The Top 10 Dishes of 2019

English pea risotto, spicy Korean noodle soup, and happy hour snacks that behave like dinner shape this year’s annual list of favorite foods.

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Food

While waiting for my husband at Justine in New Orleans, chef Justin Devillier’s new French brassiere on Chartres Street, I order wine and oysters en perseillade, expecting oysters on the half-shell, dressed up. A cast-iron cassolette arrives instead, and when I lift up the lid, poached oysters are bobbing about in an aromatic butter sauce. I dip in a crust of bread and breathe in the brine, butter, garlic, and salt. In that moment, I believe the oysters and the bread are heaven-sent.

I can’t help but reminisce about Justine’s oysters as I recall the highlights of eating this year: a panko-crusted curry ball stuffed with peppers, basil, and chicken at the Rooster & the Pig in Palm Springs, Taiwanese fried chicken at the outdoor Smorgasburg LA, and in small neighborhood eateries near Broadway in New York City, Peruvian roast chicken with green chili sauce.

But wait. This annual look back at eating is for the Memphis magazine City Guide, and my top 10 list of dishes is an ode, so to speak, to my favorite food here at home. Curiously, when compiling my list, I leave the fancy food for other cities. In Memphis, I favor seasonal produce like a perfect Georgia peach, comfortable flavors like grilled cheese, and a lean into Asian cooking. Noodles and kimchi, anyone?

Cornbread with ramps and green garlic at Hog & Hominy

Wild ramps, the elusive onions of spring, are delicious but fleeting. No worry, said the chefs at Hog & Hominy, who roasted and preserved springtime ramps for the restaurant’s early-summer cornbread. The ramps, green garlic, sorghum, and cornmeal from South Carolina’s Geechie Boy Farm make up the batter, which is baked, seared quickly, and topped with a dollop of cultured butter. Crunchy on the outside but still moist in the middle, the cornbread is an irresistible companion to any of the restaurant’s protein or veggie plates. Sadly, the restaurant’s ramp supply is limited, but the cornbread’s next iteration sounds equally good: lime, Pecorino, fresh corn, roasted jalapeños, and dehydrated Calabrian chilies mixed together with the same cornmeal base.

Contender: Butter beans with pancetta, maitake mushrooms, and panna gratte

707 W. Brookhaven Circle, (901-207-7396)

English pea risotto at Sweet Grass

For me, risotto is a mystery food, simple to make but difficult to master. So, I go to Sweet Grass, where the risotto — studded with Bluff City Fungi mushrooms and emerald-green peas — is exquisitely prepared. The magic comes from the texture of the rice that straddles soft and firm and from the risotto’s reduction of honey and thyme, a reincarnation of a similar reduction served with duck on an earlier Sweet Grass menu. Introduced in May, the risotto is part of a new shared plate menu for Sweet Grass, executed under the direction of chef de cuisine Marissa Griffith. For dinner, try the pea risotto with beef carpaccio or steamed mussels in a bread-dipping broth.

Contender: General Tso’s Cauliflower

937 S. Cooper St., (901-278-0278)

Chicken wings with fish sauce caramel at Lucky Cat Ramen

In a city like Memphis, where chicken wings are as ubiquitous as barbecue ribs, the plump succulent wings at Lucky Cat still stand out for their plating, taste, and character. Chef/owner Zach Nicholson explains their preparation this way: They are cooked sous vide, air-chilled, and then fried to crispy perfection. When the four wings are served, they are stacked vertically, finished with roasted peanuts and cilantro, and anchored with a bamboo skewer. You will notice a lovely sheen to the meat from fish sauce caramelized with aromatics and Thai chilies. Take a bite, and the juicy meat falls from the bone, a transformative experience both familiar and unique.

Contender: Crispy mushroom rice bowl

2583 Broad Ave., (901-208-8145)

Quail on a bed of sautéed spinach at Restaurant Iris

Many Southern food traditions come from hunting and gathering, including quail, the diminutive pigeonlike bird popularized by Craig Claiborne as a Southern staple. For restaurants, quail is also a practical menu choice. “You can effect it easily with seasonings and brines, cook it quickly, and it’s something a little exotic that most people don’t cook at home,” Chef Kelly English explains. At Restaurant Iris, quail moves on and off the menu. The current version comes with gobi and cilantro dressing, but my favorite from former Executive Chef Camron Razavi — who headed to St. Louis in July to open his own restaurant — was served in the fall stuffed with mushrooms and rice, topped with spicy mustard caramel sauce, and plated with sautéed spinach.

Contender: Fancy Pants 10-ounce burger

2146 Monroe Ave., (901-590-2828)

Freestone peaches from The Peach Truck

As I join the line of cars jostling for parking spaces at Millstone Market and Nursery, I ask myself: Really, Pam? All this for a peach? But once in line, with 100 people in front of me and dozens more behind, I get caught up in the enthusiasm for The Peach Truck, a semi-tractor trailer filled with freestone Georgia peaches brilliantly marketed by Nashville entrepreneurs Stephen and Jessica Rose. Once home, I spread my 50 pounds of peaches across the dining room table as instructed by the truck’s friendly staff. A few days later, the peaches give a little when gently pushed. So, I start in, eating two in a row over the kitchen sink, juice on my chin and blissfully happy. Next, I make vanilla bean jam (two dozen jars) and bake my first peach pie thick with peaches, slurry, and a glistening lattice crust.

Contender: The Peach Truck Cookbook (published June 2019)

Grilled cheese at Say Cheese! food truck

Food truck owner Terry LaRue practiced grilled-cheese recipes while working as an ER tech at Germantown Methodist Hospital. “He’d haul in his electric griddle and experiment at parties for the staff,” says spouse and co-owner Allison LaRue. The result of the couple’s testing is a food truck menu of seven gourmet grilled-cheese sandwiches with a crown jewel: The Triple-Decker. Cooks butter sourdough, sear each slice on the griddle with colby, provolone, and pepper jack, and sandwich the two together with house-made garlic aioli. “The Pepper Jack adds a little spice, but the other cheeses are mild, so flavors don’t compete,” LaRue explains. The Triple Decker — the truck’s most popular choice — also is a warm and cheesy slate for extra toppings. LaRue’s suggestion: bacon slices.

Contender: Sweet Little Meunster

Fried chicken sandwich at Hattie B’s Hot Chicken

Perhaps you’ve noticed. Fried chicken sandwiches are having a moment in bars and restaurants nationwide. Here in Memphis, no fried chicken sandwich is better than the impressive meal-in-a-bun at Hattie B’s. Hefty in size but still comfortable to hold, the bun — grilled lightly on the inside — sandwiches slaw, slices of pickle, and a five-ounce chicken breast fried to any of the restaurant’s six sequential levels of heat. I like to order my chicken mild, so the sandwich’s crunchy crust doesn’t overwhelm its Nashville-style Comeback Sauce, a delicious spread of mayo, honey, and house spices. 

Contender: Black-eyed pea salad or Southern greens

596 S. Cooper St., (901) 424-5900

Strawberry milkshake from the Jones Orchard stand

Even in May, when the temperatures are moderate, picking strawberries is back-breaking work. Still, I pick my own at the Jones Orchard fields off Farm Road in Shelby Farms to justify the prize at checkout: a cold and creamy strawberry shake. The shakes come in two flavors: vanilla strawberry (yes!) and chocolate strawberry (blasphemy!). Shakes are made to order with Blue Bell ice cream, more than a cup of just-picked strawberries, and a touch of homemade vanilla from orchard matriarch Juanita Jones. The vanilla is key, I decide, as I slurp my last sip before I get to the stoplight at Christian Brothers. Pro-tip: Ask for a large, insulated coffee cup instead of plastic to keep the shake cold.

Contender: Pick your own strawberries.

Jones Orchard, Farm Road, Shelby Farms

Happy hour snacks at the Grove Grill

Too often, fried and salty finger food that doesn’t taste that good anchors happy-hour menus. Not so at the Grove Grill, where happy-hour snacks, priced from $3 to $6, are chef-driven and almost healthy. My husband and I stop by often between 4 and 6 p.m. for a rotating menu that might include country paté, grilled oysters, braised pork tacos, cheddar burgers, truffle fries, pimento cheese puffs, or my favorite: hickory-smoked salmon with crispy bagel chips. Happy hour snacks give chef Chip Dunham a creative way to be a little quirky, says Amanda Dunham, who manages the front of the house: “We also like to think about what we would want to eat if we were sitting at a bar having cocktails with our friends.”

Contender: Seasonal sangria ($5), wine by the glass ($6), and local draft beers ($4)

4550 Poplar Ave., (901-818-9951)