How about the TT threads with the most responses. A couple will require combining a starting thread that you then spun off on its own. Eggs, box o'wine and restaurants we miss come to mind for combining.

How about top ten places to celebrate Cinco de Mayo. Or maybe save it for the next week.

And am I drooling over that picture...

Good idea, because I like time-sensitive posts. But how do I separate it from Top Ten Mexican Places?

Maybe even Top Ten ("Blog Defining"?) Moments, more specific than Threads... Warm weather makes me think of two completely different things: eating light and the onslaught of street festivals. I don't know if you've done Top Salads or Top/Unique Festival Foods/Stands (like freshly filled cannolis at the St. Anthony festival or the Lebanese Taverna's stand at the Harbor East festival) - if not, I think those could be cool future lists.

Maybe a Cinco de Mayo themed list could be more specific than just Mexican restaurants?

Like Top Ten Mexican Dishes at Local places? For example, I know I go to El Salto for their simple perfect cheese enchiladas (IMHO), but I know that not everyone likes some of their other food. One place could be on the list twice, if it had two signature dishes.

I like the idea of seeking out not just a place, but trying something specific that someone has recommended.

That sounds good to me, and why don't we schedule it for April 29 to allow people time to suggest dishes. Of course, if they don't suggest dishes, we'll have to go to Plan B. EL

This may nor be feasible -- and may be a bit elitist [Heaven forbid!] -- but is there any way to TT local club dining? I'm thinking the Hopkins Club at JHU and similar places. We may not all be able to dine at these places, but it would still be interesting.

How about Top 10 offbeat ethnic (the more authentic the better) restaurants? Not just Thai and Chinese, but Ethiopian and West Indian, that kinda thing...

Love this, but can you think of 10? EL

Erm...don't look now, but I compare everything to Star Trek .

I like the top 10 defining moments. I also like the idea of offbeat ethnic, but since Ethiopian and West Indian sound perfectly normal to me, I'm not sure there are 10, either. Although, there always is Chicken Rico.

Maybe top 10 Latino but not Mexican restaurants?

How about top 10 SF foods? gagH, soylent green, those nifty meals in a pill we were going to have by now, whatever they ate on the Jetson's, authentic Darkover trail rations, whatever. Or top 10 foods that NASA gave us. Tang, those astronaut brown sticks that tasted like plastic and aren't around any more, freeze dried ice cream, etc.

Top 10 recipes we wish we'd gotten from grandmothers and mothers before it was too late.

Top 10 weird utensils (marrow spoons, oyster forks, etc.) that you wish you didn't know how to identify.

Has there ever been a top 10 on those lunch places downtown that charge by the ounce? Or on lunch places downtown, in general? (I was recently pleasantly surprised by the lunch buffet at Cazbar.)

There actually used to be a document floating around the web on the correct kinds of junkfood to bribe geeks to get them to fix your computer. Could update it.

what do you think about top 10 new restaurants w/ fancy new sidewalk seating. (6 months) quality of chairs, tables, glassware, linens vs.paper, awnings, umbrellas etc?

Sounds great if other people contribute. Of course, it's probably too early yet to know more than they will be having outdoor seating or have just started. EL

The comment about marrow bones got me thinking.

We could do a list of top ten places to go for dishes of a by-gone era, like marrow bones, terrapin soup, sweetbreads, shad roe, etc...

If there were any places except private clubs. EL

You can get shad roe at the Pepper Mill.

It tells you something interesting when you look for Pepper Mill's web site (none) and look for it on allmenus.com (not listed.) I'm thinking their customer don't know of computers and the internet (and not because they are too young.)

Indeed, RtSO. The Pepper Mill was my mother's favorite restaurant. She passed away a year and a half ago at the Age of 87.

I have heard sort of good things about the Pepper Mill (mostly from folk of your mother's generation) but have never ventured for fear of blue hair blindness (similar to snow blindness.) I trust your judgment; are there enough good choices on the menu to make the risk to my eye sight worthwhile? Briefly, what's on offer?

My condolences, Rosebud, on your mother's passing. My mother is 88 and hanging in there (more evidence that we are not biological twins).

How does the Pepper Mill prepare their shad roe? I have yet to find a restaurant that does it as well as we do at home.

Thanks, Dahlink!

I can't say how the Pepper Mill prepares it since I've never eaten it there. The shad roe was actually my grandmother's favorite and not my mother's. My grandmother always prepared the shad roe herself. She just using a light dusting of seasoned flour and fried it in butter.

My mother always ordered the cream of crab soup and the chicken topped with what was basically crab imperial or a crab cake. Not to get into crab before the week of the crab and certainly not to start the crab cake discussion again, I'll just say they were not the best I ever had. I didn't go there often until just the last two years of her life, since she usually went there with "the girls" until the last of her group past away.

I have to say that I have been tempted by the shad roe and the soft crab signs the past almost two years, but I'm really not likely to ever eat there again.

EL: Is Veronica in India a close friend? You had ROFLMAO. Actually when I have to deal with outsourced individuals, I always throw them for a loop and ask for their location and the weather (you'd be amazed how many time's I've been told they don't know because there aren't any windows). Then I ask them their real name. I find that personalizing a call like that, no matter how angry or frustrated I am at having to call it, gets my request taken care of more quickly.

That's good advice, but I don't think it would have helped in this case. You'll be sorry you got me started; I have so much else to say. I wish I had kept a copy of the chat transcript. All I was trying to find out was how to get ABC and NBC on On Demand, not just CBS. Veronica started by asking me the last four digits of my SSN, and then when I gave them to her, she told me that info wasn't on record, that my account used my license # for identification. Finally after one half hour (no exaggeration) she sent me a link, which turned out to be to all of Comcast's remotes' manuals. She said it must be my remote.

When I calmed down I next tried e-mailing Comcast in White Marsh with my question, and within two minutes I got an e-mail back saying On Demand in this area only offers CBS at this time. Thank God I didn't spend too much time reading the remote manuals. EL

Does the Valley Inn on Falls Road prepare Shad Roe. Like the Peppermill, the Valley Inn doesn't have a website.

I do know, however, from a review from EL a few years ago that the Valley Inn makes traditional Maryland fare, so maybe they'll do shad roe. As a recall, EL was pretty tough on the Valley Inn.

It wasn't their best day. However, things change. I'd give them a second chance if only for the atmosphere. EL

I have always wondered about that. I'm glad it was you and not me that spent the half hour on the phone finding out! I learn so much on this blog.

I've been to Pepper Mill several times, for both lunch and dinner. My blue hair mother-in law loved the place. The food is good, if not exciting, and prices are reasonable. I think if you go a little later in the evening, you can avoid the early bird blue hairs. I seem to remember their shad roe was quite good. Nowadays I'm content to cook it myself, and have about a pound of asparagus with it. Talk about the quintessential spring meal--YUM!

I know that Lambertville, NJ, which is on the other side of the Delaware from New Hope PA, has a huge shad festival. In fact, the festival may be this weekend. I know it is sometime in April.

For those who have never been to New Hope/Lambertville, it is a great day trip. Back when gas was $2 a gallon, I used to go up there all the time. Now...well, gas isn't $2 a gallon.

Oooh ooh Dottie--shad roe with asparagus--now we're talking!

EL, don't get me started on my history with Comcast, or they'll disconnect me for sure (and we've been on and off with power outages as it is ...)