If you're tempted to classify Chow-hounds as foodies, though, refer to founder Jim Leff's descriptions at chowhound.com for clarification:

"That's just what we are not," he writes.

"A Chowhound is someone who spends nearly every waking moment planning his/her next meal. Whether dining in an expensive cafe or grabbing a quick scrambled egg sandwich to munch on the way to work, chowhounds hate to ingest anything undelicious, and they won't hesitate to go far out of their way for slightly better. For a true hound, the curve of diminishing results is more an exciting challenge than an imposing dead-end."

In addition to outspoken and highly opinionated, many of the postings on the forum and list server could be described as perceptive, articulate and, often, extremely humorous.

These are not people prone to following directions from restaurant critics and food writers.

Their search for "deliciousness," a term they use frequently, often propels them to spots in far-flung neighborhoods not often covered by the media.

After trekking the dining road less traveled, they post detailed personal reviews. Then, owing to the immediacy of cyberspace, the site often becomes a forum for debate.

Founder Leff, a New York jazz trombonist, restaurant reviewer and author of New York dining guides, began chowhound. com in 1997 as a site devoted to food in the New York City area.

"We nationalized the site in 1998," he wrote in an e-mail interview. "We get about 1,400 postings per day to all of our forums . . . We figure about 300,000 unique visitors surf in every month. But the vast majority don't post . . . they're 'silent lurkers' who just read."

The Chicago forum launched in 1998, he says. Today, 30 separate forums are devoted to regional food or special food interests, and there are plans to add more.

What does Leff think about the Chicago board? "Terrific Chow-hounds. We don't always see eye to eye about how to run the site, but that's to be expected. I purposely attract the pickiest and most opinionated and outspoken characters in all creation . . . The Chicago community isn't our largest, but some really good finds are being made, and opinions swapped. That's what we're here for."

A recent dinner at Three Happiness at 209 W. Cermak Rd. in Chinatown offers an example of a good-natured disagreement between Chowhounds. Rob Gardner, an Oak Park attorney who is referred to as the Chicago Chowhound board's unofficial mayor, is not a big fan of the place. Or at least he pretends not to be. But it's a favorite of Gary Wiviott, a well-known poster who included four of the restaurant's dishes in his list of the best things he had eaten in 2003.

To distinguish the tiny restaurant from a larger one nearby with the same name, posters nicknamed it "Little Three Happiness." Regular readers and posters have come to know the storefront eatery by its initials, LTH.

That's also what Wiviott named the list server (lth@sptsb.com) that he created last year to allow more expanded communication than that allowed on the moderated Chicago board, where messages not specifically focused on Chicago food are in danger of being spiked.

"It's already January 12th and I have not been to 'little' Three Happiness yet this year," Wiviott wrote in the note posted at 2:40 a.m. "I am making a batch of chili oil tomorrow. And am planning on going Wednesday at 7 p.m . . . . the more the merrier, all are welcome."

Strangers meet

A dozen Chowhounds joined him, among them, a commercial real estate broker, researcher, sales representative and Internet attorney. Robert Launay, an anthropologist from Northwestern, and his Parisian-born wife, Catherine, who teaches French in the Wilmette public school system, sat across the table from Seth Zurer, who has been active with the Chicago Chowhounds for three years. "I come from a Chowhound family," Zurer said. "My dad posts on the Washington, D.C., board, my brother posts on the San Francisco board."

The group took up three oblong tables hastily pushed together. Platters of chicken arrived and as the Chowhounds passed platters, dipped chopsticks and evaluated their first bites, a diner from an adjoining table-for-two leaned across the narrow aisle to ask a question.

"How do you guys know each other?" he asked. "Do you work together?"

"No," someone said between bites. "We're just here to taste good food."

Wiviott brought a fresh supply of his secret-recipe chili oil to pass at the table and give to the restaurant's owner, who makes it available to any Chowhound who requests it.

Ordering was left in Wiviott's hands with everyone agreeing to follow his lead.

"One of the pleasures of discovering this group is to go to a place like this and let someone who really knows the food order," Robert Launay says. The Launays are new Chowhounds; this was their second event.

Wiviott rose to the occasion, ordering multi-platters of Cantonese-style crispy skinned chicken; stir-fried baby clams in black bean sauce over crispy pan-fried wheat noodles with extra jalapeno; stir-fried blue crabs with ginger and scallions; sauteed snails with black bean and garlic; fried tofu stuffed with shrimp; salt and pepper squid; rice noodles with bok choy, and beef and pea shoots with garlic and green beans with pork.

Dinner, including tip, came to $17 a person.

Zurer posted a review on a Chowhound message board the same evening. "Having now catalogued the menu, it occurs to me that, true to form, Gary ordered for both breadth and depth, not to mention heft," he wrote. Although he rated the blue crabs "completely mediocre" and claimed he "could've done without" the hot pot tofu, Zurer gave high marks to the remaining fare: "LTH was dead-on last night."

A lasagna affair

For their first event of 2004, more than a dozen Chowhounds headed for a dining adventure on New Year's Day. But this time, instead of the group's typical road-trip format, in which they prowl the city to sniff out unheralded culinary flavors to report on the message board, the Chowhounds were dishing out their own delicious food.

Armed with filled casseroles, platters and trays, they set up an Italian-inspired holiday meal for homeless diners at the not-for-profit Inspiration Cafe in Uptown. Gardner had organized the event.

"We are just as much committed to serving the dinner as cooking the dinner," he had earlier written to volunteers in an e-mail on the list server. "One of the whole points of the Inspiration Cafe is to serve people with dignity, to remove for a night the feeling of being institutionalized."

The meal was favorably received. Chowhounds ate dinner in the kitchen after the guests had been served. Then, as is usual after eating events, the group met at an Andersonville bar for snacks.

Still, just before midnight on New Year's Day, Catherine Lambrecht, or "Cathy2" as she is known on the Chicago message board, posted a report covering the first 2004 Chicago "chowevent." She described the menu, served by the volunteers: antipasto and two lasagnas, including one prepared by fellow Chowhound, "Yourpalwill," from a recipe adapted from Italian Immigrant Cooking, by Elodia Rigante.

This was not a basic lasagna. When the recipe appeared in The New York Times in 2001, it specified setting aside four hours to make the dish, which is layered with ground sirloin meatballs, Italian sausage and several kinds of cheese. But there's no such thing as too much trouble when it comes to "deliciousness."

"After serving approximately 30 guests, we then served ourselves," Cathy2 wrote. "We reconvened later at Hopleaf for a few beers and ciders. A wonderful, productive way to begin the new year."

Lambrecht has been a member of the Chicago Culinary Historians for more than a decade. She's also contributing to an upcoming Slow Foods restaurant guide reviewing Puerto Rican restaurants in Chicago. Still, there's something about the essence of Chowhounds she finds unique and endearing.

"I've met so many people who are so generous with information," she says. "I sort of compare Chowhounds to the same phenomena as eBay, where I recently sold a spinning wheel."

"eBay makes it possible to locate all the like-minded people interested in spinning wheels in the same place. Like finding a needle in a haystack," Lambrecht says. "That's how Chowhound works. Except we're coming together about great food."

An ongoing conversation

Here is a typical example of a recent Chicago Chowhound online conversation. These are responses to a query from a New Yorker asking for restaurant suggestions for an upcoming visit:

"Maxwell Street Market . . . less lively in the winter than in the summer, but is still worth exploring . . . you might try the terrific brain empanadas at El Colonial . . . or the taco of tongue in green sauce (handmade tortillas) at Monica/Rubi's."

"There is no more 'Chicago' breakfast experience than the Original Lou Mitchell's on Jackson . . . enjoy a night cap at the Peninsula Hotel bar."

" . . . Along ethnic veins I'd also look at: Siam's House in Niles, Spoon Thai or the extremely maximum authentic alert Siam Noodle Restaurant on Sheridan. BYOB some great riesling for a feast . . . this place is cut right out of Bangkok."

"There's a lot of good Polish food in Chicago, but it's not downtown. A fairly close place (the opposite of elegant but famous for its huge cheap home-cooked all-you-can-eat 'Polish smorgasbord') is The Red Apple at 3121 N. Milwaukee."

"The only thing near as awesome as Chicago chow is the community gestalt actively shared by the Chicago hounds. You're in for a treat. Hope you get to Maxwell Street market, too. I hope I get there myself this winter."

Lasagna with meatballs and sausage

Preparation time: 1 hour, 20 minutes
Cooking time: 4 hours, 15 minutes
Yield: 12 servings
- Adapted from "Italian Immigrant Cooking," by Elodia Rigante.

Sauce:
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 red onions, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
8 ounces pancetta or bacon, diced
1/2 teaspoon salt
Freshly ground pepper
1-1/2 cups red wine
2 cans (28 ounces each) Italian plum tomatoes
3 tablespoons tomato paste
2 cups lukewarm water

Meatballs:
3/4 pound ground sirloin
1/4 cup freshly grated pecorino Romano
2 eggs
10 sprigs parsley, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon salt
Freshly ground pepper
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon flour

Lasagna:
1/2 pound each: hot Italian sausage, sweet Italian sausage
1 container (15 ounces) ricotta cheese
2 large eggs
2 cups freshly grated pecorino Romano
1/2 cup chopped parsley
1 pound fresh mozzarella, shredded
1 pound lasagna noodles, cooked according to package instructions

1. For sauce, heat oil in Dutch oven or heavy pot over low heat. Add onions, garlic and pancetta. Cook, stirring constantly, until onions soften, about 10 minutes. Stir in salt and pepper to taste. Increase heat to medium high; add wine. Cook until all but 1/4 cup of the wine evaporates, about 20 minutes. Crush tomatoes and their juice into pot with hands or the back of a wooden spoon; add tomato paste and lukewarm water. Reduce heat to simmer; cook, uncovered, 1 hour.

2. For meatballs, combine meat, cheese, eggs, parsley and garlic in a large bowl; season with salt and pepper. Shape into 2-inch meatballs; set aside. Heat oil in large skillet over medium-high heat. Dust meatballs lightly with flour, shaking off excess. Add to skillet in batches; cook, turning, until brown on all sides, about 15 minutes per batch. Transfer to sauce.

3. Cook Italian sausages in another skillet over medium-high heat until brown, about 10 minutes. Transfer to sauce. Cook, uncovered, stirring occasionally, until the sauce is very thick, about 1-1/2 hours.

4. Heat oven to 350°F. Combine ricotta, eggs, cheese, parsley and all but 1 cup of the mozzarella; set aside. Remove meatballs and sausage from sauce; set aside to cool. Coarsely chop meatballs and sausage.

5. For lasagna, spoon a thick layer of sauce into the bottoms of a 12-by-9-inch lasagna pan and an 8-inch-square baking pan. Top each with a layer of noodles, slightly overlapping. Spoon more sauce on the noodles. Top with half of the meat and half of the cheese mixture. Repeat layers, using remaining meat and cheese; top each pan with a layer of noodles and cover with remaining sauce. Sprinkle reserved mozzarella evenly over the top. Bake until cheese on top is melted and bubbly around the edges, about 40 minutes. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.

Nutrition information per serving:

625 calories, 48% of calories from fat, 33 g fat, 14 g saturated fat, 158 mg cholesterol, 45 g carbohydrates, 37 g protein, 1,092 mg sodium, 4 g fiber

Chicago Chowhounds

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