Lunch! (2003-2012)

[beans]

I remember some absolutely wonderfully prepared cafeteria food (!) from when I did the corporate law thing at Eaton. The WHQ had an incredible cafeteria and a separate, top floor sit down restaurant (jacket required, which was something for a company that was one of Cleveland's first to go "Eddie Bauer" casual dress, everyday). Same was true of legal giant (debatable) Jones, Day's in-house diningroom.

I also remember some fabulous 3 cocktail lunches too... or my favourite bakery/deli's Tomato Florentine Soup with a half sangie of herbed cheese, lettuce and tomato on an oven fresh multi-grain roll. Sometimes lunch was the most looked forward to meal of the day!

When I worked for our fair city's municipal law department, lunch time was legendary. I became friends with the chief of the photography department and we would often dash off to Chinatown for dim sum or Villa y Zapata for Mexican or Minh Ahn for Vietnamese. Other times we'd have lunch in the comforts of the photo lab sharing homemade goodies. I'll never forget when we walked in on a somewhat embarassed coworker already knee deep in the process of lunching. He had covered his enlarger with clean photolab towels, lit a candle, opened a hearty local microbrew to accompany a hunk of hard salami and crusty bread (I forgot his veggie of choice, which might have been kolrabi!).

Fun times, good memories and wonderful food.

Early yesterday afternoon, my neighbour came over and we made pita bread together, from scratch. Yes, the first few didn't puff. But enough did to have a delicious lunch with left over roasted chicken breast. I made it into a salad of homemade mayo, cranberry raisins, a dash of left over dry white wine, toasted walnut pieces, a pinch of garlic powder, sea salt, pepper and dried rosemary from my garden.

This was really lovely stuff.

In the similar spirit to the Dinner thread, what's up for lunch?

edit: spelling!

Edited October 21, 2003 by beans (log)

[tryska]

hmmm..not sure yet - right now i'm on a culinary lunch tour of downtown Atlanta, with one splurge a week. So far I've had some fabulous jerk chicken (best i've ever had, i'd say) and some mediocre pad thai.

i'm not sure what's on today's menu - i'm waiting to get hungry.

[Bicycle Lee]

ooooh, I'm going to my favorite taco stand...Tacos El Paisa....

they have great cabeza and buche tacos

[tryska]

now i can really play...

bacon lettuce and fried green tomato on whole wheat toast with pimento cheese spread and pepper-pear relish, and a tomato cucumber salad on the side.

and coffe and donuts ice cream for dessert.

Edited October 21, 2003 by tryska (log)

[laurel]

I've been having an approximately weekly lunch outing with friends from a previous company. I've written a few sentences about some of the places we've tried.

[hjshorter]

I went to lunch with Malawry at A&J Restaurant and had spicy cucumbers with hot garlic sauce and pork dumplings. Mmmmmmm, pork.

[Chris Cognac]

Its 11 am here now..I am thinking of getting a hit of Crack (Pho) from my dealer (Pho Hoa restaurant) or Mexican at Las Hamacas...they have great authentic southern mexican food that you dont see much of here in L.A.

[bloviatrix]

I finished up a loaf of Pugliese and had a Rhode Island Greenling apple.

Pathetic, I know. But RI Greenling is my new favorite apple variety. It's really tart. And has a nice crunch. Granny Smith has nothing on this one.

[guajolote]

I had a smoked prime rib sandwich from this:

[tejon]

Just making lunch now. My dad brought over a Honeybaked ham last night ("It's on my way home - can I bring you one?" Who would say no to that?), so ham on a slice of sesame Ezekiel bread, topped with some sharp cheddar, toasted. A braebrun apple to go along with it, plus some celery sticks.

[SobaAddict70]

Lunch, from our corporate cafeteria:

balsamic marinated chicken breast with roasted peppers and cipolini onions

Jamaican coconut rice and pigeon peas

green beans with mushrooms

Poland Spring

fresh fruit.

Soba

[melkor]

Lunch is in the oven now, the leftover turkey from dinner the other night will be a pot pie in a few more minutes.

[jwagnerdsm]

Just polished off a bag of Dolly Madison Powder Puff donuts the baby sitter left at our house. She brings her own junk food because we usually don't have anything good (We are eating only locally grown food for a year as part of a book project). And now I have to figure out how to explain this to her. And how to cover my sin in the book.

[Basilgirl]

But enough did to have a delicious lunch with left over roasted chicken breast.  I made it into a salad of homemade mayo, cranberry raisins, a dash of left over dry white wine, toasted walnut pieces, a pinch of garlic powder, sea salt, pepper and dried rosemary from my garden.

Beans: That chicken salad sounds really, really good...

Bertucci's for me today. Met my friend there and we each had a cup of sausage/rice soup and split a medium Margherita. I'm stuffed. There wasn't very much mozzarella on the pizza, so I'm trying not to feel too guilty.

Usually lunch is here at my office building (AKA "The Bunker") downstairs at the cafeteria (AKA "The Trough"). My bosses buy my lunch at The Trough. Usually one of them runs out to the local grocery store and gets soup for everyone (there's only 4 of us) and then we round it out down at The Trough.

I love my job.

[sherribabee]

Ever since I introduced them to it, my coworkers have been anxious for another trip to Chipotle, so we made the 12 block hike -- what a great excuse to go out and enjoy the lovely weather.

I had the carnitas burrito with black beans, cheese, tomatillo-red chili and roasted chili-corn salsas. It was yummy. Brought it all back to the office and dined in one of the meeting rooms. I'm about ready to hit the Coke machine for a quick sugar fix.

Speaking of corporate cafeterias, I used to work at the Marriott HQ in Bethesda, MD and they had an enormous cafeteria which was always open for breakfast and lunch. Nearly every employee ate there. Surprisingly, the food wasn't that good (you'd think one of the world's largest food service companies would get it right, but no...) and they charged an arm and a leg for the food (easy to blindly spend the money though, as you just swiped your ID card and the money was deducted from your paycheck). Sadly, there weren't many other options nearby unless you felt like getting in a car and driving to some chain-type place or walking over to the food court at the mall down the road.

[curlywurlyfi]

salad of wild rice, Puy lentils, celery, green onion, roasted peppers + tomatoes, walnut oil dressing, then a piece of leftover apple frangipane with vanilla creme fraiche.

[Chris Cognac]

I ended up going to Las Hamacas and getting a really tasty Huarache topped with some great carnitas....Man it was good, the green salsa was just the right "heat" and I had a cold bottle of Mexican Coke to go with it!

[beans]

Thanks Basilgirl! It was a great way to use up the last of the roast chicken!

Today: remaining homemade pita and some baba ghannouj, ice tea and a slice of the cinnamon crumb cake I made yesterday. Yup, I'm a carbo loader today.

[Ling]

I'm so envious after reading this thread.

I ate 3 cold hardboiled eggs and some deli meat (packed in a tupperware container) on a jam-packed bus on my way to school. (Slept in and missed my first class).

[Rhea_S]

Leftover port-glazed chicken livers and onions, steamed jasmine rice, sauteed broccoli, homemade english muffin with a piece of ham, two sichuan peppercorn truffles (Pierre Herme recipe)

[tryska]

i went thru popeye's drive thru today.

and had to wait for about 15 minutes while the guy in front of me was trying to get someone to wait on him.

on his bicycle.

[rachiesarah]

store brand peanut butter (because i was being cheap that day, it was a mistake, its too salty) and grape jelly my mom made on martin's potato bread. and two pieces of processed american cheese on the side.

[bergerka]

I had smoked turkey, brie, honey mustard and crunchy (but unfortunately almost tasteless) apple slices on a baguette, with a diet A&W and some potato chips. Sam had a meatball sandwich, a diet Dr. Pepper and chips, both meals were from the Exit deli nearby. Fortunately, a friend talked me out of buying an almost unbearably adorable Halloween cupcake from Zaro's by reminding me that the one we ate last year really, really sucked (it was the nasty frosting, as I recall. How do you fuck up frosting? )

Sherri--we should go to Chipotle together sometime.

K

[babyluck]

Coworker H's uneaten lunch from yesterday (her description): "FRESH turkey and some nice provolone cheese on a FRESH whole wheat baguette -- I got it from FRESH DIRECT!" It was all fresh two days ago, but still pretty good after I scraped off the congealed mayo and toasted the bun and cheese in the new exciting addition to our break room: The Magnificent Toaster Oven. A few Ridges sour-cream-and-onion chips -- too much flavor dust. Can of Coke. A few spoonfuls of my carrot-ginger soup circa at least a week ago that I found in the fridge. Passed on the FRESH strawberries -- everyone who tasted one grimaced -- and mini Oreos.

[Varmint]

Burger, fries and Diet Coke from Papa Lou's, a local chain.