OVER THE PAST DOZEN months, as our food team ducked into the subterranean seafood shanties, plush hotel lobbies, and revamped chrome diners that make up this year's roster of new restaurants, we kept noticing a particular feeling: It all seemed so fun.
There were no chefs pontificating on the genius of their own recipes, no processions of overtweezered intricacies, no "suggested" dress codes that forced us to swap out our old sneakers.
Instead, we found drink lists filled with Moxie (the soda, in addition to some chutzpah), banchan platters inspired by Korean cabbies, overstuffed dessert trolleys, and even noodles drenched in Sprite (again: the soda).
Stuffing our faces each night is not always the dream assignment it may sound like - one person can tackle only so many shellfish towers in a week - but after a joyful year of eating, these are the highlights that made us most excited to head out again and again.
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IT'S THE RARE stunt dish that's also delicious, but lobster "triangoli" at San Sabino (113 Greenwich Ave., at Jane St.; sansabinonyc.com) delivers. Four unassuming ravioli are covered in "white vodka sauce"-Alfredo in all but name - and a heavy scattering of powdered black garlic. The show begins when the black-and-white pastas are pierced to release the crimson shellfish-butter sauce hiding inside - as striking as it is silly.
World-Class Dumplings
CENTRAL QUEENS is hardly lacking in momos. Seek out the chile-slicked dumplings served at Newa Chhe (43-01 Queens Blvd., Sunnyside; newachhe.my.canva.site), which specializes in Nepal's Newari cuisine with dishes like the rice-flour crêpes known as chatamari. The momos arrive a ruddy shade of red, filled with juicy buffalo meat and just enough heat to wake up your tongue.
Denne historien er fra December 16-29, 2024-utgaven av New York magazine.
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Denne historien er fra December 16-29, 2024-utgaven av New York magazine.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
THE BEST ART SHOWS OF THE YEAR
IN NOVEMBER, Sotheby's made history when it sold for a million bucks a painting made by artificial intelligence. Ai-Da, \"the first humanoid robot artist to have an artwork auctioned by a major auction house,\" created a portrait of Alan Turing that resembles nothing more than a bad Francis Bacon rip-off. Still, the auction house described the sale as \"a new frontier in the global art market.\"
THE BIGGEST PODCAST MOMENTS OF THE YEAR
A STRANGE THING happened with podcasts in 2024: The industry was repeatedly thrust into the spotlight owing to a preponderance of head-turning events and a presidential-election cycle that radically foregrounded the medium's consequential nature. To reflect this, we've carved out a list of ten big moments from the year as refracted through podcasting.
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THE YEAR IN CULTURE - BEST BOOKS
THE BEST THEATER OF THE YEAR
IT'S BEEN a year of successful straight plays, even measured by a metric at which they usually do poorly: ticket sales. Partially that's owed to Hollywood stars: Jeremy Strong, Jim Parsons, Rachel Zegler, Rachel McAdams (to my mind, the most compelling).
THE BEST ALBUMS OF THE YEAR
2024 WAS one big stress test that presented artists with a choice: Face uncomfortable realities or serve distractions to the audience. Pop music turned inward while hip-hop weathered court cases and incalculable losses. Country struggled to reconcile conservative interests with a much wider base of artists. But the year's best music offered a reprieve.
THE BEST TELEVISION OF THE YEAR
IT WAS SURPRISING how much 2024 felt like an uneventful wake for the Peak TV era. There was still great television, but there was much more mid or meh television and far fewer moments when a critical mass of viewers seemed equally excited about the same series.
THE BEST COMEDY SPECIALS OF THE YEAR
THE YEAR IN CULTURE - COMEDY SPECIALS
THE BEST MOVIES OF THE YEAR
PEOPLE LOVED Megalopolis, hated it, puzzled over it, clipped it into memes, and tried to astroturf it into a camp classic, but, most important, they cared about it even though it featured none of the qualities you'd expect of a breakthrough work in these noisy times.
A Truly Great Time
This was the year our city's new restaurants loosened up.
The Art of the Well-Stuffed Stocking
THE CHRISTMAS ENTHUSIASTS on the Strategist team gathered to discuss the oversize socks they drape on their couches and what they put inside them.
