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T o be a great food city, it helps to have a large body of water nearby, a classic dish or three, and a population with a fondness for drink. Those are among my impressions after spending more than 60 days on the road this year, visiting more than a dozen destinations, then measuring them against a set of standards — for creativity, community and tradition, among other criteria — to come up with a Top 10 list of America’s Best Food Cities. The Search for America's Best Food Cities: Part I: Charleston, S.C. Part II: San Francisco Part III: Chicago Part IV: Portland, Ore. Part V: Philadelphia Part VI: New Orleans Part VII: New York Part VIII: Los Angeles Part IX: Houston Part X: Washington D.C. Not every trip produced fruit. (Maybe next year, Nashville and Seattle?) And there were plenty of surprises on the journey. I can’t wait to eat in Houston again, but New York let me down, at least for the present. Let the debate begin! But remember: I didn’t just parachute into these cities, try a few bites and fly home. Before rating my subjects, I ate, drank and shopped in 271 restaurants, bars, food stores and farmers markets. The first and smallest of the cities I surveyed, Charleston roots almost as hard for the future as it does for its oh-so-rich past. Expect to find some of the latest food fashions sprinkled among the abundant low-country treasures – which benefit from ingredients a stone’s throw away – but not, for the most part, polished service. Think farm-to-table is new? Charleston, home to ace chef Sean Brock of the beloved Husk and cookbook maven Nathalie Dupree, has been a subscriber seemingly forever. It may lack culinary representation from around the world, but what’s wrong with serving the best shrimp and grits on the planet? [The search for America’s best food cities: Charleston, S.C.] Defining moment: Craggy golden fried chicken, succulent shrimp and a heaping helping of hospitality at soul food purveyor Martha Lou’s Kitchen. Best twist on tradition: Shrimp and masa grits with chili sofrito at Minero, a Mexican retreat from Charleston chef Sean Brock. Recipes: The Obstinate Daughter’s Frogmore Chowder | The Ordinary’s Diver Scallop Hush Puppies No town delivers better Indian food, access to a more sumptuous countryside inn, finer Spanish tapas or a more thrilling avant-garde experience than the nation’s capital. Call me biased to put the city I know best, and longest, on a list of the country’s top food draws. But initially, at least, my attachment was a disadvantage the area had to overcome: I am, after all, as familiar with its weaknesses as with its strengths. (If grocery shopping is second-rate, local wines are collecting international nods.) Only after I auditioned a dozen other candidates could I stand back and take stock of a market that, while low on tradition, was big on community and variety at all levels, including locally grown, socially conscious fast-food concepts with national ambitions. (Go, Beefsteak and Sweetgreen!) Celebrity chef José Andrés summed up the District scene, 2,000 restaurants strong, when he said, “We are not one thing, but so many things at once.” Defining moment: Sitting in Barmini, the futuristic lounge created by Andrés, where I watched some cocktails change color. Best charcuterie: At the Partisan, a roster of 30-plus meats are arranged under descriptive headings, as if they were wines. The meaty marvels include a “bright” bresaola cured with a Thai treasure chest of spices. Recipes: Vidalia’s Lemon Chess Pie | Barmini’s Ticket to Phuket The dirty little secret among some food writers? They’d rather eat in places other than New York right now. Count me among them after spending 11 days there this past August and September, with the daunting goal of putting a dent in a city that counts 45,000 restaurants, 200 cuisines and some of the biggest names in the business. As a serious observer of the scene for more than 25 years, I went in figuring I’d be using up my annual allotment of exclamation points. I left scratching my head and wondering whether New York is resting on its considerable laurels. Seven hundred dollars for an undistinguished omakase at Masa? Nine hundred bucks for dinner for two at Eleven Madison Park, where the most exciting part of the night was watching a sommelier open a rare bottle of wine with heated tongs? The raves lavished on Cosme, a Mexican newcomer, baffled me, and I guess you have to be a native New Yorker to appreciate Peter Luger Steak House, a sad Brooklyn icon that has seen better days. Oh, there were plenty of heady moments, too. Sushi Nakazawa proves a Japanese gem, Le Bernardin remains my favorite four-star, and when I munched on a $3 hot dog at Gray’s Papaya, amid exhaust and a mass of people, all seemed right with the world. And the country bows to the Big Apple for giving it bagels, Craig Claiborne, Mario Batali, fresh takes on food halls and gold-standard hospitality courtesy of Danny Meyer. But sometimes more is just — more. Defining moment: Being lectured to not take photographs at the klieg-light-bright Masa – before I even sat down. Best hybrid: Shalom Japan in Brooklyn specializes in Jewish-Japanese. Okonomiyaki with sauerkraut and pastrami, anyone? Great Everyman food? Check. (My weakness: hot dogs “dragged through the garden.”) Fine dining on par with the country’s best? Chicago can claim that distinction, too. Innovation and accessibility propel the Windy City’s food scene, second only to New York’s for the recognition it has received from the prestigious James Beard Foundation (more than 40 chef and restaurant awards). Chef Rick Bayless sets the Mexican standard in the country, at all price points, with a fleet of first-class eateries, while Grant Achatz of Alinea, which serves fruit-flavored balloons for dessert, pushes the molecular envelope to the moon. If some global flavors are only nominally represented, prime steaks and top-notch tacos are, like frigid winters, a given here. Bonus: This might be the only city in the country with an exciting new restaurant, Fat Rice, dedicated to the food of Macau. Its signature dish layers jasmine rice, Chinese sausage, Portuguese chicken thighs, pickles, prawns and more.
