Newsletter: Did you check our list of 2019’s best dishes?

Hello from Maryland, everyone. I’ve been visiting family for the holidays, eating (out-of-season-but-still-can’t-resist) crab cakes for every lunch and dinner. If you happen to come to Baltimore soon, check out True Chesapeake Oyster Co., a 3-month-old restaurant that’s my favorite new place in the city. Chef Zach Mills makes food that tastes like Maryland to my native tongue: oyster stew, rockfish, fried chicken in a sheer crust and misshapen crab cakes laced with frilly threads (rather than hard, monstrous lumps, a sure sign the crab is not from local waters).

I’m headed back to Los Angeles shortly — and planning on a comforting breakfast of fatteh at Kobee Factory when I land.

Hope your holidays wind down peacefully. For some dining inspiration, Patricia Escárcega and I published a list of our favorite dishes of 2019.

Here’s what else is happening this week in the Food section:

• To get a grip on a New Year’s tradition, the title of this Emily Timberlake story says it all: “When it comes to sabering a Champagne bottle, it’s not the size of your sword that counts.”
• Heather Platt reports on artist Michelle Jane Lee and her vegan Korean pop-up dinners.
• Genevieve Ko and Ben Mims name their favorite recipes from their first year on The Times Food team! (Mmm, remembering that barbacoa de Borrego.)
• To pregame the diets and cleanses that will start in January, Genevieve also has vegetable recipes from chefs whose restaurants appear on the 101 best restaurants list.
• Lastly, in case you missed it, a holiday meditation with Lucas Kwan Peterson.