Dinner for Four, Table for Eight

Although I never wanted to be a food critic, I’ve often been mistaken for one. I’ve literally had restaurant managers ask me what publication I was with when they noticed the amount of dishes at the table sufficiently exceeded the amount of people in the chairs. “We’ll have the left side of the menu” or just a simple, “Yes, thank you, this looks delicious” as we hand the menu back in reference to trying it all, are common catch phrases amongst my family.

Sometimes we would literally finish a meal at a restaurant and walk a few blocks to sit down somewhere else for another meal. Or we would leave a wedding or Bar Mitzvah, typically an event where guests leaved stuffed for days, and pick up food or go out to eat. It’s not unusual for us to order another entrée after having just finished one, or for my brother to order soup for dessert since he lacks a sweet tooth (unlike me who has a mouth full of them).

Esty Street in Park Ridge, NJ had a fantastic Asian tuna tartar napoleon; a finely diced stack of fresh tuna and avocado layered between sesame phyllo crisps atop mesclun greens with wasabi mayonnaise and pickled ginger. To die for.

My father and I went out for lunch and each ordered one, and then loved it so much we shared a third. He joked saying if we buy three, the last one is free. Watch out Eric Carle, here comes a family of very hungry caterpillars.