Yummy lobster! Woodman's Rocks!

Last night I attended the rehearsal for my friends Allison and John's wedding. Afterward his parents hosted a wonderful dinner in their lovely backyard in Medford. To my delight when we pulled up we saw two catering vans from Woodman's of Essex. For those of you who don't know Woodman's, it is a North Shore institution for delicious seafood! Per Woodman's website they have been in business since 1914 and they are the original inventor of the fried clam! Thank you Woodman's!

The Minogues treated us to a Woodman's Lobster bake. We had dinner under a tent and survived a rippin' thunderstorm. The Woodman's folks - 2 on staff - weathered the elements like pros, moving in under the tent as needed. Despite the soaking rains and terrifying lightning the food was served up hot and fresh. We started out with mussels and steamers followed by their delicious NE Clam Chowder. Next up was Lobster, corn and Cole slaw. Also provided was roast chicken for the non-seafood folks and one guest even got an delicious looking vegetarian dish. This was no afterthought, it looked beautiful and was evidently cooked to perfection. When you walked up for your lobster, it was cracked and the tail was cut for you. There were plenty of bibs, wet naps and napkins and yeah, I ripped into that bad boy and dipped into the still warm clarified butter with gusto.

If you are looking for some killer catered lobster, call Woodman's!!!

http://www.woodmans.com/

Love you Woodman's!!!! Thanks Minogue family!

Best bar evah!

Chocolate. Bread. Butter. Salt. The four food groups? Maybe not, but definitely four foods that make life worth living... in my humble opinion. Combine them all in one and you get the best chocolate bar I have tasted! Theo Chocolate's 3400 Phinney Bread and Chocolate... TA DA!

My sister's friend Meghan brought one of these over to my house when she came by to pick up my sister. Meghan works for Equal Exchange also and they have some damn tasty chocolate in their organic, fair trade line up. So when she said this was her fave bar and broke me off a big piece I knew I was in for a treat. Slightly bitter, exquisite dark chocolate with a hard to place crunch and a hit of salt... what is that??? Buttered bread crumbs made from French Baguette! Like an adult Nestle Crunch bar but 1000x better. She got her bars at Porter Sq. Books and they have the line at Whole Foods. I plan to buy several bars today. As you can see the one she left for me is long gone....

Thank you Theo Chocolates! Theo is located in Seattle, check them out on the web at.... http://www.theochocolate.com/

They are the first roaster of organic cacao in the U.S. They have their own blog too....
http://theonista.typepad.com/

And last but not least, I met one of their folks at WF in Woburn and she was delightful. This is a cool company, check 'em out. If you are nice to me I might gift you with a bar!

=)

My Blog Sucks!

Yesterday I happened upon Gourmet's Diary of a Foodie on PBS. The episode featured food bloggers and was humbling to say the least. These bloggers are the real deal. My blog sucks. My writing is amateurish at best. I can only aspire to the blogger cred that these writers have earned. First of all I need a camera and second, I need to try to really write. I will work on it but in the meantime, here are some cool food blogs to check out. There are so many great ones out there so go surfing and find some of your favorites!

http://chezpim.typepad.com/ - San Fran blogger

http://www.davidlebovitz.com/index.html - expat who lives in Paris

http://becksposhnosh.blogspot.com/ - love her!

http://www.elise.com/recipes/ - I use this blog to get a lot of recipes!

Happy reading y'all!

A $20,000 cup of coffee???

No! It's just the equipment that's expensive. I loved this article from Today's times. Hopefully I will be able to try a cup sometime!

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/23/dining/23coff.html?pagewanted=1&ref=dining

or the slideshow....

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2008/01/23/dining/20080123_COFFEE_SLIDESHOW_index.html

Check me out on Yelp.

I get my critic on at yelp.com where folks review businesses and restaurants for others to consult. It's fun, check it out!

http://www.yelp.com/user_details?userid=fveEJbUC37-tT-OOdaA5tg