It isn’t easy, discernment. How, for instance, does the professionally picky person make the impossible choice among the six excellent bakers who sell whoopie pies—those homespun, pillowy cookies that have supplanted macarons as the city’s favourite sweet? We had to taste them all, and taste them again, and once more for good measure. Later, saturated with sugar, we had to take a nap. This risky job of eating and drinking and shopping and sitting for manicures invites diabetes, liver damage and new enemies galore (since many candidates don’t make the cut). But we did it for you. Here, the indispensable list of all that’s excellent in Toronto in 2011. By Denise Balkissoon, Andrew D’Cruz, Vanessa Farquharson, Lia Grainger, Matthew Hague, Rachel Heinrichs, Chris Johns, Emily Landau, Chris Nuttall-Smith, Peter Saltsman, Maryam Sanati, Courtney Shea and Stéphanie Verge