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The Best Things Our Food Critic Ate in 2020, in Photos

By New Times Staff

Wednesday, December 16, 2020 at 6 a.m.

Chris Malloy A close look at this mutton sandwich from Emerson Fry Bread. 1/32

Chris Malloy Eating your mutton sandwich in the grass with an iced jar of Sedona sunset ... a very good idea. 2/32

Chris Malloy The mutton sandwich is a top seller from the food truck Emerson Fry Bread. 3/32

Chris Malloy Roxanne Wilson and Loren Emerson captain Emerson Fry Bread. 4/32

Chris Malloy A plate of Ropa Vieja from Fe La Cubana. 5/32

Chris Malloy Approaching Fe La Cubana in Glendale. 6/32

Jackie Mercandetti Photo The ordering counter at Fe Le Cubana. 7/32

Jackie Mercandetti Photo Chef Sasha Levine's reimagined beef cheek Wellington. 8/32

Evie Carpenter Chef Sasha Levine herself. 9/32

Jackie Mercandetti Photo One of a few bar areas at Century Grand. 10/32

Jackie Mercandetti Photo Bite, at least once, into this drippy cabeza totally naked from Taco Boy's. 11/32

Jackie Mercandetti Photo Juan Cornejo and Juan Cornejo Jr. run Taco Boy’s in downtown Phoenix. 12/32

Jackie Mercandetti Photo The heart and soul of the Taco Boy's kitchen: a grill fired by mesquite charcoal from Sonora, Mexico. 13/32

Jackie Mercandetti Photo Wok-fried Chow Mein from Sherpa Kitchen. 14/32

Jackie Mercandetti Photo Sherpa Kitchen's chef and owner Subash Yadav grew up in Kathmandu, Nepal. 15/32

Chris Malloy Meatwala delivery destined for very hot grill grates. 16/32

Chris Malloy What's inside a package from Meatwala. 17/32

Chris Malloy Three sides (pickled red onion, jeera rice, and daal) and two kinds of chicken (malai and hariyali) from Meatwala. 18/32

Dushyant Singh Dushyant Singh and his mom, Preeti Kaur, make the first Meatwala delivery. 19/32

Jackie Mercandetti Photo The cachapa at Que Chevere. 20/32

Jackie Mercandetti Photo A spread from Que Chevere in downtown Mesa. 21/32

Jackie Mercandetti Photo Que Chevere’s dining area. 22/32

Jackie Mercandetti Photo Pound-for-pound, pint-for-pint, taco-for-taco, downtown Mesa can hang. 23/32

Lom Wong The Kaeng Hang Lay from Alex and Yotaka Martin’s Lom Wong pop-up. 24/32

Lom Wong Alex and Yotaka Martin run the pop-up Lom Wong. 25/32

Lom Wong Cooking with Won Pen, one of Lom Wong's many inspirations. 26/32

Jackie Mercandetti Photo Pee-Posh Garden from Kai. 27/32

Jackie Mercandetti Photo Kai's sensory course of Navajo tea poured over creosote, desert broom, and jojoba. 28/32

Jackie Mercandetti Photo Recado rojo compressed lamb on ceme't from Kai. 29/32

Jackie Mercandetti Photo Kai Restaurant in the Gila River Indian Community. 30/32

Jackie Mercandetti Photo The handpainted menu at Kai Restaurant. 31/32

Chris Malloy One of 2020's best dishes was Cacio e Pepe from Tratto. 32/32

The Best Things Our Food Critic Ate in 2020, in Photos

This year, our food critic Chris Malloy was drawn to comfort food, to traditional dishes that provided a simple lift. For him, it was all about those old-school meals, the ones that tunneled into his memory (or somebody else’s), with a few key exceptions.

These dishes, collected here along with photos of the spaces where they are served and the people who made them, were his 10 favorites of 2020.

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