The 26 Best Dishes We Ate Across the U.S. in 2024

After months of traveling to more than 30 states and eating in hundreds of restaurants, it’s not easy to keep track of all the dishes that crossed our tables. But on the other hand, there are some we couldn’t forget. Whether soups or sweets, a single tasting-menu course or a perfect ham sandwich (it’s true), these are the bites from 2024 that will linger in our minds well into the new year. BRIAN GALLAGHER

Molotes de Plátano at Komal

Los Angeles

Credit…Molino Komal

The chef Fátima Júarez learned to make this style of small, delicate molote from her Oaxacan mother, who ran a restaurant in Mexico City. The airy mashed plantain is crisp outside and tender inside, barely sweet, giving way to a center of melting, freshly made quesillo. Ms. Júarez serves the dumplings in a light and mellow mole negro that’s intricately flavored with dried chiles and cacao — so delicious you’ll want to drink it. Better yet, order the sweet-smelling fresh tortillas, made each day with heirloom Mexican corn, to help clean your bowl. ($9.50) TEJAL RAO

3655 South Grand Avenue (inside Mercado La Paloma), Los Angeles; no phone; instagram.com/komal.molino

Tonnarelli With Green Garlic and Narragansett Clams at Giusto

Newport, R.I.

A deceptively modest variation on spaghetti with clams, this pasta — best enjoyed in spring or summer, on the restaurant’s shaded deck overlooking Newport Harbor — tastes of just three things: green garlic, butter, and clams. But there’s uncommon depth to the dish. The pistachio-green sauce is achieved by cooking the green garlic tops and bottoms separately, and the pasta finishes cooking in a broth of clam juice and dashi that adds flavor without fishiness. Texture is the other play: The tonnarelli (made in-house daily, like all the restaurant’s pastas) is springy, and the tiny local clams are poached until just tender. JULIA MOSKIN

4 Commercial Wharf, Newport, R.I.; 401-324-7400; www.giustonewport.com

Suadero Taco at Paprika

Austin, Texas

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