That’s a Lot of Crawfish, Eric.

My friend Eric Eisenbud is indeed an amazing character. His hunger for all things culinary rivals mine, but his body keeps shrinking. So far, he’s lost 50 pounds over the last several months, and he looks great. But that doesn’t mean the man still doesn’t know how to overdo it like a professional.

Eric, who is former President of New Jersey Les Marmitons, has held a Louisiana Crawfish Boil at his house for the last few years and this year I was one of the lucky friends to be invited. To say that the eating was massive is an understatement. I keep telling myself “not to worry, they’re mostly protein“, but it only goes so far.

Eric Eisenbud. A man who loves his crawfish.

Click on the “Read the rest of this entry” link below for more.

Latin Extravaganza at the Connors

Parties sometimes come together without much of a reason. Our friend Sandi Levitsky-Connor, who we’ve profiled recently with her Jedi-master empanada making skills, decided to have a mega cooking and eating session at her house and invite a couple of friends over. As it was also my wife’s birthday that week, it also became an occasion for eating cake, which needs no excuses at all.

Sandi, who is a fantastic cook, and loves all sorts of cuisines, decided to make this party Latin themed. Dishes from Puerto Rico, Cuba, Trinidad, Peru, Honduras and Spain were prepared, with the assistance of our friends Eric Eisenbud and Efrain Raices from NJ Les Marmitons.

Green plantains. When you see this on a table, you know what’s coming.

Click on the “Read the rest of this entry” link below for more.

The Last Supper with David

New York Times’ David Corcoran, who’s wonderful restaurant reviews have graced the “Old Gray Lady’s” NJ Metro/Dining section for 10 years.

My foray into food blogging has almost certainly had much to do with my respect and admiration for the newspaper writers, who’s level of reviewing standards I could never even try to emulate with any degree of success.

The print newspaper and magazine staff restaurant writer is a dying breed, one who’s role has had to change with the times, if not for the challenges that newspapers and  other periodicals must now face in competition with the food blogs and other new media outlets.

That being said, I am sad to see this occur, even if I am a willing participant and advocate in this change of focus towards the Web.

Perhaps one of my saddest moments in this realization was a happy occasion — having a wonderful Chinese dinner with a newspaper restaurant reviewer that I call a friend and mentor, who had told me that this meal would be his final review.

Click on the “Read the rest of this entry” link below for more.