TimeOut Chicago Just Made Our Foodie Wish List 100 Items Longer

By Anthony Todd in Food on Nov 29, 2012 4:20PM

It's like Christmas for foodies. Every year, we wait up in front of the fireplace (sit at our desks in the afternoon) clutching our little blankie (truffled popcorn) waiting for Santa (the mailman) to deliver our long-awaited presents (the Time Out 100 Best Things We Ate This Year Issue). We've gotta give David Tamarkin, Julia Kramer and Heather Shouse credit—it's a huge amount of work to put a list like this together and it's really good.

We have the last three years of this guide sitting in a magazine rack, dog-eared and bookmarked. This year's guide was a little different—plenty of drinks, local booze and some awesome ideas, but no photos. Instead of food porn glamor shots, TOC asked local artists to do some photographic interpretations of dishes on the list. Some of the results are awesome and definitely gave us new ideas about how to turn food into art.

What are our favorite things from the list? The
Chestnut-Mushroom soup at Goosefoot. The Low Country Boil at Carriage House, which made the cover. The roast chicken for two at The Lobby, Tamarkin's first 5-star review in who knows how long. Ribs at Embeya. Illinois Sparkling Company Heirloom. Half Acre "Big Hugs" Stout. The Green Hornet cocktail at the Trencherman. Katherine Anne Confections Hot Chocolate. If you're not drooling yet, go read the rest of the list.

This year, readers chose the "101st" best thing of the year. The selection? Chicken and Waffles at Longman and Eagle. Can you think of anything else that should have made the list?