10 best foods I ate in 2011

A combination of good food and great company made these meals stand out for our food blogger over the past year.

Fri, Dec 30 2011 at 12:43 AM EST

I’m jumping on the “best of” list bandwagon with a list of the best foods I ate this year. Some of the foods stand out because they were simply amazing. Others stand out because they were really good, but they were also shared with family and friends. It’s amazing how the right company can make good food great.

Here, in no particular order, are the 10 best foods I ate in 2011:

At La Pasta in Eataly in New York City, I had a few tastes of my friend Susan’s pasta. It was an airy cheese-filled ravioli with a lemon sauce and pistachios crushed on top. My pasta was good; hers was a pasta I will never forget.
The deviled eggs at Supper in Philadelphia that Brian and I ate for our anniversary dinner were delicious. Each egg was flavored differently, and we loved them all.
The chocolate figs from John & Kira’s were unlike any gourmet chocolate I’d ever eaten before.
My friend Nicole made pepper and egg sandwiches for the bus ride up to New York City when we went to the San Gennaro Festival. Maybe it was the dancing in the aisles of the bus, maybe it was the wine, or maybe it was just that they were amazing sandwiches, but I loved every bite.
At the Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Universal Studios in Orlando, Brian, the boys and I indulged in Butterbeer. The smiles on the boys’ faces as they drank the sweet drink (that was pretty darn good) was something I’ll never forget.
The Chargrilled Burger with Roquefort at The Spotted Pig in New York City. It absolutely lived up to its hype.
The pepper and onion pizza from the pizzeria at the pool my family belongs to. We’re fortunate to have a full-service pizzeria as the snack bar at our pool, and when a friend ordered peppers and onions on our pizza one night, I finally realized why vegetables on a traditional pizza are so popular. It actually started an obsession to see what else red peppers were good for. I spent a good part of the summer and early fall experimenting with them in lots of ways, including the next item on the list.
Roasted red pepper hummus. I created this hummus recipe over the summer, and I haven’t bought hummus since. I make it a few times a month.
I made Emeril's Tomato, Zucchini, and Leek Galette from his “Farm to Fork” cookbook several times last summer. It was so good that I took everything needed for it down to our friend’s house in Virginia last summer so we could cook it together.
Frozen strawberry daiquiri made with local honey was something I drank quite a bit of over the summer. Fresh, local strawberries and wildflower honey made for the most refreshing, delicious cocktail.