Lunches This Week: Grouper, Lentils, Enchiladas and Mr. T’s Espresso
A prolific week of lunches despite a number of people out of the office for a few days. Luckily the Lunches column has gotten so popular that I even received a few pictures from ManMeat and BLD/HG (formerly The Bulldog) on their trip down to Florida.
Despite the culinary extravaganza that the Paperwork Department traveled through this week, The Don went with his tried and true double meat sandwiches and baby carrots for five days in a row. Quite an impressive feat, especially since he’s eaten that for almost his entire working career here at Contradiction Inc. He’s the Cal Ripken, Jr. of the group in terms of lunch.
I started the week off with a Beef and Barley soup that the wife and I made last weekend, which I ate on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. It was the first time that we made the soup and it was a solid hearty meal that kept me filled throughout the afternoon. The recipe called for regular potatoes but we added sweet potatoes instead; you need to know these things.
While traveling in Florida, ManMeat, BLD/HG and The Dude had lunch at Cantina, which is at the Ritz Carlton in Key Biscayne and ate exactly what anyone should eat when they are in Florida: fish. The Dude got an enormous Caesar Salad, followed by a Grouper Ceviche. Unfortunately, only the salad was sent my way:
ManMeat and BLD/HG each got the Grouper Tacos, which look incredible in the picture they sent to me. ManMeat started with a plate of buffalo wings, of which two carcases can be seen on the plate.
In case you’re curious, Groupers are fish of any of a number of genera in the subfamily Epinephelinae of the family Serranidae, in the order Perciformes (thank you Wikipedia). I had absolutely no idea how ugly this fish was, but if you’re willing to chance looking at it, here it is (yikes!).
ManMeat returned to the Paperwork Department headquarters on Wednesday and brought in delicious-smelling lentil soup. The problem with lentil soup is that it never really looks that appetizing, but the smell is more than good enough to compensate for its aesthetic deficiencies.
I went with leftover risotto with chicken and string beans. Risotto is an interesting lunch because it’s usually pretty gummy when you reheat it in a microwave, but it still tastes pretty good.
BLD/HG and The Dude returned on Thursday and really kicked the department lunches up a notch. The Dude brought leftovers of vegetable chow fun, which smelled incredible as he walked back to his desk from the microwave. I want to give some extra credit to ManMeat for taking this picture and also grabbing the cover of The Dude’s CAIA study guide, one cuff link and a random piece of paper that says “Business” on it.
I brought leftovers as well, this time an enchilada, which was also probably better the first time I ate it, although it was still good.
BLD/HG went out to buy lunch, the first purchased lunch of the week in the Paperwork Department (not counting the Florida trip since that was not IN the department). After visiting Pret a Manger, BLD/HG brought back a “Just Made” (which roughly translates to “made less than 48 hours ago”) roast beef sandwich with horseradish mayo, chicken noodle soup, some type of roll that looks good for you but probably isn’t, and a pack of DayQuil, the latter of which probably not purchased at Pret.
ManMeat went with the lentil soup again, so I didn’t feel a need to take a new picture. One thing he did add was a box of House of Commons Victorian Mints, which he assured us were wrapped by the Queen herself! Roughly mimicking a York Peppermint Patty (mimicking = exactly the same), the “Dark chocolates with peppermint flavoured fondant centre” were a delicious cap to all of our lunches (I may or may not have had three of them).
Before I move on to Friday’s lunch, I must share a picture that was taken today after The Dude decided to drink two double-espressos during a meeting, which he affectionately refers to as a “Double Double,” presumably in tribute to In-N-Out Burger, the greatest fast food chain in the universe.
While I continue to argue that each “double espresso” is actually half of an espresso since it’s just more water with the same amount of coffee, each cup looks like a double, so I’ll let it go for today’s blog post. And in case you’re wondering, no, The Dude is not actually Mr. T, despite whatever you are thinking from the above picture.
Anyway, moving onto lunch. I brought in leftover angel hair and meatballs, which was absolutely excellent, until I managed to spill some on my shirt. I know the first reaction is “what did you expect with angel hair?” and I guess I just got too confident in my own eating abilities without a bib; I’ll know better for next time.
ManMeat had more lentil soup in the community refrigerator, but wasn’t feeling great today (possibly due to events of last night), so he decided to go out and buy lunch with BLD/HG. ManMeat came back with a bbq chicken sandwich, a bag of sea salted Dirty Potato Chips and a free Diet Coke, a very tasty looking meal:
BLD/HG came back with a sandwich called the “Kentucky Derby,” which had turkey, roast beef, cold slaw, Russian dressing and swiss cheese. Accompanying this delicacy was a mixed salad of assorted chopped vegetables and cheese balls (looks like mozzarella to me) and a free can of Cherry Coca-Cola Zero, which is slowly becoming a staple for BLD/HG. Naturally a giant pickle came with it too, delicately placed on top of the sandwich for the picture.
Overall, it was a very exciting week in lunches here at the Paperwork Department and I hope you enjoyed the photographic journey.
Have a particularly exciting lunch you’d like to share? Feel free to email me at andrew@kingmorland.com and I’ll try to feature it in a future post.
Good to see that the January Grouper shortage in Florida is no longer…..