January 4, 2011 Power Rankings

QUICK HITS:

♦ Zuma, Zama. Zama, Zuma. (Copyright: David Letterman.)

♦ Top Cheffer Howie Kleinberg (Bulldog Barbecue) is opening up a burger joint–Bulldog Burger–which seems a bit like last year’s Quickfire Challenge. We can anticipate Bulldog Casual Asian Eatery in 2012 and Bulldog Food Truck in 2013. No word yet on whether the burger patties will be made from bulldogs, but here are some of the menu items to whet your appetite:

The Hawaii Five-O comes complete with crispy ham, roasted pineapple, pepper jack cheese and Kleinberg’s house-made “Big Kahuna” sauce.

With a nod to the King, A Hunk of Burnin’ Love features bacon, fried bananas, pepper jack cheese – and spicy peanut butter.

The Baja is a made with ground shrimp, bacon and avocado and is dressed with a chipotle mayo.

So take your ground shrimp craving over to Bulldog Burger, which anticipates opening in “early 2011″ and will be located on 154th and Biscayne.

♦ There were lots more “best of” lists published over the last week (here, here, here, and here). But there’s only one place with a giant picture of fresh hearts of palm. I think Roland is going to have a hard time squeezing that one in an aluminum can.

♦ That’s all from a relatively quiet holiday week. Thanks for reading MRPR over the past year, its first full year in the blogosphere. Here’s to a happy and healthy 2011, filled with pork belly, bacon, lard, and crispy chicken skin.

(Last Week’s Rankings in Parentheses)

1. NAOE (1)

2. Michael’s Genuine Food & Drink (2)

3. Red Light (3)

4. Sakaya Kitchen (4)

5. BLT Steak (5)

6. Buena Vista Bistro (6)

7. GastroPod (7)

8. Eos (8)

9. Zuma (9)

10. Hiro’s Yakko-San (10)

11. Michy’s (11)