ES Editors’ Choice Awards: Best Food Moments of 2008
OK you’ve had your say readers. Hezbollah Tofu is the Eater of the Year. But you know what? This is a food-tatorship, not a food-ocracy, and you didn’t really think we were going to let you lowly readers get the last say, did you? In all seriousness, thanks for voting, but we want to continue the award season silliness and call out a few more of our favorite eating moments of 2008. What were your favorite moments? Holler back.
Most Improved Eater: The Political Media
There’s been a lot of criticism of the MSM this year — they were in the tank for Obama! They forgot to report about the war! They can’t afford to print papers! — but here at ES we noticed a marked improvement. Throughout the campaign, we could barely turn on our TV or crack open a magazine without learning important breaking news about what one candidate or another was eating. Hillary stops for ice cream! Huckabee fries squirrels! McCain gained five pounds! It was beautiful. I mean, look at this recent page from the Huffington Post. Not one, not two, but three top-of-page stories about what Barack Obama is eating this week — and he’s on vacation. Keep up the good work in 2009, media.
Best Food TV Moment
There is staged reality TV lameness, and then there are inevitable unexpected moments of genius. Top Chef 5 is not even halfway through, but we suspect we’ve already seen this season’s high-point: Ice Queen Padma Lakshmi, usually so adept at keeping her judgely emotions under wraps, simply lost it upon taking one bite of Jersey housewife Ariane’s super-sweet cherry surprise and literally gagged on it. Padma felt so bad about actually spitting out Ariane’s food that she let the old lady win every challenge since then. We don’t even care who wins Top Chef this year. We’ll just remember this one shining moment.
Best Use of Bacon
As you know, the best use of bacon of course means the most outlandish use of bacon. A dish that doesn’t crumble bacon or garnish with bacon, but creates something so bacon-y extravagant that your heart hurts just looking at it. FoodProof wins this one by a landslide with their remarkable woven bacon and cheese roll. Death on a plate in just seven easy steps.
More awards after the jump…




















