Eric was very much uninterested in talking about food. He dealt with enough having to cook for his mates—namely Chinese, and it was incredibly exhausting.
"That's not an answer," Eric replied, almost insulted that this stranger would interrupt his lunch, then refuse to give him a proper answer to a personal question. "I think this Ministry could do better: instilling unnecessary fear, lying left and right, and making mountains out of molehills rather than focus on the real problems and resolving them." He hated what the Ministry was doing. If Eric was more motivated, he would have a better job—perhaps in the Wizengamot if he could help it—rather than simply talk about it. His mouth ran ahead of him more often than not, others tending to lose interest in him as the bloke that insisted on interjecting his opinion on everything.
"They are, for the most part, telling wizarding society that we are a chore to keep up, but pretend as though they are doing their best. Our society submitted to defeat, yet we wear the masks of warriors. How can they turn a blind eye to how badly this war is going? They are not doing their best by any means, nor have they ever."