All stories about "Best Of"

Last week the Washington City Paper came out with its annual Best of, with a multitude of categories both essential (Best Burger, Best Bikini Wax, Best Place to Have Your Mom Buy You Slacks) and arbitrary (Best Front Desk Operators, Best Remnant of the Liberal Media, Best Wonk). Some highlights after the jump. (Holzer sculpture: afagen/flickr)

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La Baguette Magique: This is our favorite from the week, mainly because of the photo of penis-shaped bread. Can't really think of anything more emblematic of the gay community is delicious Paris.

Notorious New York Hotels: Murder, crime, intrigue--we've got it all in our guide to the city's most notorious hotels. Find out where mob bosses met their match, where Russel Crowe lost his marbles, and where JFK slept with bombshell Marilyn Monroe.

Post Midnight Mexican Dining in LA: The ever-cynical Omri Ceren finds something in LA he can actually stomach: cheap late night Mexican. From sketchy street carts to sit down restos with flaming (on fire that is) margaritas, he gives you the goods for finishing off your night.

Above and Beyond the Venice Bienalle: For those of you hitting up the Venice Bienalle we have a great guide for stuff to do when you're done with all of the abstract, interactive, and incredibly pricey art.

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Guide to Being a Mall Rat in NYC: Because 5th Ave just isn't our scene. We'd take a Beep 2000 over a Anna Sui store any day. (ed note: this is only due to our financial situation. All of us at Gskips of course have impeccable taste.)

LA's Hotels for the pooches: Finally something my mom will want to read on Gskips. Now Jacques Derridoggie and Prince Fruffalumps with have a place to stay when the folks visit our Hollywood cousins.

San Fran Bars with Photo Booths: Because it's always good to remember what you looked like earlier in the night, when you still had pants on.

Bars and Weaponized STDs in the Valley: So you may not find the cleanest or the chiest people in the valley, but at least you can get a cheap sake bomb.

Civilized & Broke in Manhattan: The always classy Gskips correspondent Megan Zanke proves you don't have to have a million in the bank to be cultured and scholarly in Manhattan.

LA the Cowboy Way: I've always thought country music was about five years away from being super cool. This is a step in the right direction.

Mazora: Get your Veggies While you Have the Chance: Though we love carnivores with all of our travel-loving hearts, the veggies need a break every once in while. That break comes in the form of Mazorca.

Wurst Places to Eat in Berlin: It's about curry wurst. Get it? It's actually quite delicious: chopped up pork sausage in a spicy ketchip sauce. Sometimes it comes with intestine.

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Our commentors really keep us on our toes (as do you frequent emailers). You tell us to eff ourselves when we are wrong and thank us when we are right (though it is almost always when you are plugging your own personal hotel/book/movie/bar/etc.) But if we didn't have you, we'd just be another T&L or god forbid, Citysearch. Knowing that, we are taking a moment out of our map-filled day to honor you on the front lines.

Lovely commentor Procrastinator, esq. starts a fun-lovin discussion about our inherent homophobia, ending the thread with a couple well placed F-bombs: "Seriously. Who the fuck writes about straight bars in WeHo? And Barney's fucking Beanery? I guess the great happy hour drinks come served with a bowl of pretezels and homophobia." Snap!

aisatsana adds insight about a visit to Mars Bar in the post about Modern Punk in New York: "...also, someone had taken a dump on the floor in the bathroom and then smeared the shit on the walls. needless to say it's my favorite bar."

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Burgers In Their Natural Habitat: Ann's Snack Bar: Hottlanta's Ghettoburger is Fabolous

Playing With Balls in New York: Skee Me, Dodge Me, Kick Me, Ping Me, Pong Me

Comida De Buteco: Rio's Best Bar Food: And if you want more balls, try the fried cod at some of Rio's best bars.

Shlomo's Penthouse Toronto: My one son's a doctor, and my other son is a sleazy sex club owner. Oh the naches!

Porteno Public Bus Tours: If it's a short tour on a long bus, is it a shortbus and if so, will sex be there?

Fuck: The Final Frontier: Ryan Gosling in The Fucking Notebook, Fuckers! to be shown on Westbound Domestic Flights

KM 0, Zeno's Cartographic Paradox: The point from which all roads lead from

G. Love and Special Sauce: A Schiller's Imbroglio: We've got McNally's back in this one.

Stardust's Death Almost as Dignified as ANS: See video above

Hottest Bartenders of NYC: Our superficial super official contest soldiers on.

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Gutting Culture & Travel for all its worth (it's free), here's a list of Chef Floyd Cardoz's favorite Mumbai restaurants. Chef Cardoz is the exec. chef at Manhattan's Tabla, where dudes who want to bang chicks take the chicks they wanna bang.

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Gridskipper's Trials of Soho: A User's Guide: In which we wade fearlessly into the streets of Soho to help you navigate the dangers and joys.

Mythical Guide to New York: In which we explore where yetis, mermaids and goblins chillax.

Loose Lips Sink Ships and Pomeranc's Allen Street: In which Pomeranc's Construction crew rats out their boss.

Hottest Bartenders of New York: Nominate that hot dude who serve you beer and get scotch, and possibly laid.

THe Rise and Disappearance of Southeast Louisiana: By 2025, N'Awlins will practically be an island. Eeps.

The Best Markets of Paris: Paris's Markets Have Fleas. And That's A Good Thing

Oslo on the Cheap: Though it's the most expensive city in the world, we give it to you cheap.

A Beginner's Guide to Accra: Ghana turned 50 this week. So when are you gonna make it there?

The Best Boutiques of Berlin: The clothes make the man and the man makes the city. Make the city.

Travel Gear for the Lame at Heart: Travelkleen: If we're anti antimacassars, does that make us pro-macassars?

Star Chefs Does Dallas: Dallas backwards is salad.

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The LoSide Diner Closed: Around the City, Those With Taste Rejoice.

Nude York City: Where to See T&A And Get Credit For Being Sensitive

Ugliest Buildings in New York: The Most Popular Gridskipper Post Ever!

Bringing Rexyback: An Anorexic's Guide to New York: Tasti-D Lite, Peach Fuzz and Pills, Lots of Pills

Filling The Soft Opening: Bowery Hotel Bar: Lions, Tigers and Bears, Oh My

Celebrity Death Map LA: Crossing The River Styx, Phoenix Style

London's Body Public: A Man is only as good as his word and a pub is only as good as his man.

Mike Tyson Won't Be Making/Eating Babies Anytime Soon: Heidi Fleiss' Stud Farm Is A Stillborn

America Loses Faith, Finds Faith, Faith Restored: How A Two-Legged Dog Taught the World How To Live, and Love

Berlin Ostalgie: The Iron Curtain Through Rose-Colored Glasses

If You See Something, Read Something: Madrid Metro Has Libraries. We Have Suspicious Packages. Ah, La Vida Loca

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First there was the Another Schrager Appreciation, and now T+L has their List O' 500 Great Hotels and we're officially in list season. According to the editors, the T+L 500 is "the definitive guide to the greatest hotels worldwide" - not a definitive guide, mind you, the definitive guide. Our experience with the list is limited to drinking at one of the Boston hotels, going to a couple Bar Mitzvahs in LA, and losing money at all four of the Las Vegas casinos - but maybe you've had better luck. There's even a Google Earth layer with all of the hotels, so now you can spin a virtual globe as you say "yup, never been there... or there..."

T+L 500
Ian Schrager: Champion of the World Design

[Text: Omri Ceren Photo: Mute/Flickr]

Previously: Bangkok Shrunken Hotels: "I Was in the pool! I Was in the Pool!", Trafalgar Hotel's Rooftop Bar, How Hotels Got So Opulent, A Foreign Correspondent's Favorite Hotels, Nordic Hotels

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Besides being weird and crazy, Richard Branson also runs Virgin Vacations which has a blog and on that blog they've done a little linkbaiting with an article entitled 11 Best Subways of the World. Normally we wouldn't fall for this shtick but they've posted interesting photos and YouTube shorts about these stations and a couple of fun facts. Did you know for instance that every building in Paris is within 500 m from a subway station or that 44 Moscow metro stations are classified as architectural sights? Neither did we. If you're really dying just to pour over these heavy-hitting stations, head over to Amadeus, a site that has printable maps for nearly every underground systems in the world.

After the jump, a list of the top eleven metros in the world.

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Each week, countless readers leave comments and we treasure each one like a mummy. If you'd like to comment and haven't before, simply click comment, submit a username and password when prompted and we'll approve your comment if it's good enough. Also, you can stay informed of commentary by subscribing to the RSS feed. Here now the ultimate, penultimate, and penultimate comments.

Great
Scrod ain't too proud to update our Handjob post: "Interesting note about the West Garden Spa, a while back it was shut down by superior court order. It has been back in operation for months, but not without some business fallout. Prior to the court order, it was regularly frequented by several high-profile entertainment moguls. Since the order, that end of the business has dried up." All a comment should be: sex, fame, information, nice use of double-entendre ("dried up" heh).

Good
People's Paula notes on our Best Chinese Massages post that "Funny, I thought Chinese massage was the poor man's brothel," prefiguring our handjob post (see above.)

Also Good
Alicia K drops some knowledge, though of the disillusioning sort, about the size of boobs in England: 85% of women are wearing the wrong bra size though b/c a common misconception is that an A cup means "small" and a C cup means "big." It's all about the proportion of breasts to rib cage. So, someone really really skinny with average boobies might wear an FF cup. If someone on th heavier side had average or even big boobies, they might wear a B cup. Don't be tricked by the cup size!"

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David Chang: He's One Bad Momofuku: Men want to be him, at least one woman ants to sleep with him. No, not Bruni. Another woman.

The Best Chinese Massage in New York City: Non sensual

The Best Handjobs in New York City: Sensual

Adult Fried Finder: Best Fried Foods in New York, Non sensual

Philadelphia's Next Mayor Might Be An Alien: And what's worse, he doesn't pay his parking tickets, and he's a thief

The Harbor Room: The Coziest Little Dive Bar Evuh: Firm yet Charming Stool, Nice Yet Smelly Drunks

Meat Me in Boston: Anti-Ash Wednesday Meat Fest: Turn the Other Pork Cheek, Eat Adam's Rib and Braise the Lamb

Moscow Hate Artists and Love Women: But what of Women Artists? Eh Mixed Feelings

Dick Cavett Is the Craziest Dick I Know: And trust me, we know a ton of crazy dicks

Puerta Cerrada Redux: The Best Food Is Behind Closed Doors

Travvies: Vote Early. Vote Often.

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Auld Lang Swine: It's the Year of the Pig. In Vancouver. And Everywhere. But Mostly Vancouver.

Buenos Aires: All the World's A Page: If it looks like a theater, smells like a theater, it's probably a bookstore.

Alone in Paris: Gridskipper's Valentine's Day Guide: Two days after, you're still alone and still bored. Check out these picks.

The Best Auction Ever is in Baltimore, and Ebay: Buy a two-headed baby. Go on, we dare you.

Gridskipper Hot Lunch: 'wichcraft at Equinox: A Kinder, Gentler Dean and Deluca

Manhattongue: A Taste Bud Map of the Island: Hey Umami, you sexy. Hey Umami, You're beautiful.

Pen 15 Club: Years of falling for this prank pay off. Get your pen on.

Vow's Bar: So a monk walks into a bar...

Contemporary Art in Paris: What's Louvre Got to do with it? Nothing.

Top Chef Villain Opens Wine Bar, Other Villains Gather: Not Marcel, not Ilan but Stephen. Remember that dude? The Wendy Pepper of Season One

Infamous New York Murders: In Manhattan, each corner is a crime scene and every sidewalk is a death slab.

Gridskipper and Guardian Make Sweet Love: We show the Guardian's Benji Lanyado a good time in New York. A. Real. Good. Time.

Read This Document: The Best Libraries in the US: February is National Library Month. Or, for some of you, Liberry Month

For Such a Bad-Ass City, Detroit Has A Real Pussy Theme Song: "The nation comes together/where the spirit flies" Seriously? Seeeeeeeewiously?

Tango Season: For Every Tango, Turn Turn Turn.

Gridskipper PSA: Diapered Trenchcoated Astronauts in Airport Parking Lots Might Be Loco: In fact, anyone wearing diapers and trenchcoasts might be loco. Ok, anyone wearing diapers. All infants are nuts,

The Secret to Scoring an Astronaut: On the other hand, said nutso astronauts are probably emotional available. Far be it from us to discourage entry, and re-entry, and entry.

Riding on London's Cocktails: They're classier and cockier than America's drinks and citizens.

Oscar's Guide to LA: If you were a golden man with no penis, where would you be? We know. Find out.

Cingular's Travel Guide: I just called [from Ghana] to say I love you and that shit cost me $5.

Travvies: Not Quite a Tranny, Not Quite a Travesty: Though we scoff, nominate us please!

Expat Insecurity: Why do they hate us?: Buenos Aires Expats Channel Woody Allen

V-Day Lingerie Gift Guide: The only thing better than seeing a woman in her lingerie is shopping for it. Kind of. Well, it's at least necessary.

Troll Museum in the LES. No, Not Libation. Another One: Troll Dolls, Elf Clergy and Dirty Underwear. By Appointment

Public Sex in New York: Because bumping uglies is something we all should see.

Dave Barry: The Man Who Makes Chevy Chase Look Funny: You know, he even makes Jeff Foxworthy Look Erudite and Dave Foley Look Soulful

Cosplay Cafes: Dress Up, Baby! We're Going Out: Because coffee tastes better when served by girls in French Maid Outfits. Subpoenas, not so much.

Public Transit Upholstery of the World: Examining the Fabric that is the Quilt of Life

NWA in LA: Not the Airline and Strangely More Friendly

Gridskipper's Souper Bowl Miami: The Chicago Bear Stew v. The Indianapolis Colt Borscht or something.

NY Blipsters v. Philly's Blurban Cowboys: The Horsemen of the Apocalypse Wear Fubu

Modern Gangs of New York: The Latin Kings, the Mambo Queens, and the Downtown Jacks

Black Chicks Are Always Game: Our guide to Silkies isn't anywhere near as racist or lascivious as it sounds

Leonard Lopate's Guide to New York: You've listened to him every day on WNYC, Now Find Out What LL Thinks Undulatingly Amazing

Where to Pee Your Pants Laughing In Chicago: Or Where To Pee Your Pants And Then Pretend Your Were Laughing

Tijuana Safe Again, Police Given Slingshots: Robbers Get Swift Kick in Shins

I'll Have Tits. I Mean Boobs. Erection. Sex. Latte. I Want a Latte: Women Learn to Debase Themselves Brand New Ways

Where To Study In Florence and Actually Learn Stuff: As Opposed to Last Time You Were There and You Learned How to Binge Drink

Cibelle's Parisian Hangouts: Where to Find At Least One Incredibly Attractive Gamine

Bangkok Shrunken Hotels: "I Was in the Pool! I Was in the Pool!": Teensy Tinsy Boutique Hotels

Meteor: For Original Gamers: Find that old Tetris Cartridge and a Pong T-Shirt

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Guide to New York: Subterranean Dining Straight from the Source. Kowabunga!

Don't Get Shafted: TIps for Restaurant Week: Making the best out of a bad bad idea.

Hotty Cocktails In New York: It's Cold Motherfussacks! Get Your Hot Toddy On

LA Under $5: Everyone in LA looks cheap but now you can actually be cheap

Sports Bars in Boston: Where to Watch the Pats, Drink, Break the Seal, Miss the Game-Winning TD B/C You're Peeing

Best Use of Double Entendre in Slurpee Bar: This One; I Guess There's Nothing That Double about a Slushee called "Money Shot" is there?

Live Sex in Hotels? A Hard Sell: Best Use of Double Entendre in a Gridskipper Post: This One

Beginner's Guide to Vancouver: Penetrating Vancouver For the First Time. (OK, that was tasteless and dumb). Let's put it this way. Vancouver. Sex!

Beginner's Guide to Barcelona: A handy Gridskipper feature guide to Barca, where to go, what to eat and how to live (large, btw)

3:30-5:30 Art Day: Yesterday for two hours in the afternoon, Gridskipper celebrated Art (no not the dead one, the other dead one.)

Instead of trusting a travel agent or newspaper travel section (or, well, us) to pick your next destination, you could follow lemminglike in the steps of professional travellers--that is, the members of the U.S. foreign service. While they may not travel for adventure (it is a job, after all), these State Dept. folks do see the world. And in a survey from Foreign Service Journal, their best and worst postings were:

BEST: Tokyo, Bangkok, Cairo, Mexico City, London and Paris.
WORST: Moscow, Beijing, Lagos (Nigeria), Baghdad, Frankfurt and Kingston (Jamaica).
MOST DESIRED: Rome, London, Bangkok, Madrid, and Buenos Aires.

What did Frankfurt do?

Foreign Service members happy, overworked [Federal Times]

[Image: Bruce Yurgil; Text: Ian Mount]

Previously: Virgin Denied, Heading to Youtube for Revenge, 24 Hours in Frankfurt, Frankfurt for the Visiting Lush

Great Moments in Journalism: The War That Dare Not Speak Its Name: A dramatic reading of the Globalist's Rio column, complete with Jobim

Clotilde Dusoulier's Guide to Paris Eating: Chocolate, Zucchini and so much more

The Bowery Hotel: Making Stephen Crane Proud: Guess what, another hotel in the East Village/LES!

Girl-On-Girl Pillowfight Contest: You write a haiku, we give you a pair of tix to see girls beat other girls up with pillows

Girl's Guide to Detroit: Where to wax, to wane, to coddle yourself in the world's most masculine city

The Best Ramen Noodle Shops in New York: To commemorate the passing of Momofuku Ando, Ramen in Peace

The Best Baguettes in Paris: Willy Ronis, foot-long breadsticks and the flour and water essence of France

Gain the Florence 15: You know you're gonna get fat anyway, speed the process up in Florence's best bakeries.

CB I Hate Perfume: Patrick Suskind would be proud of these B-Burg Parfumieres.

With the passing of Momofuku Ando, the inventor of Ramen instant noodles and the Dumbledore to noodle-hungry college kids everywhere, the world has lost a great emancipator, the man who liberated the salty taste of ramen noodles from their process-intensive bondage. Add water, Ando preached, and ye shall see brittle noodle turn into a succulent meal for rich and poor alike. Mostly poor men though. In appreciation of his gift to society, welcome to the Gridskipper Marmorial Momofuku Ando Memorial Memorable Memorial Prize for Outstanding Achievement in the Arena of Noodle-Making.

Rai Rai Ken: This tiny East Village noodle bar is constantly--and usually favorably--compared with Momofuku. The broth contains five types of miso and took 2 years to develop and the ingredients are fresh and include Berkshire pork.

Momofuku: The other of the Ramen little big'uns, Momofuku has, of late, been over the Ssam bar, the empire was built on its delicate ramen noodles, chock full of pork, egg, seaweed.

Ramen King: While midtown's Ramen King may lack the cachet of its downtown brethren, the ramen noodles here can hold their own. Zero decor, harried service and a heaping bowl of Ramen for $6.50.

The Hidden Secrets of San Francisco's Chinatown: Like dumplings, the tastiest parts of Chinatown are often hidden.

New York According to James Brown: Where to get Hot Pants, Sex Machines and a Brand New Bag

Paris Smells Nicely: Rather, Paris's creepy lack of scent is masqueraded well by perfumes

Gridskipper in Brazil: Last Call: An homage to Rio and Chris Marker

Stanton Anti-Social: French onion soup dumplings: good. Cute Asian waitress: good. Jappy bitches: bad.

Gesticulate Like a New Yorker Contest: Master the "I'd give you money but my hands are full shrug" and the "Shit! There's a ticket on my Escalade imploration" and win a night on the town.

The Perfect Day in BA: BA bloggers channel Lou Reed

Organ to Explode Vizcaya Museum: A Miami organ plays a museum's resonant frequencies and we expose our ignorance of aural physics.

The Sonic Garden of Babylon: The 7th Wonder of the World is a hipster music venue in Istanbul.

Reading Playboy for the Articles Finally Pays Off: 10 Best Music Venues

Reading Playboy for the Pictures Finally Pays Off: The tits of a failing airline's stewardesses.

Because we can't bear to read another gaga for googoo piece lauding Little Owl as the Best New NYC Restaurant (yes, we know we already contributed to the flood.) and because the good folks at Eater have already spent days and days, we assume, assembling NYM's Adam Platt's tremendous listage, we're turning our attention westward, toward LA. Los Angeles magazine, recently released their restaurant awards (a less clever or well-designed version of New York magazine's Where to Eat). Forewith we make quick work of their choices.

Best New Restaurant: Hatfield's--"No single quality precludes another at Quinn and Karen Hatfield's restaurant. Technique doesn't come at the expense of soul; at Hatfield's modesty of scale and budget don't impinge on elegance." Hyperbolic intros however, do preclude facts. Hatfield's, all you need to know, ex-Vongrichten and Bouley prodigy serving fresh seasonal American cuisine.
Runners-Up: Cut, La Botte, Petros Restaurant, Republic

Sadly, the rest of the listings are mostly filler but doing our duty the only way we know how (drive, drive, drive until completion), here they are:
Nice Staff, Cool Place: Social Hollywood
"Rockingest" Rib Joint [sic, obviously]: Swinging Door BBQ
Haute Tater Tot:BLD restaurant
Finest Flan: Canele
Ingenious Use of Fried Egg: Red Pearl Kitchen (it's served with udon. Jeez, LA Mag so easily impressed!)
Best Use of Least Space: The Bowery Hollywood (1,000 sq. ft. is capacious by our standards, check it)
Devine Design (sic): Minx LA
Shawarma: Spitz
Best Wine Bar (also, most annoying website music): Bottlerock
Chef Hangout: Bin 8945
Breakfast: Square One
Dessert: Simon LA
Pork: Wilson
Sushi: Sushi Dokoro Ki Ra La
Freshest Cocktails: Katsuya
Cheese: Cube
Fashion Sense: Tiara Cafe
Coffee: Caffe Luxxe
Poolside: Circa 55 at Beverly Hilton

Previously: Weeneez: Ceci N'est Pas Une Weenerie, Wieners and Dicks, Let's Be Frank in SF,
The UPitt Dirty O, Gridskipper Guide To Getting Laid: Puppies, Katz's: That's All! Really.

Itacoatiara: Ineffable Beauty, Name: Now with 77% more vowels.

Tepper's Going Out to Eat: Stalk Calvin Trillin for selfish, brunch-driven purposes.

Paradise Found: Rhapsodizing about Brazil's natural beauty entirely in Middle English.

Frontsies and Backsies Ruin the Wall St. Bonus Season: Remember, investment bankers pay the salary of those pilots. Or is that teachers?

Sex Ed at Samba School: Lust and Denim, together for the first time since 1992.

London in New York: How to ruin your teeth in the Eastern Standard time zone.

Hummus The Way It Was Meant to Be: Don't look now, but there's a hummus among us.

Chilly Willy in Sin City: A spa in Las Vegas where things get a tit nipply.

The Adventures of X-Tudo and Grid-Xipper: Fun with cultural relativism, barfing.

It's Getting Shot in Here: Why you should always bring nunchucks on vacation.

Great Jews in Tortes: Our gift to you on becoming a man, a cookie loving man.

What, Knishes Aren't Good Enough For You?: Where to Eat Latkes in NY

Reasons to Love New York Right Now: Condensed Into One Run-On Sentence

It Stays Wite Out Later: Fedex/Kinko's Not Embroiled in Racist Ad Campaign

Long Lines in LA: Where To "Party" in LA, Not That We've Ever Tried

Pell St. Story: Gangland Battles in NYC: When Your A Tong Your A Tong All the Way

NY in Vegas: LV Like So Wants To Be NYC

The Good, The Bad, The Meatpacking 2006: Batali Battles, Ramsay Arrives, Mainland Crashes

Shopsin's RIP: We Scoop The Death of Shopsin's. Woo-Hoo! I mean, Tear.

Bukkake Air: The Post Your Mother Doesn't Want You To Read. Also, The Post My Mother Doesn't Want You To Read

Adoptourism: The Year To Come: Britney Spears Opens Trailer Trash Motels and the Great Ideas of 2007

10 Places Not To Go In London: That is, if you don't want to get poisoned by Polonium 210.

Best Hot Chocolate in Barcelona: Black Gold, Long Sweet Shafts As In Churros.

Introducing Amanda Kludt, Your Assistant Gridskipper: New Meat. New Meat. New Meat.

La Coleccion Jumex: I Told You Juice Ran The Media and Art Worlds

Will Self's Guide to London and New York: Will Self Looks Like Iggy Pop, Walks Like 20 Miles Or Something

Gridskipper Gift Guide: Slightly usable, conceptually viable, entertainingly written.

Christmas in LA: Fake Tits Aren't The Only Ornaments in Tinseltown

The Skinny on Local Vegas: Avoid the Hordes of Tourists, Fannypacks

Sporno: The First and Perhaps Last Entry Into the Gridskipper Dictionary

Readers of the NYT Sunday Travel section got a mouthful of best of the years. Here's a quick, very quick digest of the section we spent Sunday spilling biscuits and gravy on along with our best guesses for the year ahead. I'll bet you ten bucks we're right.

Luxury Destination of the Year
2005: Siem Reap
2006: Zambia
Projected 2007: South America. Continuing the trend (city, country, ergo continent) we're pinpointing all of South America as the next luxury destination. As Asia continues its economic rise, it'll be left to poor South American nations to claim the weakened dollar.

Party Destination of the Year
2005: Tallinn
2006: Istanbul
Projected 2007: We predict an influx of Euro stags heading to Marrakesh for their cheap thrills. One again, as more and more countries join the E.U. cheap thrills will move off-shore. Also, Morocco will be one of the last remaining non-Islamic n on-polarized countries, we suppose.

Family Destination of the Year
2005: Domenican Republic
2006: French Riviera
Projected 2007: Puglia. The vastly underrated heel of Italy will have its day. The beaches, as well as the low-cost of living in Southern Italy has been drawing northern Italians here for ages and it's only a matter of time until Bugaboos and Baby Spas begin to appear.

Entrepreneur of the Year
2005: Stelop Haji-Ioannou
2006: Sheik of Dubai
Projected 2007: Britney Spears. Jumping on the shoulders of Nicky Hilton, Ms. Spears has opened up a chain of trailer parks throughout China, capitalizing on her white trash gone good story. The motels, which gross 9 trillion annually have names like Placid Grove. Deluxe trailers come with their own station wagon on blocks in front.

Buzzword of the Year
2005: Eco-Tourism
2006: 2006: Carbon Neutral
Projected 2007: Adoptourism-What better way to remember your trip than a poor orphan? Now adoptourists, as they're called, can travel to various third-world nations enjoy gourmet dishes, luxurious and rustic accommodations and come home with their very own child. Rates of course vary. A middle-class Korean high schooler runs several thousand less than a starving Malawian orphan.

Previously: Ex=Spy Visits Spy Museums, NYT's 5,616 Hours In..., Venice Vidi Vici, NoLA and the Frugal Traveler

Le Fooding recently announced its LE PALMARÈS, the hip French foodie version of the Grammies. In our ongoing effort to enlighten our readers, turning you from savages to epicures, we're translating the winning restaurant write-ups (loosely, very loosely). On Friday, we wrote about the best Latin steak house, a place called Unico. Today, we examine the best Restaurants in Paris. They're two actually, (a tie) but the French part of our brains has just died a petit mort so here's one and there'll be the other tomorrow.

Le Chateaubriand: ...Here iconoclastic Basque chef Inaki Aizpitarte heads a simple vintage bistro, le Chateaubriand. A case of beefsteak tomatoes, displayed on the counter, announces the color before the brigade of slick three-day-bearded servers bring the minimalist and balanced menu. Bravo pour la mise en scène> but even better is the actual cooking. Inaki takes off like a whirlwind and never comes back down from his cloud (what?). His mussels, delightfully fleshy, are given life by strawberry, gooseberry and blackberry, while the sliced beets in an emulsion sweeten the lemon, red ognion and bklacj radish of Annie Bertin. The steamed cod, cooked to perfection, seasoned with an herb oil, with shrimp and a very lightly spiced and caramelized sauce revealed the subtlety of Moroccan flavors. The lamb, "return to Morocco" was the star of the night, with its green tea emulsion anmd coriander flowers. For dessert Inaki brings on the heavy artillery: a rich creamy chocolate and red pepper emulsion. This kills but there's nothing more daring than the Morbier of a neighbor, coming direct from the little coop of Juma. Menu-carte à 33 € et 39 €. Encyclopedic Wine List : Pacalet, Gramenon, Richaud, Métras...

Le Chateaubriand [Le Fooding]

[Photo: LeFooding]

Previously: Le Fooding Winners Announced, The NExt stop? Fire Bird, We Missed Paris, Eats Walks and Leaves in Paris

The Sweet Char of Success: Best BBQ in NYC. According to Us. Infallible Us.

Wifi Madness in NYC: Women Cry For It, Men Die For It

Google Cafeteria Makes Conde Nast Look Like Denny's: Gridskipper Invetigates

Gridskipper's Chri$tma$ Market Place: Screw David Brancaccio, Go Shopping

Blogorrhea: New York's Speakeasies: Bathtub Gin For the Non-Phish Lover

Sweet Staches in New York: The Best Photoshop On Gridskipper

Don't Look Back in Manger: Find Jesus and His Mom in Boston

More Than Cheesesteaks: Philly's Got More Cholesterol Ridden Foods Than Just This.

Introducing Nazi-Santa: Do your part to keep an eye out for Santa Klaus Barbie

Hey Good Bookin': Ten Best Book Stores in London

The NYT continues its brilliant use of interactivity with their latest 36 Hours map. The map tracks each of the 36 hours for the last three years which amounts to 5,616 hours of sightseeing, or 234 days, or 117 weekends, or around 2 years of weekend trips. Though some 36 hours tend to skimp on the actual hourage therein, some are pretty spot on guides. Here are our top ten 36 hours. Enjoy!

Venice: As previously noted, Danielle Pergament actually makes Venice a place you'd rather go to than runaway from.
Fresno: Evan Rail gets obliterated and eats chicken pie omelettes.
Albuquerque: Gretchen Reynolds eats at the Frontier Restaurant where patrons 'It's noisy at night, but in the mornings, patrons quietly nurse coffee, hangovers and recalcitrant theses" or recalcitrant feces, either one is accurate.
Washington DC: Who knew Adam Nagourney was so hip?
South End, Boston: Boston brahmin Ann Marie Gardner slums it in Southie South Boston (Thanks, Jon).
Copenhagen: Seth Sherwood compares Copenhagen to a Lego, in a good way.
Shanghai: David Barboza writes: "Shanghai is also far and away China's most attractive city, particularly after nightfall." True, everyone is beautiful with the lights off.
Syracuse: Hart Seely makes you, if not quite relish your time in Syracuse, at least not want to commit Harikiri.
Memphis: Robert Gordon gets the blue among the "African-American milieu."
Toronto: Dave Bidini makes the hockey hajj to Toronto.

5,616 Hours Map [NYT]

Previously: Venice Vidi Vici, NoLa Presents Moral Dilemma For Frugal Traveler, Thanksgiving Getting the Holiday Spirit, Istanbul Gets Visited By the Froogs, Dancehall Daze and Nights