The latest installation in the deluge of year-end best-of lists is perhaps the most approachable yet: Bon Appetit’s Foodist blog compiles the ten best dishes of the year — with the caveat that they’ve got to be $10 or under. The strawberry salad with mozzarella, balsamic, mint, and gray salt at Roberta’s in Brooklyn tops the list, but also showing up are top-notch snacks like The Publican’s spicy pork rinds (which have been well-loved this year), the salty tin roof sundae at San Francisco’s Humphrey Slocombe, Filipino Maharlika pork sausage with caramelized onions at Wurstkuche in L.A. and — heartiest of all on a bang-for-buck basis — the Arista sandwich, made of roasted suckling pig with broccoli rabe, Italian peppers, provolone, and a splash of jus, just eight bucks at Paesano’s in Philadelphia.
Best Restaurant Dishes of 2009–Budget Edition [BA Foodist]