All Time Classic Chowhound Threads

[itryalot]

As a fairly newbie to Chowhound, I often wonder about the originals who have been posting for years and what I have missed all of these years. I have spent hours searching and reading links to postings but it is like looking for a needle in a haystack especially when you don't know what you are looking for.

What is your favorite thread? It can be humorous, inspirational, informative or controversial. I stumbled upon this one while looking at risotto postings and I must admit, I read it often! I actually laugh out loud every time. It inspired a few other threads.

Original:
Absolute Best Risotto You Will EVER Eat: Toasted Pistachio Gorgonzola Dolce http://www.chowhound.com/topics/288918

Spinoffs:
http://www.chowhound.com/topics/291101 (funny description of how she made the recipe
)http://www.chowhound.com/topics/289169
http://www.chowhound.com/topics/289169
http://www.chowhound.com/topics/291081
http://www.chowhound.com/topics/295723

[Cheese Boy]

Call it silly humor, call it what you want, I think this thread can get a laugh out of most people. Many of the threads I've read here on CH are *not* very humorous, so I guess that's why this one stands out for me.

L. I. T. ---> http://www.chowhound.com/topics/448149

[MMRuth]

I am adding this thread - incredibly funny and impressive. Great photos at the end w/ the report.

Gas Station Gourmet Valentine's Day:

http://www.chowhound.com/topics/487063

[DanaB]

I have so many favorites!

Here are a couple of classics from Thi of LA Board fame:

Thi on Roscoe's Chicken & Waffles:

http://www.chowhound.com/topics/48362

Thi on Langer's Pastrami:

http://www.chowhound.com/topics/60237

On the home cooking board (I think it was still the general board back in those days), we used to get a LOT of great posts from Mrs. Smith. One of my favorites was Mrs. Smith on the recipe for a perfect neopolitan pizza crust:

http://www.chowhound.com/topics/294926

Then there's that classic, an "Excremental Encounter" by Burke & Wells, who used to post often on this site:

http://www.chowhound.com/topics/261442

Finally, one of my all-time favorites was also posted by Joe H. (who was the author of the perfect gorganzola risotto post cited above), called "The 5,000 Mile Hamburger," about the joys of a long-distance In 'N Out Burger :-)

http://www.chowhound.com/topics/292192

[itryalot]

Love the pizza posting and excremental encounter was excellent too! I am now a huge fan of Joe Heflin.

[ElsieDee]

This thread, to me, is what Chowhound is all about: excellent food, a quest for knowledge, sharing personal things - I want to hug everyone who is posting on it, they all feel so warm and ... family-ish?

http://www.chowhound.com/topics/301115

[kkak97]

Good threads. This was a fun read.

[itryalot]

I have read this recent one several times already. I am sercretly hoping Marcella or Giulio Hazan write in! ;)
http://www.chowhound.com/topics/331828

[Caitlin McGrath]

I've always particularly admired this thread from way back in 2000, "The importance of wine?" http://www.chowhound.com/topics/286402 It's chock-full of interesting and cogent argument. It taught me a great deal at the time, and does so again each time I revisit it:

[itryalot]

There are so many good ones; my husband runs into the den because he can hear me laughing hysterically.

[Brian S]

I posted this exact same question a few months ago and you might want to check out some of the replies I got. You got more replies, though.

http://www.chowhound.com/topics/352192

[missclaudy]

Beautiful thread Brian,so glad you pointed it out! I've always loved Niki Rothman's posts and remember them fondly from the OLD DAYS of chowhound.

[missclaudy]

I don't mean to show off (since I responded with all of my heart and soul) to the thread someone posted about the ever whacky and delish bacon brittle around Christmas time last year. It got funnier and funnier as folks made their own brittle and reported back.Several recipes are included. http:// www.chowhound.com/topics/348661

[Sam Fujisaka]

"So, whudduyadoferaliving?" was and is great in a community-building way.

Good fun has been had with ruderibrube, various threads on tipping, picky eaters, pride in dishes based on store-bought prepped goods, fear of eating x, best cities, and more.

Personally, I love the, "We had a terrible experience at Bobo's Bistro last night" threads. Pervert that I am, read them all.

[mcgeary]

I read all of the "bad experience" posts, too! Even the ones that aren't on my home board, when I spot them in "Latest Posts!" I loved the long thread about how horrible Sweet Lady Jane's bakery is (in W. Hollywood, CA). Thank you for confessing your proclivities, Sam; I feel less alone now.

your fellow perv,

mcgeary

[Sam Fujisaka]

mcqeary, you have to check out today's "Wo Hop -- worst meal of my life" by Brian S. Great, hilarious writing!

[Brian S]

Thank you Sam! Especially since, if I had to nominate a classic thread, it would probably have your writing in it. You bring in whole new dimensions of history, agrarian knowledge, etc.

The Wo Hop post is here:
http://www.chowhound.com/topics/439410

But please, for some perspective (since Wo Hop is the one bad restaurant in Chinatown) read this too:
http://www.chowhound.com/topics/342344

[Sam Fujisaka]

Great post. Finding a good read is as you describe finding Chinese restaurants in Manhattan: one has to go beyond "one's own" familiar board to find good ones.

[Hooda_Guest]

I'm with you on this one. For some reason, I really enjoy reading the posts where things have gone wrong or service has been less than stellar. Perhaps it makes me feel better about the times it has happened to me! I went back and searched for the thread on Sweet Lady Jane's Bakery and read every post. I even read the linked blog story-unbelievable.

[JasmineG]

I read that whole Sweet Lady Jane's thread too!

[itryalot]

I am so glad you people responded. I have enjoyed catching up; great posts. I hope there are more. Printed out the rib and Seinfeld ones and passed them out to fellow chows at work.

[Gio]

This is great. Now I know what I'm doing today.

[The Dairy Queen]

I like this one, about the discovery of a tiny sandwich shop in a nearly-vacant strip mall in West St. Paul, which is actually a suburb of St. Paul, MN: http://www.chowhound.com/topics/359398 The thread meanders a bit to talk about a bakery, a Greek deli, a Lebanese restaurant, a taqueria, but always comes back to celebrate the glorious sandwiches.

~TDQ

[limster]

This thread may seem unassuming, but it's as chowhoundish as its gets:
http://www.chowhound.com/topics/18867

Definitely a classic in my book.

[yayadave]

A couple of topics that always produce more heat than light are any by, for, or about servers and any about tips.

Then there was the string about "Do you have a reservation?' It wasn't even a thread, just a string with-in a thread. I think it got vaporized.

On another tack, Melanie Wong's posts are entertaining and knowlegable. She did a series from France last year. I could only find two threads. I thought there were more.

Languedoc: Turned Away at Restaurant Emile in Toulouse
http://www.chowhound.com/topics/268002#1412454

2005 Bordeaux En Primeur
http://www.chowhound.com/topics/301797

[Hue]

I loved the Seinfeld food references thread

http://www.chowhound.com/topics/356277

[coney with everything]

I think you've resurrected this one! Love the Sein.

[aurora50]

I've enjoyed the threads about kitchen/cooking disasters -

[Veggo]

I think the unfinished (and may never be) rime of the Rib Man will survive the test of time....

[bubbles4me]

2nd here for Rude Rib Dude.

[thinks too much]

I'll cast my vote for Rib man too!

[itryalot]

Is there a link?

[Veggo]

I'm not very nimble with links, but you'll find it by searching 'sjhound'. 327 posts by 128 hounds. Pretty funny.

[yayadave]

I think they mean this one. It got a lot of action for a while, but I think it might be officially dead since the op left town. It's lively reading.

Guest insists on bringing a dish... rude??
http://www.chowhound.com/topics/411218

[lupaglupa]

The sad saga os San Jose Hound and her rude guest certainly came to my mind first - whatever happened!?! Here's the link:

http://www.chowhound.com/topics/411218

[bubbles4me]

Some of the threads about Apple Pan (Los Angeles) are pretty classic Chow Hound too.

[vvvindaloo]

I still wonder about this thread (the rib guy), and I'm still miffed that we never got to hear the resolution! I know, I should just get over it.

[lupaglupa]

I feel there should be a board where people post "what happened" after a long series of posts. There are others threads that I've gotten caught up in and they just end without knowing what happened.

[yayadave]

I think a lot of people just don't "report back" about how things worked out. But In this case I suspect some hurt feelings and/or embarrassment occurred, so the OP just let it die a slow death.

[vvvindaloo]

The issue definitely did incite much passionate debate, and some heated exchanges. I guess the OP may have been a little overwhelmed by it, but they also took part in the beginning, posting several comments as I recall. And they were never seen or heard from again!

[mcgeary]

BREAKING NEWS!

http://www.chowhound.com/topics/444218

[yayadave]

A thread that got the most action recently was about the New York Times article by Mark Bittman about the Jim Lehey Sullivan Street Bakery recipe for no-knead bread. The original article was printed in the NY Times 6 Nov 06

This may be the first thread:
http://www.chowhound.com/topics/340910
Or maybe these:
http://www.chowhound.com/topics/341469
http://www.chowhound.com/topics/340924

But there have been a lot of other threads about this topic. If you want to find them, search Mark Bittman, no-knead bread, Sullivan Street Bakery, Jim Lehey, and Father Kitchen. You’ll get enough threads to fill a book. And that’s if you only search on Chowhound. If you do a web search on Google, you’ll have a library.

[itryalot]

That one never seems to die, does it?