The Best of 2018 Issue

What was the best recipe of 2018?Or the best restaurant? Or the best wine? The answers are in today's New York Time Food section. Foodies and readers may agree or may have a few of their own choices. Let's see if your choices were in the top.

So, what where the best recipes? One turned out to be the one that was my biggest disaster Julia Moskin's chicken franchese. Done right it must be magic.I realize that some recipes just don't translate to vegan. It is a great dish,perfect to make for a holiday dinner party with friends. Add some fettucine along with a flute of Prosecco for a really festive meal.Another chicken recipe also became a Times reader fave - Melissa Clark's sheet pan chicken , Even novice chefs can make this tasty mix of chicken, bell peppers and sweet potatoes. It's spiked with sage,paprika , and cayenne. If you prefer mild then try Alison Roman's baked mac and cheese -  creamy with sharp cheddar and given texture with a sprinkling of bread crumbs. There is also Sam Sifton's adaptation of Jonathan Wu's beef and broccoli using chuck steak, and butter! End with salted chocolate chunk  shortbread cookies, from Alison Roman . These new classics won hands down as one of the best recipes, as it married everyone's favorite flavors dark chocolate and butter.

The best restaurants and quick bites are internationally varied. Reviewers went wild over Lagman House that produces the varied noodles, from Gulshat Azimova. a Dungan cook. She is from a small minority from southern Kazakhstan. with ancestral influences from the Muslims who traded on the Silk Road and the Han Dysnasty. Bab Marrakesh gave reviewers  a taste of Morocco. with lamb shanks amid prunes and almond and the meat pie, bastilla, dusted with confectioner's sugar. Ho Foods has its; lu  rou fan, pork belly soaked in a combination of Taiwanese beef and rice wine, along with orange peels. What wines were the stars of 2018? Eric Asimov cites the grand  Chateau Lafite Rothchild Pauillac 1868 (!), He was fortunate enough to attend the 150th anniversary celebration of Lafite's acquisition by the famed Rothchild family. According to Mr. Asimov,this was the wine of a lifetime. For more down to earth wines, there's the Noel Verset Cornas 2004, a syrah and the Italian La Stoppa Emilia Macchione from northwest Emilia -Romana,known for its' purity and depth.

These are some of the best - tastes and flavors that made 2018 sing . Will they continue on in 2019?Or be replaced by even better and tastier foods and wines. Time will tell.