EDIBLE: Answering THE ultimate question: What’s the best restaurant in Monterey County?

The question proves simultaneous irresistible, predictable and ridiculous.

What’s the best restaurant in Monterey County?

I get it asked almost as much as, How are you not chubbier? (For the record: Guilt is a great motivator.)

But the first question is a lot more complicated. You gotta give me a little something to work with here.

Best for what? Vibe? View? Visibility? Pork products? Tacos? Heartfelt service? Families? Is money a consideration?

Seriously: a place where I can eat four days a week and not get bored – and I can take a group of out-of-towners and smother them in insanely good, electric-orange greasy chorizo quesadillas and spicy carrots and Mexican Cokes – is pretty close to perfection. (FTR: It’s called Mi Tierra Taqueria in Seaside.)

But after I am forced to ask those follow-up questions, the answer gets easier than many might think, even with the wealth of Fandangos, Rio Grills,Andre’s Bouches, 1833s and Casanovas around.

Are you talking sheer value? Then the best restaurant experience has to be Patria in Oldtown Salinas (424-5555). The setting is easygoing Euro-countryside without any pretension – or seams – exposed. Dishes like the handmade spaetzle ($14), salmon in parchment ($20) or otherworldly heirloom potato pizza with bacon béchamel ($12) all hammer home big wow for small wads of money. The tender gigandes bean salad with beautifully roasted prawns is arranged with such precision ($11) it almost distracts from the smart rustic flavor.

Or are you talking pure execution? Then the best has to be Aubergine at L’Auberge Carmel (624-8578). Justin Cogley has earned the area its firstJames Beard Foundation best chef nomination with dishes that come listed as a series of ingredients because the end results so deliciously defy traditional description. Two highlights, just to keep the dream sequence front of mind: 1) a little column of foie gras wrapped in compressed beet film like sushi, with hibiscus jelly on stupid-good brioche toast from Pastry Chef Ron Mendoza, and 2) abalone harvested to order from the kitchen tank and massaged with roasted chicken-thigh stock-abalone-liver consomme and spiked with hard-to-get hijiki, a wild cliff-dwelling Japanese seaweed. But it will cost you.

Or are you talking all-out sensorial euphoria? Because as beautiful as Aubergine’s room, dishes and wines are, Sierra Mar at Post Ranch Inn (667-2800) comes damn close in terms of execution – and John Cox matches anyone in terms of resourceful sourcing, and does it all on the very precipice of the Pacific. (What’s better than cliff-hanging seaweed? A cliff-hanging restaurant.) So that’s why, if you want it all, and money is no object, Sierra Mar is the play. Which is the main reason I went there for my last meal in Monterey County all 2014 long.

The weather cooperated, granting clarity that stretched pure skies to a horizon seemingly an entire ocean away. Shigoku oysters with smoked bacon and sea grapes, a plate of caviar set in an abalone shell, smoked venison tartare, brown-buttered local abalone in miso with togarashi, plus Yulanda Santos’ salted pretzel ganache. Holy hallelujah.

But that’s just my vote. None of my favorites have earned the title Best of Monterey County over the last decade – when Marinus won repeatedly and deservedly, and similarly inspiring Passionfish has become the popular pick of late. I hear knuckleheads say “The Weekly picked us best _____,” but that is just not the case. That’s why it’s called a readers’ poll.

The nominations for best in the land – and Best New Restaurant and Best Appetizers and more than 150 other categories – wrap tonight at midnight (Thursday, Jan. 29). The voting for finalists picks up in earnest next week. Some of those already nominated for Best Restaurant in Monterey County include my two most-frequented spots of late, Alvarado Street Brewery and jeninni kitchen + wine bar, along with Bistro Moulin, Grasing’s, ilvecchio, Cafe Rustica and leading nominee Old Fisherman’s Grotto. And that’s but the beginning of the best.

QUICKBITES

• Tarpy’s new winter menu wows with girth, creativity and blistered salmon belly buns. Check out what Todd Fisher’s up to now on the blog, with lush photos, www.mcweekly.com/edible.

• Trendy bone broth has arrived in Monterey, but not without a longtime believer behind it. Check out the story, previous page, for more – and the controversy over what to call it on the blog. (Bonus: Down with the word "artisan"!)

• Just in time for Valentine’s Day, Monterey Meringues (238-2276) – who do rock-inspired confections (!?) – rolls out five radical, rock-inspired new flavors: Pink Champagne on Ice, Chuck Berry Fields Forever, Sonny and Cher-ry, Kokonut Kinks and U2 Yuzu.

• A peek at Wills Fargo’s updated menu from Chef Jerome Viel (and a salad to swoon over) is also up on the blog along with pictures and tasting notes.

• Mundos 3 has opened in downtown Monterey by the post office with sandwiches that earn a cult following.

• In case you missed it: How the new eccentric, multimillionaire owner of Carmel Valley Lodge eats a mix of 22 beans, berries, nuts and fruit for EVERY meal… also on the blog.

• Mackerel is a local catch that’s a bit of a mystery. And cheap. And delicious. Kera Abraham reports on the blog.

• Joe Rombi’s La Piccola Casa (373-0129) first opened February 2005. That’s 10 years in business serving authentic Italian pizzas, signature panninis, calamari and pastas, plus fresh-roasted ACME coffee and pastries in the morning. A fun Super Bowl feast ($25) is part of the anniversary celebration.

• CNBC is looking for new and unique restaurant concepts to compete for investment funding by moguls Joe Bastianich and Tim Love on the new showRestaurant Startup. Visit www.restaurantstartupcasting.com for details.

• A tour through corkscrew history from the 17th century onward comes to Taste Morgan (751-7777) 1-4pm Feb. 7-8. Bill Eyres shows off part of his corkscrew collection, which is 2,000 screws strong.

• “It is not enough that we do our best,” Winston S. Churchill said. “Sometimes we must do what is required.”