We’re counting down the top 10 new dishes of the year.

Meh, brunch. It’s not my favorite meal. And yet, I ate one of my favorite dishes this year during brunch at MistralKitchen.

At risk of making this all about me, may I just say too that it is utterly bizarre that I even ordered steak and eggs. I rarely eat steak unless I’m work-eating, especially before 6pm. Seafood, veggies, and all manner of carb are more my jam, whatever the time of day. Looking back I think I chose the dish because the waiter—sweet, attentive, Don Knotts–ish in gait—told me it came with wilted greens and a carrot puree. (The steak and eggs pictured is a more recent version of the dish.)

Is that weird, to order steak and eggs because you want to try the carrot puree? Like I said, I’m not a brunch lady. Also I had a hunch that William Belickis, the chef-owner of Mistral, wouldn’t put something called “steak ‘n’ eggs” on his menu unless it was some kind of masterpiece.

I remember a juicy cube of beef and how I had to summon a fair amount of discipline not to gullet it in three bites, it was so tender and bloody and delicious. The egg was poached and there. I don’t remember too much more about it, I’m afraid. The Ramos gin fizz (or was it fizzes?) I drank probably have to do with that. The greens I remember: Ordering greens in restaurants is always a bit of a gamble, just yesterday I ate at a hyped restaurant that served me a sad pile of bitter, bitter greens. This was not the case on steak-n-eggs-at-Mistral-brunch day. The greens were sweet and bursting with that vegetal-vitaminy flavor that a good stack of greens should always burst with.

And the carrot puree? I nearly licked it off the plate.