The News & TeleGraff

I'm spending a final evening sitting on the couch back home in Vermont in front of the tree and by the Christmas tree. It's so peaceful and quiet and wonderful. As the year winds down, I've been looking back at what a great year it's been. In addition to my traditional round-up of the best books I've read, I thought I'd add in a list of the best and most memorable meals I've had this year, since I've had some amazing ones this year and because most of my disposable income seems to go into eating. I initially was going to make a top ten, but I just can't narrow it down any further than a baker's dozen.

The meals below are a mix of fantastic food, memorable friends and company, or simply just a perfect marriage of food and place and emotion. Looking back on some of these meals -- and thinking about the many other good ones that just didn't make the cut -- it's incredible that I don't weigh 400 pounds.

The list (in order):

1) La Cabrera, Argentina -- Our first night in Buenos Aires in March, K and I ended up meeting friends of hers who were also passing through town. They recommended this steakhouse in Palermo and after a confusing taxicab ride, we ended up there. Everything about it was a delight -- cheap plentiful and fantastic Argentiana Malbec, great trays of antipasto-like meats, amazing mouthwatering steak with mushrooms and sauces (I had the "ojo de bife" or ribeye," without a doubt the best steak of my life), and then a dessert (for me) of panqueques dulce du leche. The best part? The meal came to only about $40 a person.

2) Abril, Argentina -- K and I found this out of the way restaurant in San Telmo in Buenos Aires, where we had a late dinner before heading to a tango show nearby. Down a cobblestoned street, we discovered we were one of the only people in this fun romantic little bistro. The menu ran the culinary gamut and so we had penne carbonara, zucchini soup, chicken satay with peanut sauce and bok choy, robolo with honey reduction, and a trio of crème brulees (coffee/lavender/orange), and I had an amusingly named "At last Chocolate Vol. 3" with banana ice cream. Another wonderfully cheap meal that we spent hours enjoying.

3) Aboard the Royal Yacht Brittania, Edinburgh, Scotland -- In May, as part of the final night of my scotch tour of Scotland, we had dinner on the now retired Royal Yacht. While the dinner was superb as might be expected, the bisque that night was to die for. Best. Bisque. Ever.

4) 1789, Georgetown -- A Christmas tradition for K and me for the second year was a dinner at 1789 at the gates of Georgetown. Decorated top-to-bottom with a quartet singing carols, the restaurant is a great holiday backdrop. I had oyster stew and venison. For the second year, they screwed up the pacing of our dinner -- we tend to think it's intentional to allow everyone else to get their meals fine since we're the youngest folks in a packed formal dining room -- and the waiter offered us salads, dessert, and port on the house. The Chauteuneuf du Pape we had was great.

5) Caol Ila Distillery, Islay, Scotland -- My first night in Scotland in May, we were on the wet and wild island of Islay off the west coast visiting the Caol Ila distillery. After an evening tour of the distillery on the haunting hidden cove, we sat down in the distiller's office for a dinner of the most amazing spread of fresh seafood, including Scottish salmon, crab cakes, and herring. As it was late in May, the twilight lasted until nearly 11 p.m. as the sky darkened across the sound at the foot of the Paps of Jura.

6) National Hotel, Block Island, RI -- My friend Ann and I journeyed to Block Island in June for our friend Brooke's wedding. While it was pouring rain in the days leading up to the wedding, we arrived on the island that morning to find it clearing off. We had lunch before the wedding on the giant porch of the National Hotel overlooking the harbor where we had clam chowder and the most delicious warm lobster roll I've ever tasted. Simply unbelievable. An honorable mention here goes to the clam pizza we had for dinner the night before at Frank Pepe's in New Haven. Yum.

7) Buck's Fishing and Camping, Van Ness -- I've been hearing the praises of this place for years and finally this fall managed to make it there to celebrate the end of a friend's job. The steak was promised to be the best in the area and I can say definitively that it outshown anything I've had at Morton's, Bobby Van's, or similar area steak joints. As any good dinner should, we lost track of time, eating slowly -- me devouring the mussels for an appetizer and chocolate cake for dessert -- as we split a bottle of good wine.

8) Restaurant Eve, Alexandria -- I find myself so rushed in life that I often have trouble slowing down. Such was the case at Restaurant Eve this fall when we sat down for the tasting menu. I initally wanted the service to be faster but quickly came to realize that it was supposed to be slow -- we were supposed to savor the experience. And savor we did. For more than three hours we were treated to course after course of delicacies.

9) Ceiba, Metro Center -- In February, K and I took her soon-to-depart roommate out for a dinner at one of my favorites, a Latin American seafood place that was the scene of one of my first fancy dinners out in Washington in 2003 and has been the site of numerous meals since. The three of us sat down front in front of the resident ceiba tree and laughed our way through the many course meal, from the ceviche sampler to the conch cowder to a good "dark and stormier."

10) Acadiana, Penn Quarter -- In July, one of my friends from the Scotch trip came to town with the president of Chopin Vodka. We had a delightful dinner at the cajun restaurant in Penn Quarter that was filled with lively conversation, politics, and lots and lots of food (the deviled eggs are always a favorite), and, of course, Chopin's fancy C.E.O. martinis with blue cheese-stuffed olives.

11) Cashion's Eat Place, Adams Morgan -- In mid-April, I stumbled into a great dinner at this warm neighborhood joint. It turned out that one of my best friends N and I both had things to celebrate that night, me a book contract and him a new fellowship. We met up with our respective significant others and ate a long, slow, meal crammed into Cashion's tight tables. N is a real wine aficionado and picked out something good (exactly what, I now forget) to keep us company long into the evening.

12) Rocklands BBQ, Glover Park -- One afternoon this spring, K and I went to watch my friend J.P. coach his little league team. We stopped on the way and picked up Rocklands BBQ. Again, nothing particular special about the meal other than good food but sitting behind his team's bench sipping lemonade and chomping on good barbeque on a warm spring day made for a great day.

13) Clyde's at Gallery Place -- I can't remember exactly why I was at the giant Clyde's in Gallery Place late at night, but I was in the mood for a tuna salad sandwich and turns out that boy they have a good one. Like the Rocklands above, a perfect marraige of time and place.