2025 was yet another good year to have the coolest job in Dallas. I legged out both barbecue and vegetarian issues of the magazine, and ate everything in between, too. Here are my 20 favorite dishes of the year. They are listed in chronological order by meal, not in order from best to worst. I love all my beautiful edible children equally.
Cardamom banana pudding, Kafi BBQ
A classical French custard is the base for this banana pudding, not any store-bought packets. That explains the rich, creamy texture. The addition of cardamom is a wonderful inspiration, and a tribute to pitmaster Salahodeen Abdul-Kafi’s father. It adds a dimension of flavor that this dessert usually doesn’t have. Kafi BBQ makes its own vanilla wafer cookies, too, although these are crumbled up so finely that you may not notice the difference. Despite that, though, this is my favorite banana pudding around: indulgent, but still refreshing, and with that gentle warmth of spice.
Kafi BBQ, 8140 N. MacArthur Blvd., Ste. 100, Irving.
Pork belly burnt ends “al pastor,” Vaqueros Texas Bar-B-Q
In April, we published a barbecue issue that involved visits to 65 restaurants and more than $3,000 in research expenses. The five most memorable bites of all my barbecue visits were the cardamom banana pudding described above, the immortal ribs at Smokey Joe’s, Cattleack’s pastrami beef rib, a smoked porchetta from now-closed Brix in Fort Worth, and—clocking in at my personal number one spot—these pork belly burnt ends. They’re done al pastor style, with a pineapple and spice sauce, pineapple relish, and crispy chicharrones mixed in. It’s unspeakably indulgent. Fatty, meaty, crispy-crunchy, fruity, these guys have everything. Don’t live without them.
Vaqueros Texas Bar-B-Q, 965 Garden Park Dr., Allen.
Burger, Goodwins
This might be my platonic ideal burger. As sandwich studies scholar Nick Rallo has documented, Goodwins uses cheese blended into a spread and melted on, rather than sliced, and it also uses a mixture of multiple varieties of mustard. The result is a burger that’s meaty, gooey, ultrasavory, and with not a single wasted flavor molecule. It punches you right in the face with meat, mustard, and pickle. That’s exactly what I want. When owner Austin Rodgers asked me what I thought of lettuce and tomato on a burger, I answered, “They can be good. But they really only add air and water.” He answered, “That’s how our chef feels, too.” This burger is all burger. Bless it…