2015 THE YEAR THAT WAS IN MY FOOD REVIEWS AND STUFF

Hey, what better way to start the New Year than lazily rehashing running down some of my most read posts from 2015!! Surely, you can't be fed up with lists just yet, we are only on day 5 and you've got 360 more to go! Bare with me though, as it is a short list, it is not like I'm counting down the Hot 100 or something (sigh..miss Casey Kasem--random thought). Looking back, I can't really tell you why the following got read more than others. Luck of the draw? Good search engine keywords? SEO's? Hot spot of the moment? The reasons why are endless. And just to help blow one of your New Year's resolutions, I'm offering this up close view of some trashy eating I did while down in Texas. That's right, it's a cinnamon roll from Cinnabon. This is what close to 900 calories looks like, even before I add the extra icing I got on it to push it over 1000! Gotta have goals.

I don't think I really need to review this for you but, it was brown sugar, lots of cinnamon, cream cheese frosting (plus a little extra) and very doughy. Probably a little too doughy for me, I'd have liked it cooked a little longer. As you can see the outer ring is not that lovely light brown color you'd expect from a properly cooked one. And there was a tad too much cinnamon. Neither of these stopped me from eating it, though it did dampen my enjoyment of it somewhat. 

5. Up first is Naked Lunch in North Beach. Let's face it, the word naked is probably the real reason this  ended up on the list. Though it does only come in at number five. It is one of those places with underground, hipster buzz and the ubiquitous fried chicken sandwich. Too bad it didn't totally live up to my expectations, but I am a picky Southerner.

4. A surprising food truck choice to read a lot about was the Seoul Of Taipei review. Maybe it was the Taipei key word in the title or the mention of fusion? Or maybe it was a popular week for Seoul, though it has been awhile since the Olympics were there. Whatever the case, it was on one of my many visits to SOMA StrEatFood Park that we tried this particular food truck. 

3. I'm not too surprised that Doughbies ended up here as at the time they were really taking off and had several notices (though not reviews) about their new cookie delivery service taking off. Plus, that whole cookies on demand thing was so totally in at the beginning of the year. Now, not so much. Folks have moved on to full food delivery from cooked (Sprig) to sort of cooked (Munchery) to here's all your ingredients, cook it yourself (Caviar, Blue Apron and Plated).

2. Here we have a re-visit to old local favorite Little Skillet to try out what was supposedly one of their secret menu items. Not surprisingly, it did not go as expected, at least for me. Though, Adam Richmond and his travel channel tv show blew through there and was able to order and try it. They did have the owners by their side who seemingly have more of an inside knowledge about their food than the young girl who was there the day I visited. And, you know, having that whole camera crew too probably helped.

1. Drum roll please...my most read review from the past year was....Cafe Europa in the Richmond district! This is an out of the way place that in the know locals who live near the place know all about. I'm glad this was my most read review as it was a really good meal and they deserve all the praise and visitors they get. Granted, I doubt they are going to be flooded with folks from my little 'ol blog but any hopeful uptick they may get is well deserved. Kudos to Cafe Europa as it was probably my most favorite overall meal of last year too. 

And there they are, my five most read reviews from 2015. Can't say I've gotten that whole search engine/key word thing down yet and couldn't really tell you why one was clicked on more than the other, but there they are. They seem to balance out a little too. Two that were meh, one that was okay and two that were pretty good. Nice little cross section I'd say. Here's to looking forward to what food lies ahead in 2016, I know I've got a lot of eating in store.