Cajun food in Coos County.

I can’t wait.

The good folks in Lakeside are putting on a three-day Crawdad Festival on May 8-10. Included is a Cajun Cookoff on Friday night. I’d like to thank the organizers for thinking of me to be a guest “judge.”

And I use the word judge loosely – very loosely. I judge food like I judge art: I know what I like, but that doesn’t mean everyone will think it’s great.

I once watched a chowder contest being judged and one of the judges knew the type of potato used in the chowder just by smelling it — I knew right then that I was not qualified to judge food contests.

But I’m very qualified for the eating portion, and I plan to be at the Crawdad Festival tasting as many things as I can.

My wife has always liked Cajun cooking, and usually orders her seafood blackened whenever it is offered. I got my first serious taste of Cajun food at the Cajun Festival held in Reno a number of years back.

The one meal I remember from that day was popcorn-style gator. We both loved it. People were walking by us wondering what it was and we shared part of our meal with total strangers — cajun music and a few Mardi Gras style drinks will do that for you.

I’ve never had a crawdad before, but I feel there’s no time like the present to give them a try.

Eating out

I’ve had my Benetti’s coupon (25 percent off) hanging on the corkboard at home since it came out in the Best of the South Coast 2009 section last month. With the April 30 expiration date rapidly approaching, I put the coupon in my wallet last week and was glad I did. Autumn’s job in Port Orford last Thursday was completed sooner than expected, and instead of rolling back through downtown Coos Bay well after dark, we were back at dinnertime.

I always have a tough time deciding from their menu because there are three or four items that I always want. Last time I got the Tony’s Half and Half, the time before that was the lasagna, so this time I went with the Chicken Parmigiana with the garlic, butter sauce on my pasta.

Autumn had the gnocchi (potato pasta), and I had the leftovers for lunch the next day. I may want to try a full plate of that next time ... that or the eggplant Parmigiana ... see what I mean.

The coupon brought the bill from $32 to $24.

Our other dining excursion came on Tuesday. Autumn had an afternoon job in Roseburg, and since we were running short on time, we went to our old stand-by, Red Robin. We don’t even need menu’s in there anymore: We both love the A-1 Peppercorn burger and fries and we both get iced teas.