Wikio asked me to preview this month’s Gastronomy blog rankings for them, so here are the top 20 for the month of July. Word of Mouth stays firmly entrenched at number 1, but most notably Ambrosia and Nectar have leapt into 4th place, while Domestic Goddess in Training has also made it to the top 10. I’m still at no.10, where I’ve been for at least two months.
The big change is that wine and beer blogs have now been moved from Gastronomy into their own Wine and Beer category, which means farewell to Spittoon, although spittoonextra remains with us. Please visit Wine Conversation to see their top 20 and to discuss whether this is a popular move or not.
As some of you have been asking this question, I copied and pasted the following from Wikio:
How are these rankings compiled?
The position of a blog in the Wikio ranking depends on the number and weight of the incoming links from other blogs. These links are dynamic, which means that they are backlinks or links found within articles.
Only links found in the RSS feed are included. Blogrolls are not taken into account, and the weight of any given link increases according to how recently it was published. We thus hope to provide a classification that is more representative of the current influence levels of the blogs therein.
Moreover, the weight of a link depends on the linking blog’s position in the Wikio ranking. With our algorithm, the weight of a link from a top blog is greater than that of a link from a blog that is less well ranked.
Our rankings are updated on a monthly basis and also include Top Blogs for several categories: Technology, Politics, etc. New categories will be added on a regular basis.
Helen Yuet Ling Pang @ World Foodie Guide
Tags: food, Gastronomy, top 20, Wikio rankings
Posted in United Kingdom, food | 8 Comments »
Background:
When our Canadian friends wanted to go to Notting Hill on a Saturday, my immediate thought revolved around where to have lunch. I normally either avoid Notting Hill altogether on the weekends or ensure that I have a reservation. However, because this was such a spontaneous outing, the lunch venue also had to be decided on the day. I had a couple of options in mind, Tom’s Deli and Ottolenghi, but fortunately our friends wanted to return to a place they’d visited last time they were in London. And I was more than happy to try a new place. It turned out to be Nicole Farhi’s 202 Café, which has been around for a few years now. When I first read about it, I was a little skeptical about dining in a home furnishings store. However, I was to be proven wrong.
First impressions:
Reservations are only accepted for dinner, but when we checked in the morning, the waiter reassured us that the wait for lunch would only be 5 or 10 minutes. Returning at 1pm exactly, the wait was exactly that, 10 minutes. We were first in the queue, and others behind us had to endure a far longer wait. Seated at one of the best tables and far away from the queue, we proceeded to enjoy a pleasant and relaxing lunch. I was impressed with the service, given how busy the café was. The waiters were efficient and polite and responded to every request positively, whether it was tap water with ice and lime wedges, or espresso with water served on the side.
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Tags: 202 Cafe, breakfast, brunch, dining out, food, London, lunch, Notting Hill, restaurant review, restaurants
Posted in London, breakfast, cafe, dining out, fish, food, restaurant review, restaurants | 6 Comments »
I suppose I had better start with the Guild of Food Writers 2009 Awards party, which I attended last Thursday as a shortlistee for the New Media category. I didn’t win, but I did get the opportunity to meet some fantastic people, including my two ‘rivals’ for the New Media award, Tim Hayward from the Guardian Word of Mouth (who beat us!) and Elisabeth Winkler from Real Food Lover. You can read all about the awards here, and I was mentioned on Word of Mouth the following day. It was nice to be reminded of the judges’ comment about World Foodie Guide (which I completely forgot from nerves!) - ‘great fun to read and hard to leave‘. Thank you to all my readers and friends who have been so supportive! Had I won, I would have shared the award with you all (I had a little speech ready just in case!)…
What else? I did a day trip to Manchester to attend the Sweet Mandarin Chinese cookery class, which was great fun and very informative. I reviewed two cookery books in June, Serendip on Sri Lankan cuisine by Peter Kuruvita and A Culinary Voyage on Greek Island cooking by Theodore Kyriakou. Both were ‘traveleating’ books at their best and I particularly enjoyed making the potato and tuna cakes from Serendip. I also attempted to make Sichuan wontons, which were rather spicy and delicious!
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Tags: awards, cookery, cookery books, cooking, food, Guild of Food Writers, London, restaurant review, restaurants, travel, traveleating
Posted in Hunan, Japanese, London, Michelin star, Taiwanese, awards, cookery, cookery books, cooking, dim sum, dining out, food, pizza, restaurant review, restaurants, travel, traveleating | 10 Comments »
Here’s a wonderful recipe for colder weather, as it will keep you nice and warm for hours. I don’t know how other Chinese people prepare their hot pot (or steamboat), but this is how my mother does it, so I’ve described it the way we’ve always had it at home. Naturally, there are many variations based on personal preferences and regional differences, but ours follows the Hong Kong Cantonese style. I’ve had Beijing and Mongolian hot pot in China and these were definitely different. There is also the fiery Sichuan style, which you can read about in my post What is Sichuan Hot Pot?
Once you’ve prepared it a few times, you can experiment with different ingredients and condiments, depending on what you like. It’s perfect for family and friends, and a lot of fun as it will keep your guests entertained and busy for hours.
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Tags: Chinese cooking, cookery, cooking, food, healthy, hot pot, ingredients, recipe, travel, traveleating
Posted in Chinese, cooking, fish, food, healthy, meat, noodles, seafood, vegetarian | 18 Comments »
Noodles can be tricky to eat with chopsticks as they are slippery, and if served in soup, even harder to grab. If you’re eating fried noodles with vegetables, meat or seafood, it shouldn’t be too hard to pick up a mixture so that the other ingredients provide some grip. If in doubt, use your Chinese porcelain spoon as support, in case you worry that everything will fall from your chopsticks. Even if you’re just holding it under your chopsticks, it will provide some comfort. Lots of Chinese people use their Chinese spoons.
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Tags: Chinese food etiquette, dining out, food, practical tips, travel, traveleating
Posted in Chinese, dining out, food, noodles | 3 Comments »
