Best meal of 2013

I know some people think taking pictures of food is a bit odd. I'll admit I do feel a bit self conscious taking photos in nice restaurants. But the advantage is being able to look back and remember exactly what you've eaten. Now I know I've eaten nice meals in a fair few restaurants prior to starting to take photos (including Hibiscus-the first ever michelin starred restaurant I went to, L'Autre Pied, Petrus, La Becasse and Purnell's) but I get frustrated that I can't remember exactly what I ate at them.

Anyway, I decided I'd come up with the combination of dishes from different places that would make my best meal of 2013, so here it is:

1. Amuse bouches:

This goes to Adam's, it's just slightly disappointing that you only get them with the 5 or 9 course tasting menus. It will be interesting to see if this changes at all now that the lunch menu seems to have substantially increased in price.

Beetroot meringue and goats cheese

Roast chicken ball

2. Bread
The Yorke Arms definitely gave the best selection of breads, including foccacia, cheese bread and olive bread with a choice of butter or olive oil. It was just a shame I spoilt it with fois gras.

Selection of breads

3. Starter
Another offering from Adam's. I'm pretty sure I'd never eaten Jerusalem Artichoke before this year but have become quite a fan. This was a light but very tasty starter, and I was pleasantly surprised the chorizo didn't repeat on me.

Jerusalem artichoke, chorizo, egg yolk

4. Fish course
More artichoke! This time with a beautifully cooked cod cheek at The Kitchin.

Seared cod cheek with artichoke barigoule

5. Meat course
A difficult choice with quite a few potential candidates including a duck dish at Adam's and venison at the Fat Duck. But I've gone with pork belly at Simpson's. I could have eaten the plate at least twice over and think I may have been heard to say something like "that was the best pork dish I've ever had".

Pork belly, apple balls, onion sauce

6. Dessert
For taste and prettiness I've chose the dessert at The Yorke Arms-lots of little yummy treats.

A plate of Asian spiced chocolate Szechuan, coconut bavarois, passion fruit jelly, ginger meringue, sorbet, macadamia nut crumble

7. Petit fours
I have been known to have a coffee just to be able to try the petit fours. At Texture we had petit fours including a pistachio madeleine that I enjoyed so much I have been trying to recreate it in my kitchen.

Petit fours-pistachio madeleines, truffles, raspberry macaroons, minty meringue

Other awards:

Strangely none of the courses from L'Enclume feature in this compilation and I would actually say overall that was probably the meal I enjoyed the most in terms of the whole experience-food, wine, service and setting.

Friendliest one-off service would probably go to Murano, although it's nice (if slightly worrying) that there are now 2 restaurants in Birmingham I can go into and not have to tell them my name.

Best celebrity spot-Tom Parker-Bowles at Murano.

Best comedy moment was a friend spilling a bright orange amuse bouche/soup all over a white table cloth at Simpsons.

Best tasting wine menu-proabably The Kitchin, which they happily let two of us share and I haven't been at all influenced by the fact that the sommelier resembled Artem Chigvintsev.

Most special experience-The Fat Duck, I'm still not really sure what I thought about the Fat Duck, the food wasn't all to my taste but it was a very special (and expensive) experience.