Trolling & Pimping: Come Write For HowChow

HowChow is a hobby.  I have written a few times that I blog because it inspires me to find good food.  It's also great fun to email with or see comments from people who have also moved beyond the "Howard County only has chains" meme and found some local food worth giving a try.

I'm looking for help from those people.

I'd like to start a regular (weekly?) series where I post short lists of three cool things that you want to share with HowChow readers.  Three small things.  A dish you love at your favorite restaurant.  A find you made at some market.  A food experience -- like "Maiwand Kabob and Rita's on a warm summer night" -- that you really enjoy.  You write 3-4 sentences about each.  You attach a passable photo of one of the items.  You email me with maybe two sentences about yourself and the name that you want to use in the post.

I'm going to post a few to give people the idea of the format.  Format matters.  Don't write a review.  Write the name of your thing, then specific advice about what to order/buy and why.  Look at the style of my "Best Food Experiences" post.  Funny is great.  Creative is great.  Two sentences about why you love some item or experience are perfect.  Vague comments that spit out a restaurant's marketing materials are uninteresting.  Nasty or negative will just be deleted.

I embraced the concept of "trolling and pimping" after someone got an anonymous nuclear wedgie about my post about "Dobbin Donuts & Kabob Korner."  Yes, I troll Howard County looking for new food onto which I can put a little spin.  Then, I pimp them on HowChow.  It's a hobby, and now you can troll and pimp as well.

The Rules: 1) The three items should be in or very near Howard County.  2) You can't use the name "Anonymous."  You can use anything else.  First names or funny pseudonyms are fine.  I'd love if you use your Blogger nickname so that people can identify your comments even if they don't know who you.  3) You have to tell me -- and disclose in the piece -- if you have any connection to one of the places.  Just say, "XXX, where I work" or "XXX, which is owned by my friend Janet."  The connection is fine, buy you have to pimp two other places along with your own.  4) To submit, you email your three items and a photo -- knowing that they'll be posted on HowChow and out of your control.

This idea was inspired by Metrocurean's Five Bites series in which Amanda has a reader recommend five great restaurant dishes.  I want your favorite restaurant dishes, but I'd love a little more broadly -- the place you take your in-laws for brunch, the place your kids love, the place to watch football or English soccer, a "dinner and dessert" combo like Maiwand/Rita's or Rainpia/Tutti Frutti.  Bloggers or Yelp posters are absolutely encouraged, and I'll link to your blog or Yelp profile just like Metrocurean did for me.  Click here for all the Trolling posts.  


(Update: The comments below won't make sense unless you realize that "got an anonymous atomic nuclear wedgie" above was originally "got their anonymous panties in a bunch.")