As the year came to a close, there was a surge in interest in some of the posts that I wrote. I didn’t expect it because typically around December, food blogs are inundated with holiday sweet treats. I didn’t have time to make any and instead focused on what was truly on my mind – Sriracha and the Banh Mi Handbook. By the look of the number of Facebook likes, people enjoyed reading those articles. That got me wondering about what folks took to reading about over the past twelve months.
Mind you, I’m not good with blog analytics. I don’t have much time to analyze data. For the quick list below, I took a look at peaks in the number of Facebook likes and comments. Unless there’s giveaway, people don’t comment as much as they used to because it’s easier to hit the “like” button. That’s to say, my survey is relatively unscientific but what the heck.
I gleaned the posts for themes and grouped them accordingly below. What many of us were keen on . . .
Culture, cooking and traditions do matter!
- Why Vietnamese Tet is for Home Cooking – The Lunar New Year is not for going out.
- Vietnamese Cookbooks List – You asked for this. I responded, eventually.
We (I) liked exploring culinary sources of heat and salt, as well as cross-cultural cooking:
- Non-Asian Uses for Fish Sauce – Surprise!
- Premium Fish Sauces to Try: Red Boat, IHA, MegaChef – Fish sauce deserves praise.
- Hot Takeaways from the Rooster Sriracha Shortage – It’s a complex web that Huy Fong weaves.
- Sriracha Hot Sauce Week – I got heartburn from this.
- High on Spice: 4 Kinds of Sichuan Peppercorns to Try – Heat comes in different colors.
The challenges of eating and cooking well could be overcome:
- Try Beige Rice: The Middle Path between White and Brown – Yep, I hate brown rice.
- Nonstick Wok Recommendations – A reader email led me to reveal my mistakes.
We appreciate cooking from scratch and nifty DIY projects:
- Old School Sweet and Sour Pork – Never look at sweet-and-sour pork the same way again.
- Homemade Thai Yellow Curry Paste – This lasted me 2 months!
- Homemade Mirin – I did this nearly on a whim to answer a reader’s email.
- Japanese Pickled Ginger – Shoot, why not?
- Step-by-Step Chinese Roast Duck Recipe and Tips – It’s not as hard as it seems.
Tasty twists were always welcomed:
- Homemade Torfurkey with Miso Mustard Sauce – I never thought I’d find myself making this from scratch.
- Sriracha Pimento Cheese – Inspiration from travel.
- Spring Asparagus and Shrimp Stir-Fry – Chefs do homecooking.
- Japanese Furikake Rice Crackers – Yes, you can.
- My Mom’s Dried Persimmon Recipe – My mom is a shining star in the universe of excellent cooks.
And, thanks for your enthusiastic support of The Banh Mi Handbook. I’ll have a second look at it in late January.
If you have questions or ideas for VWK, let me know. I’ll try to tackle them in 2014.
kate leahy says
I missed your mom's dried persimmon tips, so I'm definitely saving that post to reference next fall.
Andrea Nguyen says
Well, that is one heck of a compliment, Kate! See you soon.