor.  Though the soup was made with the “usual” ingredients–beef stock, white onions, Gruyere, crusty French bread–Chef Pierre told us other ingredients included rosemary, thyme, sherry, red wine, Balsamic vinegar and sugar.  The beef broth, Gruyere and onions imparted a wonderful umami while just the right amount of sugar gave the soup a balanced flavor profile with sweet and savory notes.

More than a decade after having helped inaugurate the New Mexico Tourism Department’s New Mexico Green Chile Cheeseburger Trail, I discovered the very best green chile cheeseburger I’ve ever had.  Sadly it’s a four-hour drive to have another because that burger can be found only at the Adobe Deli in Deming.  Sure, I’m prone to hyperbole, but this burger checks all the boxes…especially memorability.   What most set this burger apart, however, is the freshness and moistness of a beef patty which is essentially ground steak, a thick half-pound of beef prepared to your exacting specifications.

May, 2024

French toast were invented by the Romans in 300AD, but it was the French who perfected them…and it’s Clafoutis which has managed to improve on perfection.  Clafoutis’ coconut French toast with fresh fruit may be the best French toast I’ve ever had…and I’ve had more French toast than une poignée of French diners.  Picture two slices of eggy, charred French bread with a liberal sprinkling of coconut and powdered sugar topped with deep-purple blackberries with strawberries on the side. The marriage of shredded coconut and syrup is magical.

June, 2024

Compiling a list of the best dishes I was blessed to enjoy in 2024 is hard enough, but to single one dish out as “best of the best from among the best” is even more challenging.  That one dish–the star among stars–is the Chilean Sea Bass a la Nage from Santa Fe’s Alkeme which garnered James Beard Foundation – Best New Restaurant semifinalist honors in 2024  Quite simply, this is one of the most delicious fish entrees I’ve ever had (and I lived in Massachusetts and on the Mississippi Gulf Coast).   This transformative tender-fleshed,  mild, slightly sweet tasting fish is prepared in a well-flavored court-bouillon) with coconut milk and lemongrass.  It’s sheer magic!

Is there any food as humble as tacos?  Humility aside, tacos have become not only mainstream, but a creative canvas upon which innovation is running rampant.  Rio Tacos isn’t buying it.  Instead of heaping on non-traditional ingredients, the Rio Tacos menu is replete with such standard taco ingredients as carne asada, al pastor, chicken adobada and quesabirria.  Best of all, the proteins are grilled on a charcoal brasier (a large metal container in which coal or charcoal is burned).  The difference is noticeably delicious.

September, 2024

Filipinos have a deep sense of community and belonging  They have a compulsion to sharing their food.  Sadly, until 2024 the Duke City didn’t have a Filipino restaurant from which wonderful Filipino favorites could be found.  Then came Cindy Recile, an effusive and radiant personality who named her take-out establishment for the Filipino word for “friends” or “group of friends.”  You’ll want to order her terrific food for all your friends.  Make it a combination plate which includes lumpia, chicken adobo and Filipino picadillo.  Barkada’s ABQ is a find!

In 2024,  three restaurants–Alkeme, Level 5 and Ex Novo–served the best meals I enjoyed during the year.  All were exceptional from start to finish, every bite a flight to ecstacy.  When Chef Marc Quiñones at Ex Novo confided that his favorite dish on the “large plates” menu was the churrasco steak and potatoes (outside skirt steak, twice-cooked potatoes, grilled tomato, caramelized corn, tomato coulis), we knew we had to have it.  Chef Quiñones will never lead you wrong.  He’s one of the very best chefs in New Mexico, a 2024 James Beard “Best Chef-Southwest” semifinalist.

October, 2024

Escondido’s chicken mole enchiladas (achiote braised chicken, mole negro, sesame seeds, chipotle crema, cilantro-lime rice, beans) are in rarefied air–equal to or better than any mole dish in the Land of Enchantment.  Increasingly mole has begun to rival my affection for chile.  Restaurants such as Escondido in Santa Fe prepare it so well, your taste buds might believe they’re enjoying mole in Oaxaca.  A three-time winner of Food Network competitions, Chef Fernando Ruiz launched one of the most anticipated (cue Carly Simon here) restaurants of the year.  It’s not easy to find (the first time), but well worth the effort.

Chef Marc Quiñones may be best known for his prowess with high-end cuisine, but as the sandwich menu at Sammy’s Cafe & Deli proves, he is a sandwich artist.  Sammy’s offers  a medley of familiar sandwiches and breakfast favorites constructed with Chef Quiñones touches.  Ever sandwich warrants “best of the year” consideration, but it’s the Crazy Reuben (house-brined and roasted corned beef brisket and Swiss cheese on thick marble rye with housemade Russian dressing topped with fresh sauerkraut) ensnared my affections.  I’m crazy about this fabulous sandwich!

November, 2024

When Chef Sean Sinclair assumed the helm at Hotel Chaco’s spectacular Level 5 Rooftop Restaurant, it was a given that he would introduce a phenomenal fine-dining menu replete with life-changing dishes.  Among them is a duo of duck (seared duck breast, leg, and thigh confit tamale topped with spiced duck demi. Served with agave roasted golden beets and micro arugula), my Kim’s choice for best thing she ate all year.  The blend of corn masa ameliorated by duck fat and luscious duck meat was certainly among the best high-end tamales I’ve ever had.

December, 2024

Chef Marie Yniguez named her restaurant “My Moms” in honor of the moms she holds dearest–her grandmothers, wife Karla, mother Olga and daughter Ryan.  A loving mom herself, Marie feeds restaurant guests as she would her own family.  If love is the ingredient all moms use in their cooking, plenty of love is readily apparent in the Little Bowl of Love (chile con carne, fideos, pinto beans, calabasitas and shredded Cheddar)–in the same bowl.  It’s a heart-warming bowl of love prepared as only a wonderful mom can prepare it.  In my eyes, Marie can do no wrong.

Americans love pizza–we consume 100 acres of it every day here in the United States. That’s 3 billion pizzas, or 46 slices (23 pounds), of the savory pie for every person in the country, every year.  Admittedly, I’ve been below average in pizza consumption for years.  That’s starting to change thanks largely to Luigi’s Ristorante & Pizzeria in Albuquerque.  Luigi’s prepared the three best pizzas–carne adovada, combo Sicilian, and Luigi’s signature pizza–I had this year.  Perhaps the best is Luigi’s signature pizza with its deep-fried crust topped with artichoke hearts, prosciutto and cheese.

That’s it, dear readers, a compilation of the best dishes I enjoyed in 2024.  Please feel free to share your own “best of the best” New Mexico dining choices for 2024 by commenting to this post. Who knows? Maybe in 2025 they’ll make it to my list, too.