Bringing food to work.

[Ling]

I'm currently self-employed, but when I had an office job, I usually ate lunch with my co-workers. Around 11pm, someone would start emailing about potential places for lunch, but we always seemed to end up at either a nearby Japanese restaurant or a small vegetarian restaurant, since one of my co-workers was vegetarian. I didn't enjoy the food so much, but went along for the company.

[laniloa]

We have a mixed bag of bring your own lunch and buy lunch in my office. I go through phases and am currently in a bring my lunch 3 days a week phase. We have a conference room that usually accumulates people at lunch time. Sometimes I eat there and sometimes I eat at my desk. If I'm having a crazy day, it can be a relief to close my door, turn on some internet radio, and not have to deal with people for a little while. Or I can catch up on eGullet! We have a pretty decent cafeteria -- salad bar, cold dish buffet, hot dish buffet, sandwiches, grill, etc. -- that is fairly priced. Plus, there is a commerical food court in the building across the street that we can get to through an underground tunnel. There is also the executive dining room that is run by an outside caterer. I go there when I have a lunch meeting but not much time. Finally, we are surrounded by decent restaurants for when it is a full on lunch meeting.

[Gastro888]

I bring my lunch every day to work. It's either leftovers from home or a restaurant meal. We have a Sodexho (shudder) cafeteria on campus but no lunch rooms on the office floors. There are no microwaves in the cafeteria only on each office floor so I end up eating at my desk instead of carting it over to the cafeteria.

I share my open cube wall with a princess on the other side who makes comments about the smell of my food. I'm really tempted to bring in stinky tofu one of these days. Or salted fish.

[CompassRose]

I bring my three mini-meals to work every day. Sometimes they are interesting leftovers (and full of garlic) but no one's complained -- plenty of people (used to!) tell me my food smelled delicious.

Lots of other people also bring lunch, although there's a concession in the building as well (there are certain regular offerings, like potato-skins day and chicken fajitas day, when many of my co-workers will buy lunch instead). It's an athletic facility, so a lot of people bring lunch, then spend the rest of their lunch hour walking on the track or skating. And every few weeks there will be an office-wide pick-up of falafel pitas or pizza for everyone (which I never go in on, being that sort of spoilsport).

I eat lunch at my desk cos I'm not comfy about having people comment on my food -- especially now, when my food is boring and pretty unattractive (precomp diet again). No one wants to watch me eat plain cold oatmeal with protein powder! And you get tired of the comments -- "oh my God, I could never do that! You've got such willpower!" (no, not really, ya get in a pattern and just keep going, it's no big deal as long as you don't think about it.)

Microwave popcorn -- yuck. Everyone seems to love that stuff! Although I will say that more people than I would expect bring home-made food, soups or salads or leftover stir-fries.