Top Ten #45

1.  The Cornwallville Summer Social, Cornwallville, NY



2.  Stop Making Sense, dir. Demme + the revival of the Mile End Rockumentary Club

3.  Santouka, Vancouver, BC

4.  Le Grand Aïoli + Domaine du Grand Noré rosé 2011

5.  Moonrise Kingdom, dir. Anderson



6.  summer swimming



7.  summer quilts @ The Little Shop

8.  Hudson's Hamburgers (since 1907!), Coeur d'Alene, ID

9.  Jessica Mitford, Hons and Rebels



10.  Zingerman's Roadhouse, Ann Arbor, MI

Top Ten #41

1. Karen Dalton, In My Own Time (Just Sunshine/Light in the Attic)



2. Mr. & Mrs. Smith (1941), dir. Hitchcock (a.k.a. Su Amado Enemigo and Matrimonio Original)





3. Shirley Collins and Davy Graham, Folk Roots, New Routes (4 Men With Beards) [on vinyl! finally!] + Davy Graham, Folk, Blues & Beyond + Never The Same: Leave-taking From the British Folk Revival, 1970-1977(Honest Jons)



4. Ben Katchor, The Cardboard Valise + Ben Katchor @ Drawn & Quarterly, April 30, 2011

5. My Dinner With André (1981), dir. Malle



6. Flying Burrito Brothers, Burrito Deluxe (4 Men With Beards) & The Gilded Palace of Sin (4 Men With Beards)



7. Adam's Rib (1949), dir. Cukor ("Feeling pinky, Cranky?")



8. J. Mascis, Several Shades of Why (Sub Pop)

9. North By Northwest (1959), dir. Hitchcock

10. Lamb chops scottadito & braised artichokes w/ friends

aj

Top Ten #40 (Special Bonus Edition)

1. White Manna, Hackensack, NJ

2. Metal Mountains @ The Stone, March 20, 2011

fig. a: fried chicken!

3. Pies 'n' Thighs, NYC

fig. b: Kurt!

4. Kurt Vile, Smoke Ring For My Halo (Matador)

5. souvenirs from Russ & Daughters

fig. c: blood, bones, & butter!

6. Prune, NYC + Gabrielle Hamilton, Blood, Bones, & Butter: The Inadvertent Education of a Reluctant Chef

7. Smörgåsbord!, Laloux, March 28, 2011

8. Kajitsu, NYC

fig. d: oysters!

9. Mark Kurlansky, The Big Oyster: A Molluscular History of New York

10. Shopsin's General Store, NYC

+

1. Destroyer @ Cabaret Mile End, Montreal, April 1, 2011 (no joke!)

aj

Top Ten #39

1. Kaffeeklatsch #1

2. Destroyer, Kaputt (Merge) + "Kaputt"

3. tasting menu @ Lawrence + Domaine de la Roche Buissière Côtes du Rhône 2007 "Flonflons"

4. David Tanis, Heart of the Artichoke and Other Kitchen Journeys + DIY pho

5. Metal Mountains, Golden Trees (Amish)

6. Les Plages d'Agnès, dir. Agnès Varda

7. Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, dir. Frank Capra

8. Philip Roth, American Pastoral + Sherwood Anderson, Winesburg, Ohio

9. Lapierre Morgon 2009 w/ David Tanis' roast pork menu (Saveur #88, November 2005)

10. Beat the Devil, dir. John Huston

aj

Top Ten #31

1. W.W. Boyce Farmers' Market, Fredericton, NB

2. A.S. Byatt, Possession

3. Mad Men, season 2

fig. a: "Mark Whitacre" + Mark Whitacre

4. The Informant!, dir. Soderbergh + This American Life #168: "The Fix is In"

fig. b: NB tartan

5. The Loomcrofters, Gagetown, NB

6. Oscar's, Warrensburg, NY

7. Hans Fallada, Every Man Dies Alone

8. New Brunswick potatoes

9. diner-style hamburgers + I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang, dir. LeRoy

fig. c: Captains Courageous

10. cod cakes + Captains Courageous, dir. Fleming + chow chow

aj

Top Ten #20

1. crab, crab tacos, crab louie

2. eating your way through the strip malls of Northern Virginia

3. Ways of Escape, Graham Greene



4. Upper Saranac Lake, NY



5. The Burden of Dreams, dir. Les Blank

6. esquites

7. A Study in Scarlet, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

8. eating your way across Vancouver

9. Effi Briest, Theodor Fontane

10. Breakfast Lunch Tea, Rose Carrarini

8/29/07

Top Ten #13

1. muscat honey

2. Collected Stories, Carson McCullers



3. Wolf River apples

4. Brightblack, Morning Light, S/T (Matador)

5. Little Miss Sunshine, dir. Dayton and Faris

6. roasted, caramelized carrots à la Spotted Pig

7. To Be or Not To Be, dir. Lubitsch



8. The Shocking Blue, "Poor Boy" and "Send Me A Postcard"

9. BU, Montreal

10. Broken Flowers, dir. Jarmusch + "There Is An End," Holly Golightly + The Greenhornes

10/01/06

Top Ten #12

1. Richard Olney, A Provençal Table: The Exuberant Food and Wine from the Domaine Tempier Vineyard

2. jerk pork bbq

3. The Kinks, Muswell Hillbillies

4. Jamie Kennedy Wine Bar

5. Washington Phillips, What Are They Doing in Heaven Today?



6. 2006, The Year of the Melon

7. Ninotchka, dir. Ernst Lubitsch: "Garbo laughs!"

8. V/A, Jamaica to Toronto: Soul, Funk, & Reggae, 1967-1974, including Jo-Jo and the Fugitives' "Chips, Chicken, Banana Split"

9. Edward A. Bunyard, The Anatomy of Dessert, with a Few Notes on Wine

10. Mission figs

Top Ten #11

1. World Cup fever

2. Pimm’s No. 1 and Pimm’s Cups

3. Michael Ondaatje, The Conversations: Walter Murch and the Art of Editing Film

4. Bill Buford, “The Dessert Lab: A Pastry Chef’s Quest for the New,” The New Yorker

5. birthdays at Senza Nome

6. Black Tartarian cherries

7. Darjeeling Samabeong DJ-1

8. Patricia Highsmith, The Talented Mr. Ripley

9. M sur Masson



10. our garden, 2006 edition

07/06/06

Top Ten #10

1. Homarus americanus

2. The French Chef on DVD

3. Alice Waters, Patricia Curtan, and Martine Labro, Chez Panisse Pasta, Pizza and Calzone

4. Grizzly Man and The Great Ecstasy of Woodcarver Steiner, both dir. Werner Herzog

5. Yung Sing Pastry Shop, 22 Baldwin St., Toronto, (416) 579-2832



6. V/A, Big Apple Rappin’: The Early Days of Hip-Hop Culture in New York City, 1979-1982

7. Momofuku vs. Rai Rai Ken, NYC

8. Vernon, Florida, dir. Errol Morris

9. The Flaming Lips, At War With the Mystics

10. Corner Creek Reserve Bourbon Whiskey

06/14/06

Top Ten #9

1. The Modern Lovers, Precise Modern Lovers Order: Live in Berkeley and Boston

2. lunch at La Montée de Lait

3. Joseph Wechsberg, Blue Trout and Black Truffles: The Peregrinations of an Epicure (1953)

4. Nashville, dir. Robert Altman + Nashville: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

5. Snow Crab

6. Cosse Maisonneuve, La Fage, Cahors 2002

7. Bob Sloan, "Mario's Excellent Adventure," Gourmet, April 2006

8. artichokes

9. Pete Wells, "The World's Best Chocolate?," Food & Wine, May 2006 + Amedei "Chuao" chocolate



10. 1 qt. bean pots

04/26/06

Top Ten #8

1. "Alice, Off the Page," Calvin Trillin, The New Yorker, March 27, 2006

2. handmade accessories by Erin Templeton

3. Richard Olney, The French Menu Cookbook

4. The Pink Mountaintops, Axis of Evol

5. Homicide, season 1

6. John Thorne and Matt Lewis Thorne, Pot on the Fire: Further Exploits of a Renegade Cook

7. The Wire, season 3

8. Bombay Choupati

9. Triple Ginger Scones

10. Aries

03/24/06

Top Ten #7

1. homemade brioche

2. Kings of the Sky, dir. Deborah Stratman

3. Bonnie Prince Billy and Matt Sweeney, Superwolf

4. Ralph Rumney, The Consul (trans. Malcolm Imrie)

5. homemade gravlax

6. Benjamin Smoke, dir. Jem Cohen



7. Blind Blake, Rope Stretchin' Blues

8. Bill Wasik, "My Crowd," Harper's, March 2006

9. Vermont

10. homemade whole wheat bread with butter

Top Ten #6

1. Le Samouraï, dir. Melville

2. "Saturday afternoon bread"

3. cranberry mostarda and making mustard from scratch

4. Ris Paul Ric, Purple Blaze

5. Maldon salt

6. Caché, dir. Haneke

7. Seville orange and whisky marmalade



8. Le Paysan de Paris, Aragon

9. Simple Cooking, ed. John Thorne

10. dinner for two

02/14/06

Top Ten #5

1. Destroyer, Destroyer's Rubies

2. The Murray Bay

3. The Thin Blue Line, dir. Morris (especially if you've just seen Capote and just finished reading In Cold Blood)

4. Wolf Parade, "Dinner Bells"

5. Jun-I



6. MFK Fisher's A Cordiall Water, a garland of odd and old receipts to assuage the ills of man & beast

7. Rooibos tea, especially the parfum de Provence variety

8. Au Pied de Cochon on a miserable winter day

9. The New World, dir. Malick

10. Delila

01/30/06

Top Ten #4

1. Global knives



2. Capote, Bennett Miller and In Cold Blood, Truman Capote

3. Kitchen Aid professional mixers

4. Brokeback Mountain, Ang Lee

5. Luiz Bonfá, Solo in Rio, 1959 (Smithsonian/Folkways)



6. Syriana, Stephen Gaghan

7. La Montée de Lait

8. V/A, Ethiopiques, vol. 4: Ethiopian Jazz and Musique Instrumentale, 1969-1974

9. Joe Beef (old and new)

10. iittala casseroles and "against throwawayism"



01/07/06

Top Ten #3

1. Paula Wolfert, The Cooking of South-West France (Harper and Row)

2. the new Niukee

3. Tom Colicchio, Think Like a Chef (Clarkson Potter Publishers)

4. The Faces, First Step (Columbia)

5. pickled prunes

6. Edward Behr, The Artful Eater (Atlantic Monthly Press)

7. sausage pizza, American Flatbread

8. Tony Richardson, The Charge of the Light Brigade

9. my new fine chinois

10. The Kinks, Something Else, but especially "Afternoon Tea" (ESM)

12/05/05

Top Ten #2

1. The Traveler's Lunchbox (Edinburgh)

2. gumbo

3. John Thorne with Matt Lewis Thorne, "Bayou Odyssey," "First You Make a Roux," and "Out of the Gumbo Pot" in Serious Pig: An American Cook in Search of His Roots (North Point Press)

4. Fais Do-Do: Cajun Dance Party (Columbia) and Louisiana Cajun, Special No. 1 (Swallow Records)

5. Bill Fay, Bill Fay, but especially "The Room" (Eclectic)



6. La Société des Plantes (Kamouraska)

7. Mont d'Or lait cru Vacherin, Fruitière des Jarrons, AOC

8. Serge Gainsbourg, "Qui est in qui est out" video & "Bonnie and Clyde" video, Serge Gainsbourg: D'autres nouvelles des étoiles DVD set

9. Samuel Richardson, Clarissa or, The History of a Young Lady: Comprehending The Most Important Concerns of Private Life And Particularly Showing The Distresses That May Attend The Misconduct Both of Parents and Children, In Relation To Marriage (Penguin)

10. Malpeque oysters

11/15/05