Faves 2005

Restaurants of the Year, Montreal:

Au Pied de Cochon

Jun-I

Club Chasse et Pêche

La Montée de Lait

Reservoir


Food-related Shops or Stores, Montreal:

Olives et Épices

La Dépense


Films:

Le Cercle Rouge, dir. Melville

Syriana, dir. Gaghan

Good Night and Good Luck, dir. Clooney

Capote, dir. Miller

The Squid and the Whale, dir. Baumbach

No Direction Home, dir. Scorsese

The Constant Gardener, dir. Meirelles

Brokeback Mountain, dir. Lee

Trouble in Paradise, dir. Lubitsch

The Subconscious Art of Graffiti Removal, dir. McCormick


Music:

Destroyer, "Rubies"

Electrelane, Axes

Bill Fay, S/T

The Kinks, Something Else

Black Mountain, S/T

Bob Dylan, The Bootleg Series, Vol. 4, Bob Dylan Live 1966, The “Royal Albert Hall” Concert

Marianne Faithfull, Before the Poison

Pere Ubu, “Humor Me”

Brian Eno, Here Come the Warm Jets

V/A, World Psychedelic Classics 3: Love’s a Real Thing: the Funky, Fuzzy Sounds of West Africa

Gary Higgins, Red Hash

Wolf Parade, Apologies to the Queen Mary and S/T EP

Luiz Bonfá, Solo in Rio, 1959

Pylon, "The Human Body"

Cat Power, “Willie Deadwilder”

Stephen Malkmus, Face the Truth

Serge Gainsbourg, De Gainsbourg à Gainsbarre box set, but especially the Histoire de Melody Nelson section

Fleetwood Mac, Tusk

Sleater-Kinney, The Woods

Pentangle, Basket of Light

Terry Reid, “Bang Bang”

Pavement, Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain double album reissue

Bob Dylan, The Bootleg Series, Vol. 7, No Direction Home: The Soundtrack

The Go! Team, "Panther Dash"

Big Star, “Till the End of the Day”

The Fall, “Victoria”

Hubble Bubble, "I'm Not Like Everybody Else"


Food Writing:

The New Yorker's "The Food Issue" (Sept. 2005) had not one, not two, but three of our favorite food pieces of the year:
Calvin Trillin's "Speaking of Soup"
Mark Singer's "Gone Fishing"
and
John Seabrook's "Renaissance Pears"

Patience Gray, Honey From a Weed

Colman Andrews' profile of Chantal Chagny and her Auberge du Cep entitled "Mme Chagny's Magic Restaurant", Saveur, October 2005

Bill Donahue's "What's Eating Portland's Food Provocateur?" on Michael Hebberoy and his Gotham Bldg Tavern, Food & Wine, Jan. 2006

David Karp's "Orchard of Dreams," Gourmet, July 2005

John Thorne with Matt Lewis Thorne, Serious Pig: An American Cook in Search of his Roots

Edward Behr, "Another Way of Being Up To Date: Contemporary Restaurants in Montreal," The Art of Eating #69

Calvin Trillin, The Tummy Trilogy

Saveur's special issue on American artisanal cheese, April 2005

Edward Behr, The Artful Eater


Books (general):

Under the Volcano, Malcolm Lowry

The Quiet American and Our Man in Havana, Graham Greene

Waterfront and Rudy Burckhardt, Phillip Lopate

His Dark Materials trilogy, Philip Pullman

Urban Gardener, Elspeth Thompson

Life, A User's Manual, Georges Perec

A High Wind in Jamaica (or, The Innocent Voyage), Richard Hughes

Invisible Republic, Greil Marcus

Merry Hall, Beverley Nichols


Cookbooks:

Paula Wolfert, The Cooking of Southwest France and Couscous and Other Good Food From Morocco

Rose Levy Beranbaum, The Bread Bible

John Thorne, Serious Pig

Richard Olney, A Provençal Table

Alice Waters, Chez Panisse Menu Cookbook

Pierre Hermé, Larousse des Desserts

Saveur Cooks Authentic Italian

Catherine Plagemann, Fine Preserving

Trish Deseine, Du Caramel Plein la Bouche

Patience Gray, Honey From a Weed


Snack of the Year:



Haldiram's All in One

Spiced sev, raisins, cashews, rice flakes, Moong lentils, peanuts, etc., all contained in one fantastic mix... Few things taste better with a beer after a long day's work.

--eds.