Thank You to Everyone, Really, And a Contest…

Old-school Chicago Neon

2011 is upon us. Thank you to my readers for a great 2010. I hope many of you stick with me even if I don’t live in London anymore. (Hey, I’ll be back in April. If not sooner!)

I’d like to give a particular shout out to the bloggers who provided me with the most traffic in 2010. Many super thanks and may the traffic gods worship you thusly in 2011. These are all Londoners with one sole exception. Will be interesting to compare the list at the end of 2011…

1. Gourmet Chick: Lawyer-turned-journalist Gourmet Chick hits all the new London restaurants and is amazingly well-travelled. When I need travel tips, I turn to Gourmet Chick.
2. An American in London: And when Cara hasn’t been there, I go to Alice. (Or vice versa.) I like that Alice does her own thing…you’ll see her at only the rarest of blog events. P.S. Alice loves Paris. And France.
3. Hollow Legs: Funny. Sharp. Excellent cook. How she does it and remains so thin, I have no idea. Hollow Legs, I hope your metabolism stays like so FOREVER. And if you have any to spare, please give me some.
4. Cheese & Biscuits: At the risk of offending many people, I think Chris is one of the best restaurant-blog writers out there today. When he’s good he’s very very good, but when he’s cranky he’s CRANKY. I love it when Chris gets cranky. (But restaurants don’t.)
5. London Eater: Lovely photos (and many of them!), unrestrained prose and very commercially-minded. (I don’t mean this in a bad way.)
6. Eat Like a Girl: Prolific and omnipresent. Every year is Niamh’s year. (Check out her latest accolades.) But I predict 2011 is the year Niamh goes commercial…
7. World Foodie Guide: London’s retired food blogger is still delivering traffic.
8. Food Stories: AMAZING recipes. Amazing energy for Peckham, her local neighborhood. Her pressure cooker post actually made me call my mom and ask for one.
9. Kavey Eats: A fantastic resource on food, recipes and otherwise. A prolific blogger and an amazingly prolific Tweeter. I don’t know how she does it. (Oddly, there’s not a link to her Twitter self on her blog!)
10. Mmm Yoso: These guys crack me up! They truly have been everywhere and eat everything. But Asian food is definitely a speciality. I was pleased to see that Kirk had stopped into Chicago recently.

The Contest: Link to my site from yours by 11:59 pm Chicago time December 31st and you could win one of three Michelin restaurant guides. (Your choice!) All you need to do is leave a comment confirming your link by 23:59 CST. More details here.