A Boston Globe reporter was recently treated to a two day food tour with Jim Leff, founder of Chowhound.com. Joined along they way by a few other chowhounds, the pair made their way around the city, sampling everything they could get their hands on, from ackee with codfish, the national dish of Jamaica, to Brazilian feijoada.
Chowhounds are notorious for their persistence in seeking out great food, particularly at restaurants as opposed to preparing it at home, and Leff is the self-proclaimed "Alpha Dog" of the bunch. Some 800,000 people frequent the site each month and post their opinions and reviews of various restaurants, as well as posting recommendations in response to the queries of others. While it may seem to be just another random online bulletin board, some of them take their duties as a chowhound very seriously, including the 'hound known as Limster who accompanied Leff and the Globe's reporter, and cover their faces to protect their identity from restaurateurs. Leff himself has a dog mask that he wears when appearing in photos or on TV.
Though there were a few allusions to Leff's obsession with finding food that is better than the best and the rest of the chowhound community is referred to as a cult, the article was, by and large, a fun and flattering account of their excursions. Because Chowhound is a free site with no advertising, they have had some money problems in the past, running servers to keep the site operating for its regular users as well as the thousands of visitors that stop by for recommendations. Leff revealed that he had some plans as to how to make the site more self-sustaining, but has not yet revealed what they are.
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