Top 10 of ‘09

This top ten list is so loud it goes up to eleven.

It turns out writing on vacation is harder than I anticipated.  Luckily at the close of the year, everyone’s attention turns backward, and list making becomes a popular pastime.  I had hoped to be immune to this phenomenon, but the proof is in the pudding.

Looks like my follow-up posts on pretense and yogurt will just have to wait until 2010 when I can give them the attention they deserve.

Today, I will share with you the top 10 most-read posts of they year.  Think you caught them all in the first go-around?  Maybe you missed one.  Or maybe your repeated viewing of a post is what edged it into the pantheon.  You will just have to look at the list and see.

At the bottom of the list are three remarkable things I found in the Albany area.  A small orchard-based distillery, an authentic if unusual style of Pakistani cooking, and the best freaking donuts I have eaten anywhere.
#10 Vodka Farm
#9 Chinese Cuisine, Pakistani Style
#8 Take the Donuts, Leave the Cannoli

The next two express some of my frustrations about food in Albany: the apparently arbitrary nature of the Times Union review policy and how smaller markets can have restaurants good enough to garner serious national attention.
#7 It’s Fair to Compare
#6 Small Market Envy

Next I did something tricky.  I gave the number five spot to two posts, since they were really both about my newfound love for Five Guys Burgers and Fries.  But I really didn’t want Harvest Spirits to be knocked off the list just because there were two well-read posts for this regional fast food chain.
#5b Burger Chain Gang
#5a One Minute Per Guy

It’s interesting how these posts seemed to gravitate together.  But the next two were both comparative posts that had to do with food quality, and my dissatisfaction with what I was seeing locally on the higher end.
#4 Now That’s Italian
#3 Food Versus Restaurant Food

The number two most-read post owes a heartfelt thanks to Kristi Gustafson who attended the Chipotle tasting event, but directed her readers to me for the skinny on the food.
#2 Chipotle Answers

And oddly, at the top of the heap, is a post that demonstrates the principle of the long tail.  What sets this post apart from all the others is that every day for six months people have been stumbling upon it from their Google searches.  Which just goes to show, you can never tell which posts will get read the most.
#1 The Secret To Oddly Tender Chinese Meat