OYSTERS, VEGETABLE HAIR, SLUGS, CHICKEN FEET, AND FLYING ROAST GEESE

It's very hard to figure out my readers. Some of them are perverts, some not. Actually, most of them aren't. But the perverts remain very close to my heart, because they stood out like a mile of sore thumb when I first started paying attention to my blogstats. They looked for something nasty, they found herring. They searched for sparkling nudity of a scholastic nature, they found Bengali food and famous poet Bhuddadev Bhosu. They wished to know vastly more about the haunches of camels, they found frustrated women in burkas. It was all very educational!
They did not leave any comments.
I cannot figure them out.
It is very sad.

Obviously the pervert mob is not the chief demographic. Nor, really, a significant market I'm aiming for. If I had to define my ideal reader, she would be a brilliant but introverted local woman half my age with a fascination for Dutch-speaking pipesmokers. But, all unrealistic fantasies aside, most of my readers are precisely the people for whom this blog is written.

Some are pipe smokers.

Some are witty, even sarcastic.

Some are irascible, or opinionated.


A minor percentage are precisely those people out of whom the spit I do not mind irritating.


And some are just as obsessed with food as all Nellie.

For their benefit, obviously, here are the top five posts on my blog, judging by all-time readers and statistics.


HO SI FAT CHOI 好事發財 DRIED OYSTERS WITH BLACK MOSS
http://atthebackofthehill.blogspot.com/2011/02/ho-si-fat-choi-dried-oysters-with-black.html
FEBRUARY 01, 2011
[蠔豉髮菜]

CHINESE NEW YEAR - LUCKY WISHES, LUCKY FOODS
http://atthebackofthehill.blogspot.com/2011/01/chinese-new-year-lucky-wishes-lucky.html
JANUARY 30, 2011
[吉祥話 & 年夜飯]


DIM SUM: KINDS, NAMES, PRONUNCIAT​ION, DESCRIPTIO​N
http://atthebackofthehill.blogspot.com/2012/03/dim-sum-kinds-names-pronunciation.html
MARCH 28, 2012
[點心]


SEA CUCUMBER - SOAKING AND BRAISING A DELICIOUS SLUG
http://atthebackofthehill.blogspot.com/2011/10/sea-cucumber-soaking-and-braising.html
OCTOBER 01, 2011
[海參]


HONG KONG ROAST GOOSE IN SHAM TSENG
http://atthebackofthehill.blogspot.com/2011/10/hong-kong-roast-goose-in-sham-tseng.html
OCTOBER 05, 2011
[燒鵝：深井之裕記大飯店、陳記燒鵝酒家。 三藩市文仔記燒臘茶餐廳。]


It is a happy circumstance that these five are the all-time most sought-after essays, as in a large part I wrote them for myself. Certainly the perverts, tobacco-mavens, and opinionated people would have had other primary interests -- though maybe they also enjoyed the subject of Chinese food when it cropped up here -- and by the same regard the purely hypothetical ideal reader as described above would not have searched for these.

What brought you here may very well have been windmills.
But you smelled something good cooking.
And stayed a little while.

Thank you.


Tune in to this station tomorrow for more food.




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