My most memorable meals of 2015

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I don’t take notes at every meal. Sometimes I go out to eat just to eat and I leave my reporter’s notebook at home.

I’m a believer in Gore Vidal’s mantra: “To write is to erase from memory.” That has been true in my case, though I do remember most of the weird dinners over the years (the short-lived Northland restaurant in the former dirty bookstore comes to mind) and a few disappointing ones. But great meals still stand out. They’re like short but hot love affairs: The high points linger, though the nuances are lost. With that in mind, here are a few of my favorite dinner affairs of the past year.

Beef bourguignon

Charisse

1006 Walnut

Jason Craine’s version of the classic French braised-beef dish “as prepared in Burgundy” is a tender stew — and very labor-intensive. Craine starts with Cedar River chuck (and usually scraps of filet) marinated in red wine, dusted with flour and herbs de Provence that are seared with chopped bacon and cloves of garlic. The meat is then simmered for several hours in red wine and a veal-stock reduction. Several other steps follow, but the finished product, in a glossy reduction that’s slightly sweet, supple and rich, is my go-to cold-weather dish, with lots of crusty baguette and hot coffee. Only on the dinner menu, it knocks the chill out of your bones.

Pot-roast nachos

Summit Grill & Bar, in Waldo

500 West 75th Street

I stopped ordering nachos years ago when the simple starter of fried tortilla chips, jalapeño peppers and real cheese became an unrecognizable mound of salty chips smothered in a grotesque amalgam of ingredients way too heavy on dairy products. That’s precisely what Summit Grill executive chef and co-owner Domhnall Molloy didn’t want. “There’s still a perception that customers are going to get a pile of corn chips with all this stuff on them,” he says.

That’s why Molloy puts a real Midwestern spin on the appetizer — as satisfying as a meal — serving individual fried tortillas topped with fork-tender pot roast, cheddar and pepper jack cheeses, a chipotle cream sauce and house-made corn relish. Yes, it’s still a lot of stuff, but it’s fresh and very good.

Bacon-and-cheese omelet and grilled chicken wings

Niecie’s on Troost

6441 Troost

It’s my new bad-for-me breakfast: a bacon-and-cheese omelet (with hash browns and a buttered biscuit) served with a side order of this restaurant’s seasoned, grilled chicken wings that are delectably meaty. (Note: They can take longer to prepare than the traditional deep-fried wings.) It’s the high-cholesterol equivalent of racing around a NASCAR track in a 1978 Chevette with three wheels.

Kimchi ramen

Columbus Park Ramen Shop

549 Gillis

I’m a fast eater. Sloppy, too. But gulping down food is perfectly acceptable at the Columbus Park Ramen Shop, which chef Josh Eans and his wife, Abbey-Jo, opened in early December. The servers don’t even look askance when you polish off a bowl of steaming ramen noodles in less than 10 minutes and then ask for dessert. It’s the best kind of fast food.

I’m a huge fan of the kimchi ramen, probably the spiciest dish on the menu, prepared in a chicken-dashi broth with a “Chinese-style” sausage — deftly seasoned with sweet Chinese herbs, such as anise, and made for the Ramen Shop by the Broadway Butcher Shop. I like cabbage kimchi when it nearly sears the tongue, but Eans uses a bit of sugar in this broth that balances the house-made kimchi (both fiery-hot and vinegary-sour). It’s a supple bowl with a lot of flavor notes earning your attention: sour, sweet and hot.

From the Garden paella

República

4807 Jefferson

I gave up eating mussels years ago, but I still love the idea of the Spanish rice dish named for the two-handed pan in which it’s prepared (traditionally with meat and seafood, with mussels as a primary component). The new República restaurant, on the Country Club Plaza, offers three variations daily on the paella theme, including chef Bradley Gilmore’s pan of saffron rice with seasonal vegetables in lieu of the shellfish or meat. I’ve eaten this dish as both a shared starter — the overture to a more substantial entrée — and a soothing autumn meal (prepared with crisp snap peas, baby carrots, squash and heirloom tomatoes). Many diners love paella because of the crusty socarrat at the bottom of the pan. I’ll eat everything but the pan if I can.