So who was lucky enough to land the big, bold location with wrap-around windows at the corner of Vine and 12th, right next to the Ensemble Theater? I’m glad to say it’s Taste of Belgium Bistro. With their origins in Findlay Market, Jean Francois Flechet’s Taste of Belgium is an Over-the-Rhine original, and they deserve this spotlight location in the hottest dining district in town.  

If you feel like we’re heading into the New Year in survival mode, you’re not alone. These are wicked times, dear readers, and it’s hard to keep yourself from worrying about whether you ought to stockpile canned goods or raise chickens in the backyard. I’ve thought about both. The chicken idea got nixed when I saw a possum the size of a Smart car strolling along the top of my fence one night.  

Everybody gives their readers a year-end wrap up list of the best dishes they tried over the past 12 months, so I decided to surprise you. What follows are our Dining Team’s biggest surprises of 2011.   

When I was growing up, my dad insisted that on every New Year’s Day we eat sauerkraut and knockwurst. He’d cook a giant roasting pan full of it. Jumbo sausages, bursting with fat, surrounded by kraut, apples and onions and god knows what, and we had to dig in or else.  

I used to think ham was the furthest back piece of the pig I’d ever eat, since trotters don’t appeal to me. But, no! I’ve had pigtail. And I liked it. Don’t let the image of a curly pink spiral deter you. The pigtail I ate at the newly opened Abigail Street in the Gateway Quarter was discreetly uncorkscrewed into bits of delicious porky goodness.  

What’s cooking in December? For a start, there’s the new cookbook from Chef Todd Kelly of Orchids at Palm Court. Kelly, the American Culinary Federation’s 2011 Chef of the Year, teamed up with local food blogger/Midwest Culinary Institute graduate Courtney Tsitouris of Epi-ventures to share recipes from one of my favorite restaurants in the city, scaled down to prepare at home.
  

When the word gets out about Mad Mike’s Burgers & Fries (6420 Dixie Hwy., Florence, 859-647-6444), you’re not going to be able to push your way through the crowds to get in. Put the paper down now and go, and you can finish reading this when you get back.     

“If you don’t know meat, know your butcher” is advice I read on a butcher shop window a long time ago. It came back to me recently when I read an article in The New York Times titled “The Lost Art of Buying From a Butcher.” The bottom line: An experienced butcher will gladly tell you more than a package ever will.  

Barresi’s has been around for ages — since 1963 — and I remember being very impressed back in 2005 when I heard that the original owners had sold the business to a young woman who’d started her career there bussing tables. Eventually she worked her way through culinary school and came back, loving the tradition of this neighborhood trattoria. She was right — there’s a lot to love at Barresi’s. Cutting edge it’s not, but for a cozy Italian dinner, it’s a good choice.   

For those curious (and we know you are), here's the recipe for Morton's The Steakhouse's Sparkling Cinnamon Apple holiday cocktail I mentioned in last week's Dish column. Created by Morton’s Vice President Wine & Spirits Tylor Field and Mixologist/Certified Sommelier Sara Fasolino, it just might be the cure for seasonal panic attacks.