15 Highlights from My 2010 Fine-Dining Column for Stuff Magazine

The year-end issue of Stuff Magazine just came out, and as such it includes several 2010 retrospectives. One is a look back at my biweekly Food Coma column which reviews fine-dining restaurants in Greater Boston, trying to give readers a broad flavor of the restaurant while highlighting one particularly outstanding dish.

The Ultimate Food Coma: The 25 Best Things We Ate This Year not only includes my best-of picks from my 2010 year of high-end dining out on behalf of Stuff, but also includes Scott Kearnan's ten favorites from his Stuff It column, which tends to focus on more casual venues. Here's a breakdown of our picks.

From MC Slim JB’s Food Coma column:

15. Lobster risotto at Strega Waterfront

14. Crispy soft-poached egg at Russell House Tavern

13. Roasted suckling pig at Troquet

12. Grilled steak frites at Grill 23 & Bar

11. Blackened rare ahi tuna with yellow mole at Masa Boston

10. Peking chicken and pot pie at Towne Stove & Spirits

9. Cod en papillotte at La Voile

8. Codorniz al xocolat at Taberna de Haro

7. Dibi at Teranga

6. Farmer's plate at The Gallows

5. Marinated octopus at Bistro du Midi

4. Salumi at Coppa Enoteca

3. Fried Kumamoto oyster at O Ya

2. Kataifi-wrapped langoustines at Menton

1. Seasonal salad at Journeyman

From Scott Kearnan’s Stuff It column:

10. The mezze platter at Karoun

9. Butternut squash ravioli at Barlow's

8. Deviled eggs at Deep Ellum

7. Croque Dog at Mike & Patty's

6. Pork Milanese at Geoffrey's Cafe

5. Deep-fried lobster legs at The Barking Crab

4. Meat pies at KO Catering and Pies

3. Mac Attack at Boston Burger Company

2. Masala ravioli at Da Vinci Ristorante

1. The All the Way dog at Tasty Burger

The feature reflects my general sentiment that despite the lingering chill of the recession, 2010 was still a great year for restaurants Boston, with operators old and new giving us plenty of good reasons to keep dining out. Here's hoping 2011 represents a broad upswing for all of us.

Go Read Denveater's and My "Menu Writing: The Good, The Bad, The Excruciating"

Once in a while I get invited to do a guest stint on the blog of a fellow food writer. My latest, "Menu Writing: The Good, The Bad, The Excruciating" is a collaboration with my old friend Denveater: the ever readable, always funny, often provocative Denver-based food blogger.

Denveater and I start by expressing admiration for a few restaurant menus that rise above the great bloated bulge of the unextraordinary. But mostly we have fun busting on less-careful restaurateurs, servers, and industry pundit types for their fumbling and bumbling with menu prose, food item pronunciations, and usage of cooking terms. Here's a sample:

"antipasta for antipasto -- I heard this recently on the Boston-local TV restaurant 'review' show, The Phantom Gourmet. I wonder: if you were to order the the antipasta and the pasta and they arrived at the same time, would the universe explode?"

We had a ball writing this piece; hope you enjoy it, too!