Summer is coming to an end, my new term is just a couple of weeks away, and I have all but lost complete control of all the things I am supposed to be getting done. The only thing going like a metronome is my community garden plot, which has been churning out massive harvests of tomatoes (and peppers and cucumbers) every other day since the middle of August. If you follow me on Instagram you’ve seen some of this. This has, of course, added to the to-do pile: even though I’ve given massive amounts of tomatoes away to various undeserving and ungrateful swine, I’ve spent a lot of the last two weeks making pasta sauce for the 17 months of winter that will be upon us soon in Minnesota. On the blog, I’ve tried my best to keep on top of my restaurant reports from our summer travels and I’m glad to say I’ve not fallen so very far behind. By the end of September I should have all the reports from Seoul and Kyoto done, as well as a good number from Delhi. I’ll continue to have weekly reports from the Twin Cities metro as well; and I’ll have the usual four booze review posts that’ll go up on the remaining Mondays of the month.
That’s what’s coming. What did the month that’s done look like? Well, August saw the highest page view count of the year so far and the second-highest unique visitors count (behind January). What were these visitors mostly looking at? Here are the top 10 most read/viewed posts for August.
- Bukhara (Delhi, March 2022)
- Eating at Mercato Centrale (Florence, June 2023)
- The Twin Cities Fine Dining Rotation
- A Highly Subjective Ranking of Indian Restaurants in the Twin Cities Metro Area
- Trattoria Monti (Rome, June 2023)
- Blueberry-Plum Jam
- Zao Bakery+Cafe
- Bucheron (Minneapolis)
- Diane’s Place (Minneapolis, MN)
- In and Around Mangwon Market (Seoul, March 2024)
There are only two new entries on the list: a jam recipe (I’m guessing this is due to seasonal interest) and a review of Zao Bakery + Cafe in St. Paul. The review of Bukhara in Delhi and the two reports each from Seoul and Italy are mainstays of this list. I’m happy to see more Twin Cities content showing up regularly as well: both the list posts and the reviews of Diane’s Place and Bucheron were on the list last month as well. As far as our Twin Cities eating plans for the month go, we are due to return to Tenant this weekend; and we finally have reservations at All Saints, which a number of blog readers have been telling me to go to via email for a while now. It’s all but certain we’ll soon go back to Grand Szechuan as well. Not sure what our fourth restaurant meal of the month will be but it’ll be something casual.
On the booze front, I’ll have a mix of whisky, mezcal and brandy reviews this month. No specific bottles in mind though I will be checking to see if the new Laphroaig Cairdeas is out in Minnesota yet. If so, I’ll probably get a bottle and write it up.
Alright: onward!