My Favorite Eating from 2008

I love making lists. Besides the added advantage of making me feel I've accomplished something just by telling myself to do it, lists also remind me to regroup and mull over things I really enjoyed and would like to remember.

My five favorite things from 2008:

1. Taiwanese oyster noodle. Thin vermicelli noodles in an incredibly thick, pungent broth scented with star anise and tripe, and topped with ribbons of cilantro and intestine, it's always delicious. But the best version I ever had was in Kaohsiung, Taiwan's second largest city and its seafood capital. Tiny, briny and tearfully fresh (I think of fresh shell juices as oyster tears - the mollusk sobs because it realizes it is not long for this world), the local oysters generously piled on top were the best I've ever eaten. Like many street eats, this was served in an alley with no signs or names to describe it (or how to find my way back...). Pic above.

2. Foie gras shavings at Momofuku Ko. I was an early Momofuku fan, but some of his more recent offerings (like the infant-sized Bo Ssam) have failed to impress me. The foie shavings are as marvelous as press clippings claim.

3. Ham and cheese belgian waffle at Bloom & Goute, in Seoul. The owner of this sophisticated cafe/high-end florist studied pastry in Paris and worked in Brussels. She now imports Belgian flour, and mixes equally good grated Swiss cheese straight into the batter, then tops with screamingly hot slab bacon. The result is a fragrant and chewy starch base, soaked with bacon fat, and occasional, surprisingly toothsome nuggets of cheese. Incredible.

4. Double-double animal style at In N Out. Sure, I eat this not just every year but many, many, times a year, but I never fail to look forward to it, nor to appreciate its existence and what it adds to my life (dreams, happiness).

5. Cherimoya, aka "custard apple", a ridgy green fruit indigenous to Central America and the northern part of South America. What looks like an inverted pine cone but tastes like a banana, pineapple and strawberry smoothie? Somehow, this unbioengineered, grown-in-dirt fruit. Finding oddities like this is why I love the farmers markets in southern California. The ones I hunted down in NYC were inedible.

Frank Bruni says 2008 was the best year for the New York dining scene since 2004. I can't remember what opened in 2004, but I do remember that 2007 was unwhelming. A glug glug for 2009 being more reasonably priced and even tastier.