Good question. The answer would be, yes and no. I don’t recall if you were on the LA board of Chowhound, so let me explain further. Basically, Dish of the Month (DoTM) is an opportunity for people to vote on a dish and then, once a dish has been selected, I create a thread where people can post pics and try to be creative about what fits into the broad definition of the dish.
The reason why the answer is “yes” is b/c the dishes should all be available in the Ventura/LA/OC area. The reason why “no” is because it might be fun if each geographic area (more pertaining to the CH board) does their own version.
The idea, in theory anyway, is to nominate and then vote on a single dish. Then to explore the greater LA area looking for good (or bad) examples of the winning dish.
You could, perhaps, do something similar in the Home Cooking board …
It was so broad in the past (I may have been guilty of leading things in that direction) to encourage more participation. It moved more toward ingredient and not an actual dish.
Instead of pies, what about a specific pie, like “strawberry pies” or “bannana cream pie”
Or instead of just noodles, “beef noodles” or “pad thai” or “boat noodles”.
It would be more difficult but it would be more interesting and worthwhile IMO. It would truly test the ideals of a hound (?)
We could also do it every quarter or every 2 months. The monthly DOM was meant to drive traffic and revenue. Here, we don’t necessary need more clicks. Maybe just more quality content.
@Porthos: I’m certainly open to some changes. A couple of thoughts:
I think restricting the dish is fine, but I just worry that being TOO specific might be too limiting. So, if we end up doing pie next and we move to every 2-3 months, maybe we could do “pies using seasonal ingredients?” (or something like that)
Every 2-3 months sounds fine by me. However, given how busy the board may become, the thread might get pushed off the first page. Is @Robert and @ipsedixit are amenable, maybe we could “pin” the current dish of the quarter (DoTQ?) to the first page?
What do other people think? My main goal for this is to make it enjoyable…
Thanks for your reply. I live in Philadelphia’s western ‘burbs, so I was not a frequent or regular visitor to the LA board on CH. I misunderstood the concept of DoTM. I assumed it was about choosing a dish then creating it at home. But now I see it’s about choosing a dish then finding it at local restaurants. That would certainly make the case for keeping it regional, although, that said, it would also be interesting to share regional interpretations via photos.
I don’t think it’s likely that regional DoTM threads are sustainable, at least, not in many regions, Philly among them.
I’ve seen the Dish of the Month, where you create your version at home, in Home Cooking at Chowhound… and the one where we try those dishes at restaurants at the LA board (I believe maybe SFB too)…
I’m game for anything. I, personally, loved it monthly because there was a sense of urgency for me to get out there and try things before the new month.