Lunches This Week: Texas BBQ, Jap Chae, and (non-email) Blackberries

Another week, another set of lunches that would make even Bobby Flay blush.  The heat was in full force this week, possibly in reaction to the frigid temperatures we’ve been fighting through this month.  Wednesday’s snow even caused me to work from home, but luckily ManMeat braved the elements, made it into the office and took a photo of his lunch so that we have a lunch entry for each day this week.  BLD/HG was out traveling all five days, but was so impressed with his own lunch on Tuesday that he sent a picture along.  The Dude stepped up in a big way, eating more on Thursday than I ate all week.

My lunch on Monday was rotini with a basic tomato sauce and meatballs that we had left over.  I added a ziploc bag of grapes that may have been the biggest grapes I’ve ever eaten.  The picture below doesn’t quite do them justice, but these grapes were a small step away from being apples.

ManMeat was out sick on Monday, along with The Don and The Dude.  We’re still not sure what they caught, but I will guess that it was some type of DrankTooMuchWhileWatchingTheSuperBowlitis.  With BLD/HG on the road, I was the only one in the office on Monday, hence only one lunch from the group.

Luckily, Tuesday more than made up for the lack of action on Monday.  It was somebody’s birthday and they brought in two dozen donuts from Dunkin Donuts.  We have an interesting tradition here in the Paperwork Department that people bring in breakfast for the entire group on their own birthday.  It’s almost like how you used to bring in cupcakes for your classmates when you were six.  For those of us who work here, we know this isn’t the only thing that occurs that makes us feel like we’re six.  Anyway, The Dude threw down some type of powdered donut and ManMeat felt it needed to be captured:

Later on, The Dude enjoyed a full three course meal for lunch: four mini-slices of pizza for an appetizer (two with hot peppers, two plain), pork tenderloin with some type of spicy pepper sauce for his entree, and then four more mini-slices of pizza for dessert.

An impressive feat, I must say.  However, not to be outdone (even though he had no idea what The Dude had for lunch), BLD/HG visited the Railhead Smokehouse in Fort Worth, Texas and took down an assorted plate of ribs, chopped brisket, coleslaw, potato salad and beans.  He was so impressed with his own meal that he had to take a picture and send it to me so that it would be included in this week’s roundup…and we thank him for that by giving him the award for the best lunch of the week (click on the picture for a clearer view).

Gotta love the two pieces of white bread and the raw half-onion.  The South just does it right!

I brought in a turkey burger with tater tots and sauteed spinach with garlic.  The problem with tater tots is that the only good way to warm them up is in an oven, which we didn’t have (we have since gotten a toaster oven in the office, of course).  While the microwave makes them hot, it also makes them very soggy.

The turkey burger, or any burger really, was quite bland without any ketchup or mustard, which I forgot to add before I left the house that morning.  After asking around to see if anyone had any of those two popular condiments, ManMeat said that he had a hot sauce that I could use.  Always open to try a new hot sauce, I jumped at the opportunity to use it.  And of course, I took a picture of the bottle:

I ended up spreading it around my turkey burger and a little on top of the tater tots before I tried it, which of course is a huge mistake when it comes to hot sauces.  It was pretty hot, not the hottest I’ve ever tried, but I added enough to make my lips burn for an hour after I finished eating.  Lesson learned.

ManMeat brought in something called jap chae, which smelled very good, but was apparently packed with multiple kinds of mushrooms, which are all off limits to me.  There was some meat in there, possibly short ribs, along with carrots and noodles and “other types of funky asian things” that are delicious, according to ManMeat.

ManMeat said that there are some mushrooms that he likes and others that he doesn’t (he liked all of them in the jap chae), whereas I absolutely can’t stand any kind.  Everyone keeps saying I just need to find one that I like and that they don’t really taste like anything, it all depends on how you prepare them and what kind of sauce they are smothered with.  I think I have more of a problem with their texture than their taste, but either way, I keep them out of my food.  Sorry, moving on…

As mentioned earlier, I worked from home on Wednesday, but ManMeat was able to get into the office and had one of the finest lunches I’ve ever heard about.  Spicy beef short ribs with chicken and potato stew that Mrs. ManMeat’s “mum” put together.  If not for the Texas BBQ, this would have easily won Lunch of the Week.

We were all back in the office on Thursday and the impressive lunches kept coming.  The Dude was very anxious to show me the “sarnie” that he brought in, which appears to have two different types of meat, along with cheese on the top and bottom.  He was so excited about it that he took a good 60-seconds to decide the best way to showcase the sandwich for the picture I was going to take of it.  I think he nailed it:

I brought in leftovers of marinated chicken with roasted cauliflower topped with cinnamon.  I am not normally a big cauliflower fan, but this was excellent.  Apparently ManMeat is a cauliflower lover and he was very intrigued with this side dish because, as he puts it, “it’s always great to hear of a way to cook vegetables that’s not just boiling them.”  I agree with him 100% and must say how much I enjoy roasted vegetables, now including cauliflower.  I would go into more detail about the marinade for the chicken, but my wife put it all together and I don’t remember exactly what was in it.

ManMeat brought spice marinated chicken sauteed with broccoli and spicy enchilada sauce, coupled with a low carb-high fiber-high protein wrap on the side.  As he said, “you’ll look like Rambo with his shirt off after eating that wrap.”  However, ManMeat did not.

Before I posted about this lunch, ManMeat felt he was obligated to tell me that the broccoli was actually frozen.  He felt somewhat guilty about it, but I think he feels better because the meal smelled and apparently tasted so good.  In fact, it was so good that he had it again on Friday.

I also duplicated a meal on Friday, although it was my Monday meal: pasta with meatballs.

This was a classic “what’s left in the fridge?” lunch and now we’ll have to stock up again this weekend.

The Don brought in the same lunch every day this week, but today was the first day I could get a picture of it.  The sandwich was made up of bologna, ham, yellow american cheese and “a very little bit of mayo.”  Accompanying this culinary delight was a huge banana, a ziploc bag of baby carrots and blackberries (the non-email kind) and two small brownies (food placement in the picture by ManMeat).

To close out this week’s summary, I had to include a picture of the two chocolate chip cookies that I am about to eat, homemade by my wife on Wednesday during the snow day.  These cookies rival any other cookie in the world and I am simply posting it to challenge anyone else to make a better one…and I volunteer to be the judge.

Until next week…