So many meals, so few napkins. It's never easy to single out the best dishes from a year full of eclectic dining experiences. Over the course of 12 months I've covered nearly 50 restaurants and sampled five to eight times that number of starters, mains and sides. Best, as you know, isn't about fancy or expensive. And best is subjective. For the sake of clarity, we'll call these the "Best Things I Ate," but in truth they are the dishes that most stand out in my mind as being memorable.

By Douglast Trattner