Monday

ManMeat leads us off with  some “lamb bulchao from darbar.  [He] added brown rice from leftover Chinese. Mrs. ManMeat found this too spicy, hence the left overs.”  I mean, I guess it looks pretty spicy.

I did not bring in lunch on Monday for reasons I can no longer remember.  BLD/HG did not bring lunch in either, so we both went out for Chinese food.  We checked Menupages and other websites to find a place near our office, with the only stipulation that they have pictures of the food on the walls.  What we found was perfect: Ming’s Delight on 3rd Avenue between 38th and 39th.  Despite the large menu, BLD/HG and I ordered the same lunch: General Tsao’s chicken with fried rice and an egg roll.  For good measure, BLD/HG added in a wonton soup; why not, right?  Here they are, mine first, then his:

Tuesday

ManMeat went back to the lamb well on Tuesday, but instead of brown rice he went with the basmati rice that originally came with the meal.  He noted today that the basmati was much tastier, but had a higher glycemic index; apparently that’s a bad thing.

The Dude brought in two pieces of stuffed pizza, or whatever it’s called, which I believe had 17 different types of meat and cheese.  He heated it up in the toaster oven and it smelled incredible.  If you look closely enough, there are a few vegetables, but I am not sure exactly what they are.

I brought in leftovers of a steak accompanied by wild rice, roasted zucchini with red onions and sauteed spinach with garlic.  Overall it was an excellent meal.  I added some Lizano Salsa on it in the morning and it really brought everything together.

Wednesday

BLD/HG and ManMeat were traveling on business, so my lunch was the only one in the office on Wednesday.  My wife made an excellent orange chicken with brown rice, roasted asparagus and broccoli, which reheated really really well and filled me up for the rest of the afternoon quite nicely.

Thursday

With their flight “canceled” the previous day, ManMeat and BLD/HG were unexpectedly back in the office on Thursday.  They decided to celebrate the opportunity of being at their desks on a day when didn’t expect to be here by going out and getting banh mi, a Vietnamese sandwich that I am a huge fan of.  They both complained about how light each sandwich was (in terms of weight, not stomach filling) and BLD/HG prepared appropriately by adding two big spicy meatballs.  As you can see from the quality of their pictures, BLD/HG (shown first) liked his more than ManMeat:

I brought in leftovers of rigatoni with sausage and broccoli rabe, one of my favorite meals.  If I ever go out for dinner and want pasta and this is on the menu, I get it.  BLD/HG commented to me about how good it smelled and after looking at it, asked me if there were mushrooms in it.  My response: no, it’s sausage.  His response: oh man, that’s so much better.  Yes, yes it is.

They have been giving out apples for free at work and Ajai decided to try to only eat apples on Thursday.  I still haven’t gotten a reason why, but here are three that he threw down:

Friday

BLD/HG went out to lunch on Friday with the daughter of a lawyer we try to get business from (I don’t think it’s ever worked), so it was just ManMeat and me for lunch.  Because it’s a Friday during Lent, I went with a non-meat macaroni and cheese, which was smothered with Frank’s Red Hot in the morning, hence the orangey color.

ManMeat brought in some “roasted chicken with brocc and mash.”  From what I can remember, it smelled good.

Well, that’s it.

Monday

I was out of the office on Monday but ManMeat was on top of his game in my absence and took a picture of his delicious looking lunch.  As he described in his email to me, his concoction was “roast chicken, mash potatoes and roasted squash” with “English gravy.”  I am still not quite sure what English gravy is, but it’s clear that ManMeat likes it enough to smother his chicken with it.

Tuesday

My first day in the office last week was apparently Poultry Day in the Paperwork Department, kicked off by my turkey burger with tater tots and roasted asparagus.

As you can see, I put ketchup on my turkey burger, which I have forgotten to do the last couple of times that I’ve brought this meal for lunch.  The difficulty this time is that I had to put the ketchup on first thing in the morning when I left the house, which caused me to have to heat the ketchup along with the rest of the meal.  While it ended up tasting fine, it was certainly not the ideal temperature for ketchup, in my opinion.

My turkey burger was only the tip of the iceberg for Poultry Day, when ManMeat and BLD/HG competed in a Chicken Salad battle.  They were very different chicken salads, from the lack of mayo in one, to the fact that the other was part of a sandwich, but I’ll let the readers decide whose chicken salad reigned supreme last Tuesday (ManMeat’s first, then BLD/HG’s):

Wednesday

After the Poultry Challenge on Tuesday, I decided to take a step back and bring in a traditional ham sandwich, which I joined with a bag of Cheddar & Sour Cream Ruffles and a bottle of Diet Coke.

ManMeat went with a super upper class meal, bringing in a sandwich made of “Executive Skinless Golden Roasted Turkey Breast” made in the “World Class Kitchens” of the ShopRite in Hamilton, NJ.

ManMeat added a bag of Lays Kettle Cooked potato chips “made with all natural potatoes and seasoning” and a can of Diet Coke.

Thursday

I repeated my lunch from Wednesday, but clearly enjoyed it more on Thursday because it was the first day of March Madness (or the “Madness of March and April” as ManMeat calls it).  As you can see from the picture below, accompanying my ham sandwich is a Light & Fit strawberry yogurt, an apple, the Villanova vs. Robert Morris game, a Twitter screen, my filled-out-by-hand bracket and my box pool printout.  What a day.

Le Fish went much more exotic than I did, bringing in a curry chicken, “cooked by [his] lovely wife.”  This is the first appearance for Le Fish in Lunches of the Week and what a debut it is!

ManMeat went out to Brother Jimmy’s Express and brought back pulled chicken with BBQ beans, cornbread and pickles.  Says ManMeat about the meal: “And because I had ten pints the night before, it was just what the doctor ordered!”

Friday

I was out of the office on Friday and no one in the Paperwork Department remembered to take pictures of their lunches.  Luckily, my friend who writes the Eating, Drinking and Merriment blog took a picture of his lunch, which I just assume tasted better than it looked.  He described it as “beef panang curry with jasmine rice, hard boiled egg and double barrel sriracha action from Chelsea Thai.”  Well then…

(Click on the picture to get a better view)

Apparently he got a little aggressive and later said “I think only 1 barrel of hot sauce was needed I’m sweating bullets right now.”

And on that sweaty note, enjoy your lunches this week!

Monday

ManMeat leads us off with some pizza that he brought in from Vezzo (29th and Lexington in NYC) with raw garlic, pepperoni and sweet peppers.  The thin crust doesn’t appear to be much of a filler, but he assures us all that it was delicious enough to do the job.

BLD/HG visited the deli in our building, bringing back and very impressive looking sandwich, along with a colorful medley of items that he grabbed from the salad bar.  I don’t think there has been a more classic bodega-made looking sandwich on this website yet.

I brought in leftovers of a stirfry that I made the night before, which consisted of chicken, broccoli, carrots and onions, along with a standard white rice base.  My usual routine when heating up something like this is to throw it in the microwave for about a minute and a half then take it out, stir it around and put it back in for another two-to-three minutes.  Unfortunately on Monday someone else grabbed the microwave when I was stiring my food, causing me to wait another three minutes before I could put my meal back.  When you’re hungry at work and waiting for the microwave, three minutes feels like an absolute eternity.

Tuesday

ManMeat and BLD/HG went to Cafe Trend (“trend setters in the modern food market”) for a few sandwiches, even though they are famous for their non-McDonald’s egg mcmuffins.  BLD/HG was concerned about his high blood pressure, presumably caused by his intense work here at Contradiction Incorporated, so he decided to go for a healthy meal including a Diet Coke with a heart on it.  Some of you might think that the heart had something to do with Valentine’s Day that just passed, but we can keep that between us.  The wrap consisted of turkey, avocado, tomato and honey mustard, and probably some other sandwich items, but I can’t tell what they are from the picture and BLD/HG doesn’t remember.  A small bag of pretzels accompanied the sandwich.

As I mentioned, ManMeat also got lunch from the Trend Setters, deciding to go with turkey, lettuce, tomato, red onion, and honey mustard on a wheat  joined by two pickles (BLD/HG got jipped of his) and a bag of Harvest Cheddar Sun Chips, a top-10 chip in King Morland’s book.

And for transparacy’s sake, here is an action shot of BLD/HG and ManMeat getting ready to pay for their meals:

I brought a sandwich in from home made of Boars Head buffalo chicken, some mixed greens and a little mayo.  I would have loved a bag of chips to go with it, but instead settled on a banana and a Dannon Light & Fit Strawberry and Banana yogurt.  And yes, I am only comfortable eating that because I’m already married.

Wednesday

While walking to Cafe Trend on Tuesday we passed by a Blimpie that we didn’t know about and BLD/HG decided to try it out on Wednesday.  Given that Subway has made the phrase “$5 footlong” famous, we just assumed that Blimpie would have a similar deal.  Not so.  While the sandwich was at least 12-inches, the sandwich, bag of chips and soda cost BLD/HG $12.35!  We’re still not sure what could possibly cost that much, but it should be noted that BLD/HG did throw down the full 12-13 inches with no problem.

I brought in leftovers of a turkey burger, roasted cauliflower and tater tots, which naturally didn’t heat up that well (not crispy) but still did the job.  I borrowed some of ManMeat’s Habanero Heat Wave, adding some nice punch to the meal.

ManMeat brought in leftovers as well, a delicious smelling jap chae made by Mrs. ManMeat’s mother.  He mentioned that he doesn’t like mushrooms, which jap chae has plenty of, but ManMeat admits that he loves them when they are in any meal that his meat-in-law makes.  Surrounding the meal are a number of cologne samples that The Don brought in last week.

Thursday

ManMeat and BLD/HG had another lunch date on Thursday, visiting Subway in response to the wallet-emptying trip of Blimpie the day before.  BLD/HG went with grilled chicken and a plethora of vegetables, including an olive that has unceremoniously been lodged into the side of his whole wheat roll.

ManMeat went with a sandwich that had more vegetables in it than most salads.  Speaking of salads, ManMeat uses the word “salad” when speaking about vegetables, due to the language barrier of being from a country on the other side of the pond.  Included is a cupcake, a Fiber One bar that ManMeat brought to Cancun and brought back uneaten, and some Burst Mentos Gum which legitimately has over 200 ingredients.  However, it is sugar free!

I brought in another buffalo chicken sandwich and some grapes and a banana.  And that’s all I have to say about that.

Later in the day I ate an apple that I had also brought in and had to take a picture after my first bite.  Look like anything?  Maybe something that was on a Diet Coke earlier in this post?

Friday

ManMeat ended up only eating $2.50 worth of his $5 footlong yesterday, so he decided to eat the rest today, along with a few small bell peppers that he brought, which he was dipping in jalapeno hummus that he brought in a few cupcake wraps.  Can’t say I’ve ever seen that before.

BLD/HG revisited the deli downstairs today and got another mix of food, including a monte cristo panini, a mix of items from the salad bar (pasta salad, a few mozzarella balls and some sushi-looking thing), and then a chicken salad sandwich from our pantry.  He said he would only eat the chicken salad sandwich if he was still hungry after everything else.  If you’re curious, the sandwich is now gone.

For no-meat-during-Lent Friday, I brought in some tuna fish to make a sandwich, along with a few carrot sticks and a mixed berry and pomegranate yogurt.  Thinking that this wasn’t enough, I went down to the deli with BLD/HG and picked up a Diet Dr. Pepper and a bag of Spicy Sweet Chili Doritos.  While the chips had an interesting flavor to them, I became concerned when I realized that the bag was clearly stamped with “Guaranteed Fresh Until Printed Date. Feb 9.”  Today is March 12th.  Deciding that the worst case scenario for eating stale chips wasn’t all that bad, I dove in.  As of 3:33pm today, I feel fine.

If the illness or death from eating expired spicy sweet chili Doritos makes this the last “Lunches of the Week” that I ever write, then it’s been a wild ride and I thank everyone for reading.  If I turn out to be okay, then please check back in again next week for a new culinary tour by me and my colleagues in the Paperwork Department at Contradiction Incorporated!

Update (March 12 – 3:39pm): A friend of mine who runs a food blog that I read and link to sent me a picture of his lunch yesterday and I promised to put it up, so here it is:

As described in his email to me: For your blog – roast beef, red onion, horseradish herb mayo on a sesame seed roll from Dickinson’s Farmstand Meats. Very disappointed in size, price, and that it was pre-made hidden behind the counter, but still tasty.

Monday

I brought in leftover pasta on Monday, which had shrimp and asparagus with garlic and oil.  Because I get pretty fired up anytime someone heats up fish in the office microwave, I decided to eat this meal cold, which was perfectly okay for me.

The Don, who has been under the weather lately, went out to buy lunch, something that rarely happens but luckily is captured on this blog every time it does.  He is out of the office today, so I can’t ask him what was in this wonderful schmorgesborg, but with good enough eyes I’m sure you can figure it out:

ManMeat went on the wild side for his Monday lunch: Korean stew, with kimchi, fish cakes, and spam.  I am not even sure how to comment about that lunch, but ManMeat wanted me to include the fact that it was the first time in twenty years that he’s had spam.  I am not sure I’ve ever eaten it in my entire life.

Tuesday

I switched it up on Tuesday because I don’t have class at night, going with a traditional ham sandwich.  I have not been the biggest ham fan growing up, but for some reason I’ve developed a strong liking to it.  It could be that I have just become so incredibly bored with turkey, but for whatever reason ham is becoming a go-to cold cut these days.  With the sandwich was a yogurt (fruit on the bottom – peach), grapes, a banana and some blueberry crumb cake that was incredible.

ManMeat brought a baked pasta concoction, which he drowned with his his habanero hot sauce.  An interesting combination, I must say:

ManMeat is on vacation, so I can’t ask him what was in the pasta, my apologies.  Maybe he can comment below when he gets back.

Wednesday

I went out for lunch and forgot to take a picture and since I wasn’t in the office, no other pictures were taken.  Sorry.

Thursday

My wife made chili this week and I brought in some leftovers for lunch on Thursday.  We don’t traditionally put any vegetables into our chili, but she’s decided that it’s better for us if we do; unfortunately, I can’t really argue with her.  And while I hate to admit it, it was delicious, even with the veggies.

BLD/HG was back in the office on Thursday and went a little exotic with his lunch, picking up some sushi, chicken noodle soup and, of course, a bag of Sour Cream and Onion Ruffles.  The perfect trifecta!

I usually bring in a sandwich for dinner on nights that I have class, but on Thursday I brought other leftovers of a wonderful meal that my wife put together: spicy chicken, asparagus, and roasted yams and carrots:

Why would I add a picture of my dinner on a post covering our lunches of the week?

Friday

Because I forgot to take a picture of my lunch today before I ate it.  I can’t believe this happened but it did.  I was so excited about my egg salad sandwich (no meat Friday) that I inhaled it before I could even think about taking a picture.

Luckily, BLD/HG was in the office and went with a $5 foot long from Subway.  One  highlight of the lunch is that BLD/HG got a new work drinking cup to replace his old Subway one that has been featured in many Lunches of the Week posts.  The foot long had grilled chicken breast, lettuce, tomatoes, sweet peppers, pickles, olives, light mayo, mustard and vinegar.  Needless to say, the Subway guy was thrilled once BLD/HG finally stopped piling items onto the whole wheat roll.

Mexico

That’s right, we have pictures from Mexico.  Mr. and Mrs. ManMeat traveled down to Cancun for a little fun in the sun and I’ve received the following pictures from him so far:

His first margarita of the trip:

Shrimp Tacos:

Octopus ceviche:

And two more margaritas and his suntan oil spray bottle (a bold move for an Englishman!):

Nothing more to say until next week!

Monday

I brought in turkey meatloaf with roasted cauliflower:

The Dude brought in three  multiple meat and cheese sandwiches, one of which he ate at 9:45am.  He heated them up in the toaster oven that we have at work and based on the picture, decided that putting the napkin in with the sandwich was okay.  Also please note that the silver-looking fork is actually plastic.

ManMeat brought in leftovers of a lentil soup that he’s had before and didn’t feel the need to take a picture of it.  However, he did take a picture of his Sugar Free Jello Snackpack:

BLD/HG made an early run at Lunch of the Week with a combination plate of Chinese food that, not surprisingly, smelled delicious.

Tuesday

The Dude stayed on the sandwich train on Tuesday, but decided to outsource the making of it to Subway.  A solid $5 footlong, clearly soaking wet with oil and vinegar, and an apple that has been sitting on his desk for at least three months, are what filled him up on this day.

I brought in more turkey meatloaf with cauliflower, but put it in a round container to make it feel like it was something different:

BLD/HG, clearly confident in his lunch from Monday, went with a mixed salad on Tuesday, a healthy-looking concoction of…well, you know, salad stuff:

ManMeat spiced it up a little, literally, bringing in a chicken curry with cauliflower, spinach and rice that again brought me a step closer to trying curry again.

Wednesday

I brought in turkey meatloaf for the third day of the week, although I substituted the cauliflower for broccoli and added in some roasted yams.

The Dude had another sarnie-day, but brought this one from home.  He toasted this one as well, although it appears he did not toast any napkins with it.  Extra points to The Dude for the placement of the sandwich for the picture allowing us maximum exposure to the layers of meats and cheese:

ManMeat went to a place called Pump, where he ordered a “12-hour turkey burrito” (you read that correctly) and is still talking about how upset he is that they charged him more for an extra vegetable over the allotted three that you are expected to have.  The burrito includes: brown rice, lettuce, 12-hour turkey, spinach, zucchini (called courgette in England), tomato, cucumber, cheese and hot sauce on a whole wheat tortilla.  The extra vegetable cost him an additional $0.49 and he further described it as a “healthier but less tastier version of Chipotle.”  Sounds great, doesn’t it?

Thursday

The fourth day of the week was my first without meatloaf, as I brought in leftover steak with sauteed spinach and roasted potatoes.  I added in some Costa Rican Lizano salsa, which I have discussed before on this blog.

ManMeat had a salad that Mrs. ManMeat put together.  Looking somewhat like a traditional cobb salad, he also had a small pack of Jello that he claims was regifted after he tried to sneak it into her lunch bag.  Nice try.  You will also notice the small plastic container of salad dressing on the right side of the salad, a much better looking carrying device than the ziploc bag of last week that looked like a baggie of heroin.

Speaking of little baggies, ManMeat also had this great afternoon snack packed for him:

Friday

Because of the snowstorm on Thursday night and all-day Friday, I worked from home.  While I am not Catholic, my wife is and therefore I join her in no-meat Fridays during Lent.  So, my Friday lunch was a tuna fish sandwich with Utz Crab Chips and celery stalks:

Even though she makes fun of me for posting about our lunches at work, she insisted on a plate that looked good for the camera.  Mission accomplished.

On the other side of the spectrum, ManMeat and BLD/HG (who did make it into the office) decided to go to Five Guys Burgers and Fries on Friday.  With the excitement of little kids on Christmas, they took pictures of everything including:

The peanuts they ate while they waited for their burgers to cook:

A bag of Cajun fries that they each got…

And of course, their burgers (BLD/HG first, then ManMeat):

And just to prove how dedicated they are to their lunches being on this website, they left this behind at Five Guys:

Thank you, gentlemen.

Nevertheless, it’s back and here is what we all ate last week…a quick note, we were off on Monday thanks to Presidents’ Day, a wonderful free day off to celebrate absolutely nothing!

Tuesday

ManMeat and BLD/HG didn’t bring their lunches on Tuesday so they went on a lunch date to Subway to pick up some $5 foot longs.  I was too lazy to get out of my chair to take a picture of BLD/HG’s sandwich, which appears packed with vegetables from the unzoomed picture, so we’ll give him the benefit of the doubt that it was generously healthy.  The Subway cup is a long-standing fixture of BLD/HG’s desk and not purchased with the 12-inch wonder.

ManMeat was much more prepared for his picture, as you can see on the extreme zoom that he used to show the full texture of the bread.  I believe I see some turkey on that sandwich, along with tomatoes, onions, lettuce, cheese, either hot peppers or pickles and something that looks like avocado.  I didn’t know Subway had avocado as an option, so who knows what it really is in that sandwich.  I believe ManMeat only took down six inches during lunch, then ate the other six for dinner that night.

I brought leftovers of a lemon pasta with string beans and chicken, which I ate cold because I think 15 straight people used the microwave when I was going to use it.  I am usually pretty quick to eat pasta cold if it’s with a non-marinara sauce, so doing so with the lemon pasta wasn’t out of the norm for me.  There was some discussion in the office as to what kind of pasta it was (BLD/HG guessed fusili, which somehow ultimately led to a conversation about Giada de Laurentiis) and many were surprised to find out that it was called cavatappi.

Wednesday

Hump Day became Salad Day for ManMeat and BLD/HG, with a strong effort to not cross the 2,000-calorie mark which becomes easy to achieve at these “create your own salad” places in New York.  BLD/HG’s looks surprisingly bland with only lettuce, chicken, tomatoes and cucumbers in the picture.  I have no recollection as to what type of dressing there is, but the salad actually looks pretty dry in the picture (I can assure you it wasn’t undressed):

ManMeat’s salad was a little more action packed with lettuce, tomatoes, chicken, hard-boiled egg, celery, black beans, chick peas and peppers with a sesame ginger dressing.  There appear to be some olives in there too, although they weren’t on the list of items that ManMeat emailed to me with his picture.

Based on the number of ingredients, I can conservatively estimate that the salad cost $5,239.25.  However, he did find a rogue piece of carrot in there, so at least he got something for free.

I stayed on the leftover train and brought in a stuffed pepper with asparagus that my wife made.  In a word, delicious.

It’s no wonder that the stuffed pepper was good – it’s basically just ground beef with some seasoning…how can you go wrong with that?

Wednesday Night

ManMeat was so excited about what he was going to bring for lunch on Thursday that he actually sent me two pictures on Wednesday night to whet my appetite for what was to come the next day.  According to ManMeat, De Lorenzos Pizza in New Jersey is the best pizza in the state and he took a picture of the full pie to prove his point.

There are a ton of toppings on that pizza and I’ll get into more detail later on.  The other picture he sent me was a salad that Mrs. ManMeat put together that ManMeat would also get to enjoy on Thursday.  While the chop sticks were included in the picture for aesthetic purposes, ManMeat assures me that the Mrs. could eat the salad with them if she wanted to.

Thursday

BLD/HG went back to the salad well on Thursday, possibly because he is still full from his BBQ business trip down south last week.  The lettuce looks a little more exotic than his Wednesday special and I believe I see a few crutons in there.  And, well, that’s all I have to say about that.

I brought some leftover pasta with marinara sauce and sauteed spinach, which I did heat up because of my rule of heating up tomato-based sauces.  I believe the pasta was technically Rotelle, not to be confused with its skinnier cousin Rotini.

And now for the Lunch of the Week: ManMeat’s Pizza, Salad, Yogurt and Orange extravaGANZa.

If you’re curious, the ziploc bag with the brown liquid in it is salad dressing and not a small bag of heroin, which certainly would have changed this lunch in a big way.  While I don’t necessarily think this is the best lunch of the week, the picture clearly says otherwise.

Friday

As I mentioned before, I was out of the office on Friday, but ManMeat was so disappointed and impressed at the same time with what BLD/HG brought in for lunch that he had to take a picture and send it to me.  In the shot below you will see bags of blueberries, raw almonds, celery sticks and cucumbers, and a plastic container filled with tuna salad with chopped pickles, onions, celery and dill.

BLD/HG was so happy with his lunch that he did this later in the day:

I don’t think I can add any more to that, so I won’t.

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…

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.

Instead of breaking it down by day, I’ve decided to break it down by eater, so here goes:

KingMorland

An incredibly boring-looking chicken soup, but I must say that it was quite tasty.  Instead of noodles or rice we went with barley, which has proven to be a solid companion for any soup (more on that in the next Lunch update).

And yes, that’s more pot roast.  I am not sure why we decided to make it again, but we did and I ate it…but no more for quite awhile.

The Bulldog

We were both in the office together for only two days, but I managed to get a picture of both of the Bulldog’s lunches last week.  As you can see, he went with a panini both days, although I can assure you they were very different.

Unfortunately, I have no recollection of what the sandwiches were actually made of, but it’s nice to see that he accompanied them with side salads and not of the 2,000-calorie variety.  And if you’re sitting there thinking “wow, those look like huge pickles,” then you’d be spot on because they were enormous…and the Bulldog threw them down with no problems.

ManMeat

Saving the best for last, ManMeat spanned the globe with his lunches this week.  Kicking off was a Korean soup with intestines’ tripe and oxtail, which officially wins the crown of the craziest lunch I have ever seen at work.  He was so excited about bringing it for lunch as a leftover that he actually sent me a picture of it when he first got it out at the Korean restaurant:

I know it looks harmless, but it’s crazy.  Nevertheless, it did smell good.

Next up was a slice of pizza that looked like it had jalapenos, pepperoni and sausage, an interesting mix that I think I would like as well.  Can you tell that someone took a bite out of it?

ManMeat went back to the “traditional” leftovers for his other meals, bringing in grilled pork and broccoli and then penne in a red sauce with broccoli (can’t get enough of the green stuff):

I was out of the office on Friday, so I wasn’t able to grab the lunches from that day, but I think the above should do for now.  A lot of people are out of the office in the early part of this week, but they should be back for the second half and hopefully we can give another update on Friday.

Tuesday

Manmeat brought in an interesting concoction of whole wheat pasta with turkey meatballs and broccoli in a red sauce, which he has lately been calling “gravy,” much to the chagrin of The Don.  While it sounds like a rather…interesting…combination, it certainly smelled good when he brought it by for the photo shoot:

The broccoli looks like it was placed on top at the last minute and not part of the meal to begin with; as a broccoli lover, I can accept this.

I brought in leftovers of what my wife calls a “Spanish Rice Bake,” which we occasionally make for the very reason that it makes great leftovers.  A combination of rice, chicken, a green bell pepper, a jalapeno and chopped tomatoes all baked to perfection, it’s a solid winter meal (the jalapeno helps warm you) and a nice shock of carbs for the afternoon lull at work.

Wednesday

Manmeat had another container of the pasta he made, so I didn’t end up taking a new picture.  But I can assure you the broccoli was again placed on top.

I brought in the leftovers of a pot roast that my wife and I made and ate after the Jets game on Sunday.  Seasoned with a combination of rosemary, thyme and a small bit of oregano, the pot roast turned out to be a good leftover and reheated well, which you can’t always say about red meat.  Coupled with carrots, yams, pearl onions and potatoes, while the helping wasn’t that big, it was more than enough to fill me for the afternoon.

Thursday

Manmeat changed it up a little bit on Thursday, bringing leftovers of a curry chicken with cauliflower and an extra jalapeno that he made at home, served with white rice.  I’ve mentioned before that I am not the biggest of curry fans, but Manmeat keeps bringing it in and I have to admit that I am willing to give it another try.

I brought in some leftover steak that we had at home, along with broccoli and rice pilaf.  The steak was made without a sauce or rub, so I added some Costa Rican Lizano salsa on top, one of my favorite sauces for meat.  My friend Jake has previously written about this sauce on his food blog and gave me a bottle of the sauce for my birthday last year.  Thanks again, Jake.

Speaking of Jake, he is a reader of my lunch posts and asked to be included, so here is what Jake ate yesterday for lunch at work (a grilled chicken breast with proscuitto, muenster, lettuce, tomato, mayo on a whole wheat roll purchased at Bowery Kitchen in the Chelsea Market):

If you click on the picture, you will get quite a zoomed view…

Friday

Three mentions today, as we finally got a picture of The Don’s lunch.  After realizing this morning that his daughter finished all of the cold cuts in the house, The Don went to the sneeze salad bar downstairs and brought back quite an eclectic mix of food: sesame chicken, kiwi, orange, roasted potatoes, roasted carrots and a spinach salad with cranberries and “little oriental orange things.”  I think you can see them all in the picture:

Manmeat had more of his curry chicken that he brought in yesterday, but put it into a different container.  He also commented that it tasted better today because the curry had more time to settle, whatever that means.  However, before he ate the curry chicken, he also threw down a miso soup that he got when ordering Japanese food last night:

I came in with possibly the most boring lunch of the week: a buffalo chicken sandwich with avocado and honey mustard, a bag of some type of healthy tortilla chips, a diet coke and an apple.  Needless to say, I’m still hungry.

Until next week, bon appetit.