It started with his new phone — a Droid. He began taking photos of dishes I made. Then he started taking photos at restaurants. Now, you can’t stop him. I think it’s embarrassing (not to mention the food gets cold) but restaurant personnel are so used to blogging that flashes going off at every table don’t even cause a ripple in the staff’s attention.

I must admit, his photos are pretty good. Here is his photo of bibimbap at the H-Mart food court in Woburn.

Delicious bibimbap

He’s now way into Twitter, and sometimes he’ll listen to music past the heyday of rock n’roll.

But will I ever get to eat a meal in peace?  And, by the way, will he ever get over his UnderArmour fascination?

I was struck by a comment by Mc Slim Jb, the Everyman’s King of Boston dining, tweaking Valentine’s dining as Amateur Night. I don’t think too many in the restaurant industry are  scorning Special Occasion dining this year. When chefs are bemoaning empty rooms and lost revenue, any packed house is welcome. Bring on the amateurs. Every night should be Valentine’s!

The last day of the year is always a time for remembering what we liked about the last, but I think looking ahead is more appropriate for a brand new 10 years. So what do I want?

1. That food safety comes to the forefront of American attention. Those stories about ammonia-treated processed (or as one insider calls it “pink slime”) beef sold for school lunches because it can reduce costs by pennies even if e coli and samonella might be present are truly horrifying. And disgraceful for a country rich with agricultural resources.

2. That farmers, including vegetable farmers, be recognized and rewarded fairly for what they do.

3. That independent, gimmick-free restaurants do well by feeding us well.

4. That obesity become a past-tense problem.

5. That hunger be diminishes, if not wiped out.

6. That we eat wisely and well.

Chef Rodriguez

not New York, but maybe the sun is too bright.

However, we did happen to drop in on D. Rodriguez Cuba’s second night. This is Douglas Rodriguez (OLA, “godfather of Nuevo Latino, Top Chef), who has a new spot that’s dedicated to only Cuban cuisine. It’s a little more downscale price-wise than OLA, and has some interesting twists on what can be a delicious but pretty heavy cuisine

Octopus salad esbache was delicious and so were the short rib skewers (though they tasted sort of pan-Asian — wasn’t that soy sauce), but the arroz con pollo, tried because it’s such a classic, was odd. The rice and peas were just right, but the chicken, advertised as thigh meat, was definitely breast meat covered with a creamy sauce. That was tangy and tasty but overall, it wasn’t the homey dish one might expect but instead a kind of hybrid — Cuban meets Continental??

Because the liquor license had’t been finalized, the restaurant was offering rum cocktails gratis — a lovely lime daquiri and a rum punch, both well-made, not too sweet, and not too boozy.

The staff was pleasant, friendly, and really nervous. Even the laid-back feeling of South Beach, and the beautiful surroundings of the Hotel Astor didn’t seem to calm them. And when I happened to see Chef Rodriguez with his wife Nelly in the lobby, he too seemed jittery. I guess that’s understandable in an economy that’s affecting even the golden edges of Florida.

But give Rodriguez and his staff a little time. I’d definitely go back to graze through more of his Cuban food — and I’m sure others will, too. Maybe Nelly’s roast chicken would be a better choice. Next time.

Boston area restaurateurs and chefs are famously known for being charitable to hunger-related causes. But even the waves of donations — from benefits for Greater Boston Food Bank  to Share Our Strength to local groups such as My Brothers’ Table  in Lynn — are a drop in the bucket. This year, especially the need far outstrips the giving.

So what can we personally do about hunger? I have no set answer, no panacea for the ills of the world. Only the beginning of  a gift list.

Heifer International and pig gift

 Yesterday, I went online and bought my parents, who spent their younger years giving as much as they could to their extended families, community, church, and those in far away places, a pig. Well, not really a live, squealing pig Fed-exed to them, but $120 to Heifer International. This will pay for a family in a developing country to have a pig that can feed and provide for them. Oh, and I dropped a couple of dollars into a Salvation Army bucket (my mother rang a bell for years at Christmas time).

Next week, I’ll decide how much I can give to My Brother’s Table, which feeds and cares for homeless in Lynn. After that, I’ll consider my New Year’s Resolutions — what will the next year bring and what I can do — from helping to find restaurateurs willing to participate in charitable events to volunteering to putting up some money. 

It’s only a little, a drop in the bucket of need, and certainly miniscule compared to what others give.  But it’s my drop into the bucket of hunger.

"Fully Committed" the play

Last week I made a restaurant reservation, and was bemused when the young woman told me that “We’re fully committed” that night. It was the second or third time I’d heard it in a few weeks. It seemed so late ’90s when the play of that name chronicled the hot-hot-hot years of New York and San Francisco dining. But everything that goes around, comes around, so Fully Committed is having a comeback.

Which brings up the issue of the phrases that stick in the restaurant industry, year after year, trend after trend. “Still working on that?” “Are you finished yet.” And the classic “Fries with that?”

What’s your evergreen restaurant phrase?

Midway through fantastic sfizi (small bites, great ones like chicken liver crostini and burrata with Sicilian oregano and pistachios) chef Dante diMagistris strode, just back from Italy, with truffles. And we were treated to tagliatelle with a soft-poached egg topped with freshly-shaved truffles. Dante did the shaving, remind me of the first time I wrote about him. In a review of blu, I talked about this young chef who’s enthusiasm for the truffles he shaved over pasta transformed the dining experience.

Il Casale is a hit for good reasons — oh, did I tell you that Daniele Baliani, one of the great talents in any kitchen, is cooking there. And did I say that Leon diMagistris, the father famed for his high-style salon in Belmont, chats with customers. Or that the prices are reasonable, the pasta comes in small or large portions, and the staff couldn’t have been more solicitous about a diner allergic to olive oil.

All this and truffles, too. No wonder it’s tough to get a table.

Art in a cup

After a long day-into-night of judging the first annual White Chrome Barista Throwdown put on by  Flat Black Coffee in Dorchester, here are a few things I remember:

–About 2/3 of the way through tasting espressos and lattes made by 11 contestants, Annie Copps, of Yankee Magazine and one of my fellow judges, counted that we must have consumed 24 shots. She started spitting, just like a wine tasting.

— Gerra Harrigan, the expert from New Harvest Coffee Roasters in Providence and the other judge, managed to keep her cool composure and sort through the contestants through about 5 hours of tasting.

— All 11 contestants were really good — and some could talk while making excellent espresso. Even if their hands shook when serving the coffee.

— Alison Novak, from Simon’s Coffee Shop in Cambridge, who won, made a signature dessert coffee that by now I can no longer describe, but I’d have every night if I could.

— The reason I can’t describe it, although my palate memory is excellent, is because even taking tiny sips of more than30 espressos and espresso-based drinks makes you a bit forgetful. Drunk, even. Not only that, I couldn’t spell.

Gerra judges barista and coffee contests all the time. Today, recovering from an event that was a lot of fun plus included dinner at Tavolo down the street, I’d have to think about it doing another very soon — at least until my ability to spell returns.

What I’ll miss: Barry Estabrook’s pieces on the politics of food, especially one tracing  the e coli outbreak in spinach and its results.  And the travel articles (unfortunately few of late).

What I won’t miss: Although Gourmet always looked stylish, the design changes veered so wildly that beyond the pretty cover, it was hard to tell sometimes what you were looking at. And I particularly disliked the photographs of farmers over the last years who seemed to be purposedly “dirtied up” to match somebody’s notion of agricultural reality (this is done elsewhere and it’s sooo annoying. As though everyone  in rural areas neglects to wash their hands or faces when a photographer shows up.)

And the A-Z redesign with copious recipes recently looked like a last-ditch panic — which I guess it was.

Connecting the dots between food and our larger world was the greatest service of Gourmet. That blurred sometimes when the fattest issues seemed to only trumpet the excesses of restaurant extravagance or the thinnest only comfort food. But by knitting together travel, food memory, the restaurant world, and food politics, Gourmet could make a statement and do it stylishly. 

I’ll keep as many issues of Gourmet as I have room for — I’ve saved holiday issues for ideas and recipes for decades, and often refer or find old issues when I travel. In a Food Network magazine era, that information and that style unfortunately won’t be matched.

Coincidentally, that’s the day I’m taking 15 people from around the country participating in an Elderhostel (soon to be Exploritas) Dine Like a Critic to see Legal Seafood’s plant and to hear Max Harvey, of Jasper White’s Summer Shacks who lectures at BU on sustainability.

Saving the sea will be the hot topic for Monday — and beyond.