Gastronomique: Joyeux Anniversaire to Us!

This is little Gastronomique's first birthday! First column was on March, 3rd a year ago. This was 48 posts ago, which is one per week plus our Blog Writers Guild union-sanctified four weeks of rest and relaxation. We're looking forward to the second year, but we want to take a peek behind our shoulder, so we know what to say when we sit down for our year-end evaluation with our editors.

And we want to hear from you guys too, like which place we should check out, who we should talk to, what juicy tip you want to whisper in our ear, what we should do better, etc. We try to achieve some kind of balance in terms of price, location, type of food, new restaurants and old ones, but we want your feedback. So below the fold, you'll find an organized, categorized, definitive and exhaustive list of the places we've been to, the people we talked to, the books we read and the top 10 of our most popular posts, all coming back for our birthday bash.

Birthday cake from the bake shoppe.

Restaurants: American

Maverick,

Pizza:

Patxis (and Little Star),

Japanese/Korean:

Sushizone,

Yo's Sushi Club

Hamano,

Koo Sushi,

Happy Shabu Shabu (they made changes, closed for a while, re-opened),

Crazy Sushi,

California:

Canteen,

Farallon,

the Richmond,

Cav winebar,

Oliveto,

Winterland,

Myth,

French:

La Folie,

Mexican:

Mi Lindo Yucatan,

El Yucateco,

City Blend Cafe (does not serve the food anymore),

Vietnamese:

Lucky Time (gone),

Dragonfly,

The Window (we put it here because of the tasty Vietnamese crepe, but it is really pan-Asian).

Thai:

Baku de Thai,

Thai Chef (we visited the castro location --still here-- and the sunset one, now another Thai restaurant, Chabaa, which is as good as Thai chef),

Osha Thai Valencia location,

Marnee Thai inner sunset location,

Chinese:

Koi Palace,

Coriya Hot Pot city,

Big Lantern

Hawaiian:

Hukilau,

Indonesian:

Batavia Garden (rumor has it it closed, the number has been disconnected, they must have been losing money on that amazing crab),

Indian:
Dosa,

Food shops (don't we have a sweet tooth):

Dianda bakery,

Lucca ravioli,

Cowgirl Creamery,

Strauss Creamery,

Emporio Rulli (Union Square; we endorse the Larkspur branch heartily too),

Marco Polo Ice Cream,

Mitchell's Ice Cream,

Arizmendi bakery,

Bittersweet chocolate,

Interviews:

SF Bay Guardian Cheap Eats columnist Dan Leone (now L.E. Leone, part I and part II),
Pascal Rigo (cafe du soleil),

Digital Dish author Owen Linderholm,

Nina Zagat,

Julie Powell,

Grace-Ann Walden,

Book reviews:

Patricia Unterman's Food Lover's Guide,

Chowhound's guide to the SF Bay area, with comments from the editor, Jim Leff,

Bouchon cookbook,

Boulevard cookbook,

Edible SF, technically a magazine, not a book,

Confession of a French Baker.

Miscellaneous:

War on Frito-Lays,

Fancy Food Show,

and we even watched KQED's Check, please! just for you.

Our Top 10 most read posts of 2005, and sexual innuendo is the way to drive up readership:
1- Julie Powell post, where we get to ask this pretty young lady if cooking got in the way of her sex life,
2- Where we got crabs
3-The buns on GQ's cover
4-Happiness is a Warm Broth, even though we don't recall a double-entendre there.
5-Would you like some Cicciolina with that Wine?
6-You can ride our tail anytime
7- Tamed Madness
8-Jay to Zed, this one hinted at blow jobs, always a winner.
9-Miscellaneous, tackling the issue of castration.
10-The Richmond's Rich Richmond.