10. The Noble Pig —  Noble Pig Sandwiches, Austin

Texas may be best known for its beef, but perhaps not for long, if chefs John Bates and Brandon Martinez have anything to say about it. Their year-and-a-half-old Noble Pig serves up a namesake sandwich that somehow combines everything that is beautiful about pork products on one truly outstanding sandwich. Tender pulled pork, spicy slivers of ham, and crispy bits of bacon are all mixed together, topped with provolone cheese, and served on toasted, house-baked bread, for a porky trifecta that hits all of the spots. (Photo: Marshall Wright)

9. Pane et Panelle — Bar Stuzzichini, New York

Chickpeas may get typecast as functioning only in falafel form, but it turns out balls aren’t all they can do. Panelle is actually an old Sicilian street food snack—chickpeas and flour formed into light, airy strips and fried in olive oil. Stuzzichini‘s sandwich revives that classic and perfects it, layering crispy strips of panelle on a sesame-studded bun, in between levels of soft ricotta and caciocavallo cheeses. The result is a light-but-addictive sandwich that will make you curse every overly dense falafel wrap that has crossed your lips.

8. Chicherrones Banh Mi — Ink Sack, Los Angeles

There are a million banh mis in American nowadays, but we were most swept away by this version from Top Chef champ Michael Voltaggio. At his new Ink Sack sandwich shop, tender slices of pork belly and pork butt are topped with pickled vegetables, plus the kicker — crispy chicharróne fried pork rinds, creating one incredible multi-culti pork bomb.

7. Rabbit Cheesesteak — La Fromagerie, Alexandria, VA

We’re big fans of the cheesesteaks gone wild trend, and while we have a feeling Philadelphians won’t approve of this version, ES is all on board. DC-area shop La Fromagerie replaces the tired beefsteak with slices of Parisian braised rabbit; subs smoked mozzarella for the whiz; and tops the whole ciabatta off with carrot puree and caramelized onion.

6. Ebbett’s Cuban — Ebbett’s Good to Go, San Francisco Bay Area

Another classic that is hard to mess with, we’ve had plenty of modern Cubans that don’t live up to the real deal. Not so with the version hawked by roving Bay Area food truck Ebbett’s Good to Go. Slow roasted Niman Ranch pulled pork and artisan ham make the perfect pig-on-pig combination, while gruyere brings the goo, a crusty Acme roll provides the crunch, and the whole thing is finished off with jalapeno relish and chipotle mayo.

5. Garlic Bomb — Jake’s Sandwich Board, Philadelphia

Clearly, Philadelphia is not letting Virginia lay claim to the cheesesteak crown just yet, and Jake’s Sandwich Board has stepped up to the table with perhaps the ultimate garlic-lovers’ creation. A crusty roll is covered in homemade garlic spread, then topped with rib-eye steak and melted provolone, plus more sauteed garlic on top, and the garlicky pièce de résistance:  deep-fried, crunchy, battered whole garlic cloves.

 4. Grilled Cheese Donut — Tom + Chee, Cincinnati

We’ve seen a lot of crazy grilled cheeses pop up around America recently, but none gets our saliva flowing quite like the simple-but-genius version at Cincinnati’s Tom + Chee. Can you really argue that a grilled cheese wouldn’t be better if put between two slices of grilled donut instead of bread? No, you can’t.

3. DUC — Xe May, New York

OK, fine, we couldn’t resist adding a second banh mi option here, but the one at new East Village sandwich spot Xe May takes the cake by going half Vietnamese, half Italian, for basically the craziest meatball sub we’ve ever seen. Grilled meatballs are covered in housemade tomato sauce and provolone, but finished with the full banh mi treatment: fresh cilantro, pickled carrots, daikons, cucumbers and chili mayo, all served on a crispy baguette.

2. Roasted Cauliflower — No. 7 Sub, Brooklyn

No. 7 Sub chef Tyler Kord can do amazing things with meat, but we’ve been most impressed with his uncanny ability to turn regular old vegetables into exciting sandwich creations (his Brussels sprouts sub made our original best new sandwiches list). When No. 7 expanded to Brooklyn this year, he added this cauliflower creation that yes, sounds like something a stoned nine-year-old might have created, but is most definitely adult-approved. Sauteed cauliflower florets are topped with golden raisins, scallions, potato chips and smoked French dressing, for one seriously fulfilling veggie meal.

1. Irish Breakfast Sandwich — Beachside, San Francisco

When it comes to outrageously meaty meals, it’s hard to beat a full Irish breakfast, which always must include thick-thick slabs of salty bacon, savory Irish sausages, and circular slices of black (blood) pudding and whit (oatmeal-pork fat) pudding. But what if you put all of those ingredients on a sandwich? Clearly, it would be unbeatable. Beachside‘s sandwich has all of those porky products, plus a fried egg and slice of grilled tomato, only slightly fancied up with a thin layer of garlic aioli spread on the crispy bread, plus a housemade, tarmarind-spiked “brown sauce” on the side for dipping.

More:
America’s Top 10 New Sandwiches, 2011
America’s Top 10 New Sandwiches — Veganized!
Top 10 Foods Only America Could Have Invented

Plate It: Creamed Honey

We love honey. We hate how it sticks all over everything. Creamed honey is pure honey that is crystallized so that it changes texture; you get a smooth, creamy product that spreads like butter and doesn’t drip-drip-drip all over everything like that pedestrian un-creamed honey. Brilliant. (Available at http://www.shopbot.co.nz/)

Hate It: Push Pop Cakes

The latest mom blogger craze picks up where cake pops left off. Come on, foodie moms — please stop sacrificing practicality for cuteness. That is not how you eat a cake. Push it up and things start to fall apart once you take your first bite.  (Photo: kristin_a)

Plate It: Travel-Size Brie

Finally. We no longer have to fly with just Laughing Cow. Quality doesn’t compare to regular brie, but it’s sure better than no brie. (Available from Ile de France)

Hate It: Rachael vs. Guy Celebrity Cook-Off

Really, Food Network? Market research told you the world wanted a show that combines Guy Fieri’s overenthusiastic douchiness with RayRay’s perky catchphrases? And then you decided all it needed to be perfect was a former N’Sync member and maybe Lou Diamond Phillips? To be fair, we can’t hate on the ingenious inclusion of Coolio.

Plate It: Rachel vs. Guy Recaps on Grantland

Max Silvestri’s hilariously in-depth recaps almost make us think we should actually be watching this show every week…almost.

Hate It: “Eatie”

Sorry to keep picking on Rachael (OK, not sorry at all), but her attempt to coin a word that is more cutesy and annoying than “foodie” has been entirely successful. (Photo: Eater)

Plate It: Candied Egg Yolk

Somehow our 100 ways to cook an egg didn’t get to turning the yolk into candy. We’re calling this the next food trend NOW.

OK, I know I said earlier this week that Tanzania doesn’t have an awful lot of food to write home about, but there is one dish you really do need to know about. Actually, it’s pretty much the de facto national dish of Tanzania and I have to declare that it is pretty damn amazing.

Anywhere you go in this country, you’ll see little makeshift stands along the side of the road, generally stocked with just two things:

1) A giant, wok-like bowl set over a fire, perpetually cooking up a new batch of french fries in a big ol’ pool of oil.

2) A crate of farm-fresh eggs.

So what exactly do they make at all of these mysterious egg and french fry stands?

They make a muthafuckin french fry omelet, fool! Doesn’t require much of an explanation, really. You just throw the french fries in a pan and re-fry them with a bunch of eggs poured around them. Depending on how fancy your roadside stand is, your french fry omelet might be served with a slaw of fresh vegetables, just with a few spicy pili pili peppers on the side, or sometimes you just get salt and ketchup. Also depending on how fancy the stand is, you might get a toothpick or two to break it apart and eat it with, or you might simply have to go ahead and barehand it. In Swahili it’s known as chips mayai (chips and eggs), and it can be eaten for breakfast, lunch, dinner, midday snack, midnight snack — really, it’s always acceptable, and I know exactly what I’ll be doing next time I find myself at home with leftover french fries.

10. Tater Tot Poutine

Montreal’s greasiest, gravy-iest contribution to the food world, poutine officially became a trend back in 2010. It got even more amazing this year when chef Kyle Bailey of D.C.’s ChurchKey had the ingenious idea to replace the french fries with tater tots.

9. Kouign Amann

We first discovered this over-the-top traditional pastry, which is something like a croissant with twice as much butter and sugar, on a trip to Brittany, France this summer. Returning home, we were pleased to find it blowing up in the states. The best version we’ve tasted to far is the one above, from Starter Bakery in Oakland. It has also popped up at Dominique Ansel in New York and Bouchon Bakery in L.A.

8. Nouveau Filipino

Filipino food is among the most far-out in the world, so it was only a matter of time before it got a hipster update. From Adobo Hobo’s Filipino tacos in San Francisco to Maharlika’s spicy arroz caldo in New York (above), we’ll take all the creative Filipino cuisine we can get.

7. Buffalo Chicken Shake

We’ve always said that Liz Lemon gives the best food advice. What the 30 Rock character couldn’t have known when she spotted a buffalo chicken shake in one episode is that Lunch Blog KC would take her up on the challenge and actually make this in real life. Yes, that’s a shake made with heavy cream, milk, blue cheese, tomato juice, buffalo wing sauce, and Worcestershire sauce. Best enjoyed with a side of cheesy blasters.

 6. Deviled Everything

We shrugged when grandma-style deviled eggs started showing up on hip menus everywhere, but we couldn’t resist when chefs started getting deviled ridiculous, from the crab and caviar deviled eggs at B&O Brasserie in Baltimore (above) to BLT deviled eggs at Jasper’s Corner Tap & Kitchen in San Francisco.

5.Bloody Beet Steak

Beets are just too delicious to always be relegated to salads. Finally someone has created a dish that lets the beet stand alone. The Farm and Fisherman in Philadelphia pan fries its beets under a brick for a nutty, caramelized flavor and juicy texture as bloody as any rare steak.

4. Dirt

Sorry, folks, but the locavore wars are over. Chef Arabelle Meirlaen of Belgium’s Michelin-starred Li Cwerneu now serves the most back-to-the-earth dish possible. Her pot de légumes du moment consists of fresh veggies, herbs and, yes, dirt (kind of). The dirt in question is a product called charbon vegetal active. Chef Meirlaen combines it with sugar, salt and nuts to create the edible, growable soil.

3. Fried Ice Cream Burger

It may come as a shock to Texans, but the most inventive, most American new food at this year’s state fairs had to be the Florida State Fair’s burger with bacon, cheese, lettuce, tomato, pickle…and a scoop of cornflake-battered, deep fried ice cream. (Photo: Cheryl Reas)

2. Poptails

If you’ll allow us to be so brash as to toot our own horn for a moment, we have to admit we enjoyed few things more this year than our series on alcoholic popsicles.

1. Foie Gras Jelly Doughnut

California may have banned foie gras, but it is thriving back in Brooklyn, where the country’s craziest chefs — the team behind Do or Dine — had the balls to serve up this pastry. There’s no gimmick or trick here. It’s just a delicious jelly doughnut infused with foie gras, and yes, it’s so crazy that it does work.

(Photo: Niche Food)

Spokane is the second largest city in the state of Washington, yet feels worlds away from Seattle. It is much smaller and less cosmopolitan (and I mean that in the nicest way possible). While Spokane might not be teeming with trendy sushi restaurants and farm-to-table concepts, they do have some memorable food finds. For instance, let’s talk about Frank’s Diner. Located in an old traincar and founded in 1931, Frank’s has been churning out huge breakfasts for much longer than I’ve been eating my way through God’s green earth. I expected large portions and a down-home atmosphere, but what I did not expect was this:

MEATLOAF eggs benedict. Country biscuit topped with sage meatloaf, a large poached egg, and tons of rich brown gravy. Please note that this is a half order. I figured the full-size dish would kill me. Not only was this crazy enough that I had to order the dish, it was also delicious. The meatloaf was moist (ugh, I hate that word), fragrant and flavorful, very herby, and not greasy. As for the biscuit, it was the perfect combination of sturdy — it could hold its own against the heavy egg and abundance of gravy — but at the same time, light and crumbly.

The problem with many eggs benedicts, and poached eggs in general, is that restaurants overpoach their eggs! There is no worse travesty than hopefully cutting into a yolk, anticipation rising, only to find that it has been carelessly cooked through. Womp womp. So how did Frank’s fare?

Perfection! The yolk melted into the gravy, giving it a depth and richness that would beat any hollandaise.

What is the moral of this meaty tale? Cityfolk, do not turn up your nose at your smaller neighbors! Sometimes the most noteworthy dishes can come from the most unexpected places…even ancient trains.

I never knew an omelette could be like this. The middle arrived soft and gooey, somehow underdone yet perfectly done. Cheesey, tiny strands, of simply, fromage. I have no French so I couldn’t figure out exactly the type of cheese, but I will tell you that the French basic cheese cannot compare to our baseline cheese: American.

Cafe du Rililoux, Paris

1. Milky Way Brownies

What’s better than a candy bar? A candy bar inside a chocolate brownie.

Recipe: Recipe Girl

2. Snickers Cupcakes

The caramel, peanut-y goodness of America’s favorite candy bar, re-imagined as a cupcake.

Recipe: Annie’s Eats

3. Butterfinger Cheesecake

Our own Bakers Royale dreamed up this pretzel-butterfinger-chocolate concoction.

Recipe: Bakers Royale

4. Rolo Brownie Bites

Just like a pack of Rolos, you’ll eat the whole batch significantly faster than planned.

Recipe: Bakers Royale

5. M&M “Bacon and Eggs”

Pretzel sticks, white chocolate and yellow M&Ms stand in for our two favorite foods.

Recipe: Lick the Bowl Good

6. Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup Cake

No, that’s not a cupcake. It’s a legit cake, with whole Reese’s cups in the middle.

Recipe: The Hungry Housewife

 7. Candy Corn Vodka Tonic

In case you’ve ever wondered — yes, vodka can be infused with candy corns.

Recipe: Miss Make

8. Three Musketeers Pop-Tail

Finally, our own Kahlua-infused, Three Musketeers-inspired alcoholic popsicle.

Recipe: Endless Simmer

Find more Halloween recipes in Endless Halloween.

I dream in eggs.

Very few truths remain intact through adulthood. Televised wrestling proved to be acting, although my across-the-street neighbor Anthony always told me so, but I never believed him.

I also thought a slice of NY/NJ cheese pizza beat any other type of pizza. While that is mostly still true, throw an egg on a pie and the story changes.

A sunny side up egg frequents plenty of pizzas these days, as well as many other unusual ingredients. In fact, I’d say most “gourmet” pies become overloaded, creating soggy crusts and a dreaded fork-and-knife induced experience. Complicated pizzas rarely work.

Philadelphia’s Barbuzzo selected the right mix of flavors and textures to create a simple and addictive pie: Brussels sprout leaves scattered across a cheesy, truffle-oiled disk, dotted with guanciale. Diced pig jowl posed as garnish, a modern and effective way to use the most out of a moderate amount of meat.

The yolk arrived already nicked, ensuring that the egg ran all over the pizza. This oft-overlooked detail—hellloooo 8 out of 10 of my last Eggs Benedict orders—is much appreciated. And in a balancing feat, the crust stays stiff, letting the utensils sit this course out.

It’s enough to make me believe in the tooth fairy.

The Endless Road Trip: Philadelphia

1. There Will Be Blood…and Beets
2. Soup Dumpling Surprise
3. Cheesesteaks Gone Wild!
4. Duck in a Pot
5. Pretzels, Pretzels Everywhere
6. A Stand-Up Slice
7. Love on the Run
8. A Plate of Cheese and a Pail of Grapes
9. The New Cupcakes
10. Tastykake Taste Test

Watch a football game and you’ll catch your QB decked with pink cleats. Walk through the make-up counters at the mall and you’ll notice pink lipsticks, perfume bottles and nail polish.

Susan G. Komen is everywhere. As National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, October’s normal hue of black and orange now rages pink. Halloween costumes over. Pink ribbons abound.

And now, those little swirls sit atop the Eggland’s Best dozen.

We don’t have to get into the idea that this “pink washing” may not even do any good. It might not rattle the public’s attention or increase donations.

Cancer fucking sucks. Obviously.

But, seriously, lay off the eggs.