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It's a given that at the end of every year most food writers do a long column on favorites he or she discovered along the way. This is a first for me as I usually save my selections for the Fifi's Best special reporls that the OCBJ publishes three times a year. But it is, after all, the end of a year, a decade, a century and a milleninium (that one's up for grabs because it really doesn't roll over till 2001). For what it's worth, here's a very incomplete list of some bests that I'm comfortable with from the last year and times before that:
Best foie gras dish: La Vie En Rose in Brea. Owner Louis Laulhere offers it simply saut6ed and complemented with a Port wine veal reduction sauce and a few juicy grapes.
Best soup: The signature creamy corn chowder with house-smoked shrimp at both Pavilion (in the Four Seasons Hotel in Newport Beach) and The Grill at Pelican Hill (also a Four Seasons restaurant).
Best fried chicken: The totally Southern version at David Wilhelm's Savannah Chop House in Laguna Niguel and the all-American standard at Walnut Grove in San Juan Capistrano (you have to ask for it as it didn't get printed on the new menus).
Best banquet salad: Mixed baby greens with mango slices and mango vinaigrette at Anaheim Marriott Hotel...