By the time this post goes up on the blog I’ll be on my way to Delhi. And as I need to hurry up and finish my packing, I’ll keep this recap/look-ahead on the brief side. Traffic on the blog for most of November followed the cooling off trend of late October before picking up steam again in the last 10 days of the month. A lot of the uptick in traffic since that point has been from readers in India. My review of Bukhara in Delhi from March 2022 seems to be driving most of that traffic, though there’s another Delhi report that’s suddenly become popular as well. Meanwhile, the numbers for the Italy reports from last summer continue to steadily cool off while my Seoul reports from this winter (and also March 2023) are holding steady. I can also tell you that very few people were interested in the mezcal reviews I posted for the last five weeks straight. The good news for you haters of smoky agave drinks is that you won’t have to read another mezcal review from me for a while: I’m out of bottles to open. I might stock up once I get back in the middle of December (if those tariffs are for real, prices will rise in 2025) but even if I do, I’ll finish my currently open bottles first.
December’s booze reviews, accordingly, will all be of whisky, and all of single malt whisky at that. You can also expect the usual diet of restaurant reports. I have a report from a Twin Cities Mexican restaurant coming up on Tuesday and I still have a meal at 112 Eatery in September on the bench. Doubtless there will be some restaurant activity in Delhi as well—though as I’m going alone on this trip there will be less of it. You can expect to see a few of those reports as well in the second half of the month. And, yes, yes, I will finally post my last report from our California trip in June.
Alright, what were the top 10 most read posts in November? There’s a still a day left as I type this up but I doubt the rankings will change. Currently, the list looks like this:
- Bukhara (Delhi, March 2022)
- Eating at Noryangjin Fish Market (Seoul, February/March 2024)
- Lagavulin 11, Offerman Edition, Rum Finish
- Eating at Mercato Centrale (Florence, June 2023)
- Indri, Trini — The Three Wood
- Kolap 2 (St. Paul, MN)
- Lunch at the Kalguksu Alley in Namdaemun Market (Seoul, March 2023)
- Kwality (Delhi, January 2023)
- At Namdaemun Market, Pt. 2: Eating (Seoul, March 2023)
In addition to the Bukhara and Kwality restaurant reports from Delhi, my review of the Indian single malt, Indri, Trini seems to suddenly be popular again as well. Meanwhile, only one restaurant report posted in November cracked the top 10: of our lunch at Kolap. My most recent report on House of Curry came in at #15 and my report on El Chivo Crazy was further down at #21. Meanwhile, there were a total of eight Seoul reports in the top 20, with my reports from Soul Dining, Mingles, Tongin Market and Kyochon also read by a lot of people.
Alright, that’s enough looking back/looking ahead. My next post will go up from Delhi.