TDG: Cubicle Cuisine

[Jinmyo]

An associate keeps a small container of gojuchang in the small refrigerator in the office. Of course, no one touches it. "Fermented bean paste with chiles? Pfui." In his cube desk he keeps those vacuum packed udon noodles. When he doesn't bring a lunch he just makes a quick udon soup. And the gojuchang and udon combine as a complete protein.

[s'kat]

I borrowed a digital camera, and took a picture of the 'Sunshine Fund' drawers, for all my hapless office mates who may have forgotten to bring along a snack or two.

Top drawer:

Bottom drawer:

Edited August 6, 2003 by s'kat (log)

[Jason Perlow]

Holy snikeys.

[alacarte]

P.S. I read one blog account written by a wage-slave who claims to eat 3 meals a day at her desk.

She referred to her morning meal as "deskfast."

[tryska]

P.S. I read one blog account written by a wage-slave who claims to eat 3 meals a day at her desk.

She referred to her morning meal as "deskfast."

i eat 4 at mine...

then again i have 6 feeding times a day. kinda like an infant.

[Rachel Perlow]

I borrowed a digital camera, and took a picture of the 'Sunshine Fund' drawers, for all my hapless office mates who may have forgotten to bring along a snack or two.

Does the vendor continually post notes on the boxes reminding people to pay? That's what happened at one office I worked at that had these types of open vending boxes.

[lamb]

Our office, located in Midtown NYC, staffs about 25 people. A group of health conscious employees would meet daily in the late afternoon in our kitchen, located centrally in the office, to whip up a batch of fruit smoothies. They used the fruit that was paid for by the firm (stocked in the beginning of each week for all employees) and added their own smoothie stuff. The sound of the blender plus their whiny voices was enough to drive the rest of us insane. They did, however, offer the us a sample, but unless it had rum in it the rest of the group was not interested. Us non-smoothie drinkers decided one day to steal the blade out of the blender. The smoothie group did not notice it was gone until they tried to whip up a batch. It took them quite some time to figure out what was wrong. A blender war ensued and did not end until most of the smoothie bunch was let go in a downsizing. One lone smoothie drinker was left - our blender now remains silent.

[alacarte]

An altruistic footnote about the desk drawer feeding frenzy.

As our office was hustling to evacuate when the blackout hit on Thursday, one of my colleagues quickly emptied his drawer & set his food stash in a communal area, so that any stranded co-workers wouldn't have to go hungry!

Edited August 18, 2003 by alacarte (log)

[rfc]

I'd like to see this topic re-opened, and broaden it to what people bring into work, not just what they keep there. I am trying hard to cut the going-out habit (for health and money reasons) but I do not have a fridge or microwave at work so am left to prepared items which keep well. So far cornish pasties are the best thing I've brought but I can't eat those daily (as much as I would like to)

[s'kat]

Does the vendor continually post notes on the boxes reminding people to pay?

Yup- there's a permanent note attached to the top that reads "Please don't forget to pay."

Somehow, it all seems to work out in the end. The sunshine fund is still going strong.

[sherribabee]

What I keep in my desk: tin of vanilla almond tea, wasabi peas, trail mix, jar of honey, and various packets of condiments.

What I keep in the communal fridge: flavored coffee creamer,and canister of oatmeal.

I usually buy my lunch (too many yummy places nearby), but my wallet and my waistline are beginning to object to this practice, so now that the cooler weather is settling in, I'll be more inclined to cook at home and bring my lunch with me. I usually have lunch in the kitchen or a conference room with a group of coworkers. This office always smells interesting around lunchtime.

Since 9/11, our company has provided each employee with "evacuation bags" (flashlight, whistle, rubber gloves, dust mask, radio, bottled water, etc.) I've added to mine a couple vacuum-packed bags of tuna, protein bars, peanut m&m's and crackers. This bag REALLY came in handy during the blackout.

Our company also has a closet of emergency rations of granola bars, crackers, cookies, and other stuff no one seems to know about which is allegedly enough to feed everyone for 3 days in the event we might be trapped here. We also stock enough bottled water to fill a swimming pool (which also came in handy during the blackout).

[tryska]

I'd like to see this topic re-opened, and broaden it to what people bring into work, not just what they keep there.  I am trying hard to cut the going-out habit (for health and money reasons) but I do not have a fridge or microwave at work so am left to prepared items which keep well.  So far cornish pasties are the best thing I've brought but I can't eat those daily (as much as I would like to)

well here is what i do....

meal 2 - either oats and a banana or cold ceareal and some milk

meal 3 - whatever i cooked the weekend before and split out into gladware

meal 4 - cottage cheese and fruit, or protein powder and gatorade (the protein i keep at my desk and i have a battery operated blender cup)

all of the this is wrapped in gladware of various sizes and put in my small softsided cooler with one of those blue coldpacks. it used to be kept chilled with a frozen litre of water, but i wound up wanting to drink it before everything was out of the cooler.

[lala]

Luckily, I work in the office of a food website, so food in the office isn't a problem. We have a full kitchen (all appliances, two ovens, espresso machine, three full size fridges, movie theater popcorn popper...), and use it every day.

The only problems so far have been the one person who over-reheated some stinky fish dish, which caused the office to evacuate, and the person who repeatedly did a lunch sautee with gallons of pepper oil, causing massive coughing and watering eyes from the fumes.

Other than that, we are quite happy, and the kitchen is a great venue to talk food, and trade recipes and food tips. We also use it to create banquets for our monthly staff meetings!

We know we're very lucky!

[FistFullaRoux]

My super secret stash just got a boost. We had a "tailgate party" in the office today due to the LSU/Auburn and Alabama/Tennessee games. There are fans of all 4 teams in one office. Hilarity ensues. Everyone brought munchies, so I have a bag and a half of the leftover Zapp's potato chips that I brought. Along with a few other goodies I was able to sock away...

Add that to the usual ketchup, mustard, mayo, and salt packages carefully stashed in the lower left hand drawer. A small box of saltines, several cans of soup, a bottle of Tabasco, assorted plastic utensils and plates and a stack of napkins occupies a locked bin of the storage area.

I work in a hospital, and on the rare occasions that it snows or the roads ice over in Birmingham, Alabama, people get stuck here. I keep a change of clothes and a couple of days worth of food to avoid the cafeteria. They get too busy, and the quality really takes a back seat during those times. In all honesty, the food in the cafeteria is nowhere near gourmet, but for what it is, it's not bad. Decent salad bar, and made to order burgers and other sandwiches. But during emergencies, it's all about volume and providing calories.

[Squeat Mungry]

Luckily, I  work in the office of a food website, so food in the office isn't a problem. We have a full kitchen (all appliances, two ovens, espresso machine, three full size fridges, movie theater popcorn popper...), and use it every day.

The last job I had before I got this one (and before the entire year of being unemployed) was for a dot-com start up in SOMA here in San Francisco. The office was in what had formerly been a photography studio and included a fully equipped high-end kitchen (six-burner Wolf range, etc... this place even had a salamander!). Word got around that "Squeat can cook" and I wound up cooking full lunches almost every Friday for between 4 and 10 people. By the end, I had also been talked into giving basic cooking lessons on Wednesday evenings.

Boy, those were the days of too much venture capital and too little management smarts! That kitchen was always stocked with an entire range of snacks and beverages, including bagels, lox, cream cheese, chips, cookies, pretzels, yoghurt, fresh-roasted coffee, frozen pizzas and on and on! Plus, I kept the pantry full of basics like pasta, spices, etc.

The office I work for now provides coffee and powdered non-dairy creamer. I keep saltines at my desk.

Cheers,

Squeat

Edited to add that this place always kept wine and beer on hand for everyone, and kept a bottle of Dewar's on hand just for me!

Edited October 24, 2003 by Squeat Mungry (log)

[Tmnoland]

Have you ever seen one of those gawd awful, single serving, microwavable, shelf life of a gazillion years, Hormel Chili containers pop so hard in the microwave that they blow the little plastic top off, leaving little chunks of dried up chili everywhere!? ick. "Alright! Who's mess is this, and more importantly, how can you eat that !@#$?!"

And ya know, they really should put dates on those little mayonnaise packets. I never use those things. Scarrry!

--Therese

[alacarte]

Eew, eew, eew.

The Office Microwave

This article from the WSJ (this should be the CareerJournal site, which I believe is free) focuses on the cleanliness, or lack thereof, of office microwave ovens.

At least the refrigerator with its cool temperatures can retard the growth of microbes.

There seem to be fewer such saviors combating the microwave. Heavy usage and little cleaning will fill its interior with burnt residue from meals violently splattered in the past. That means your freshly popped popcorn has the distinct whiff of lo mein, which itself reminisced a tandoori chicken that had the bouquet of a kimchi, which tasted like baked blue-cheese halibut.

[LittleMissCrepe]

Alacarte, that's a great piece. I love Jared Sandberg's column.

I installed a mini-mart in my desk drawer today: granola bars, 2 types of cookies, parmesan-flavored crackers, a few chocolate bars and a variety of hard candy. I am no longer beholden to the bad, monotonous selection of the office vending machine! Hurrah!

I bring a lot of sandwiches for lunch, nothing too inspiring. A few times a week I'll order in, since everywhere delivers and I often can't leave my desk. Once, a restaurant sent over a waiter in vest/bow-tie carrying a silver platter with my chicken sandwich, fries and Coca Cola. He walked five blocks through downtown Buenos Aires like that!

Does anyone out there work for Bloomberg? The Bloomberg kitchen is the most fabulous thing I've ever seen.