Anna Withrow’s Favourites from 2008

Here's my list of favourite things of 2008.

• Ali Baba's on Queen near Lansdowne: I don't generally eat a lot of take-out so I'm sadly unfamiliar with what's available in my hood. Returning from a cottage weekend late and weary one Sunday this summer, my boyfriend and I agreed it would be best to pick up dinner somewhere that didn't demand a long wait for our order; we ended up at Ali Baba's. I've deeked into various Ali Baba's, including this one, for the odd falafel or kebab and it's always hit and miss. What I hadn't experienced was the lamb, served on the bone, dripping with juices over lentil rice with the cabbage salad, tabouleh and enough garlic sauce to ward off co-workers at the water cooler the day after ingestion. I've returned for this meal several times since and it's consistently magnificent, enough food for two meals, and at about $8, a real steal.

• Foxley's - It ain't cheap, but it sure is cheerful. We went with two adventuresome food-fiends and ordered something like 8 of the tapas dishes, a bunch of wines recommended by our friendly waitress and had one of my very favourite meals of 2008. Among the selections were 3 kinds of ceviche, one with crispy shallots, devoon, I'll never look at fish the same way again. Some dumplings stuffed with lamb and duck proscuitto made us all bow our heads for a moment of silent gratitude; tangy beef heart made the two anti-organ-meat eaters at our table question what they had been missing all these years.

• Oyster Boy - Without a doubt, the best thing that happened to me in 2008 was falling in love and shacking up with my Newfie boyfriend. We discovered our mutual love of oysters on our first date jump-starting the quest for the best oyster joint in Toronto (and some pretty steamy dates!). By date five we had declared the winner, Oyster Boy on Queen West near Shaw. Friendly and very knowledgeable service, tasty, simple side dishes and a casual, warm atmosphere making it easy for us to meander over in jeans and T-shirts when we have a late night hankering for our favourite meal - 2 dozen oysters, a Caesar salad with smoked trout and a couple of pints of beer.

• 2008 was the year of smoked sea salts. My dad used to bring these back for me from his annual trip to France and I got used to making a small bag last the entire year using only a smidgen in soups and fish dishes. When The Mercantile moved into my neighbourhood on Roncesvalles, I was thrilled to find their large variety of salts, the prices are steep but as I already knew, a little goes a long way. On my last trip to the Metro in Liberty Village a similar variety of smoked salts was on top of the deli meat coolers, I'm happily sampling my way through all of them.

• 2008 was the year of discovering all the yummy sausages at Segovia Meat Market in Kensington Market. I've had a spotty attendance record at Segovia over the last decade so I don't know when Segovia expanded their incredible homemade sausage collection, I'm just happy that they did. While I've been a big fan of all the sausages I've tried from Segovia, our old friend, the classic Segovia chorizo is still my favourite and bar none, the best in Toronto.

• Gourmantra Indian Meal kits - Channa Masala and Tandoori Chicken. I know, I know, in a city like Toronto with so many great restos, take-out joints and local stores fully stocked with great ethnic ingredients for making virtually any meal you want, it feels pretty silly to turn to the grocery store aisles to find great Indian food in the form of a boxed meal kit. Gourmantra submitted their kits for consideration in a competition I was putting together for the Canadian Liver Foundation called the LIVERight™ Awards, the quest for the most nutritious and delicious prepared/packaged foods available in grocery stores. Our judging panel raved about the Channa Masala and Gourmantra won the Best Ethnic Item category at the LIVERight™ Awards. I'm pretty die-hard about making foods from scratch but I had to see why Chatelaine's food editor asked me how she could lay hands on a box of this stuff so I made several trips to Metro stores until I found it and let's just say I understand why the judges were so wowed, absolutely delicious. I love their very spicy tandoori chicken too and regularly stock both meal kits in my pantry now.

Restaurants included in Anna’s favourites list:

• Ali Baba's, 1430 Queen St W, 416.536.2100, CheapEats Toronto pg. 31
• Foxley’s, 207 Ossington Ave 416.534.8520
• Oyster Boy, 872 Queen St W, 416.534.3432

Anna Withrow is a regular contributor to CheapEats, a culinary adventurer and an activist based in Parkdale. Eager to try everything from the diviest greasy spoon to the chicest fine dining experience, she’ll never steer you wrong.