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Post by Deleted on Feb 4, 2009 12:03:54 GMT
Those of you out at work during the day, what do you eat for lunch away from home?
Do you bring stuff from home? Eat sandwiches? Fast food? A hot meal from time to time? Skip lunch? Do you eat the same thing every day or do you try to vary as much as possible?
As for me, I would say that I probably skip lunch about half the time (very bad, I know). The main place I eat when I go out is a Vietnamese hole-in-the-wall where I get either a dish with rice, or a dim sum & noodle soup, or a pho. The rest of the time is often a salad from the supermarket or maybe a pot of shrimp or chicken taboulé, or else a sashimi tray from one of the Japanese places. Maybe once a month, I will hit a fast food chain.
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Post by happytraveller on Feb 4, 2009 12:16:07 GMT
My daily problem... what's for lunch. We've got an italian take away that cooks all right but it gets boring after a while. A bakery that has sandwiches, canapes and all sorts of savoury things including one warm meal a day and different salads. That's ok too but also gets boring. Sometimes I take leftovers from home wich is always the best option but it doesn't happen very often because no matter how much I cook, my man eats up everything.
I couldn't skip lunch. I would pass out.
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Post by palesa on Feb 4, 2009 12:27:04 GMT
Working from home makes this easy, but I do pack lunch for Zonker everyday and it is mostly left overs and I put out his lunch tin and fill it when I am serving dinner.
When I was working out of the home, I used to mainly miss lunch, every now and then I would buy food stuff for the fridge and make sandwiches or salads for lunch.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 4, 2009 14:30:11 GMT
If I'm out doing gardening jobs I generally take a little ice chest with some yogurt, fresh fruit and ample liquids. I find that if I don't do this my blood sugar does a plummet and I have in the past gotten clumsy with sharp secateurs. Or, I end up spending too much money at some shit hole nearby on crappy food. At the bookstore there's a mini fridge that I can stash cheese and such to nibble on along with the ever present fresh fruit. Sometimes I'll splurge and get a panini from across the street but usually eat only 1/2.
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Post by bixaorellana on Feb 4, 2009 18:08:19 GMT
I identify with that skipping lunch when working thing. I had an odd schedule where I last worked, & stopping for lunch disrupted my work flow. I learned to always eat breakfast & to make sure it was a protein breakfast -- mostly an egg or cheese sandwich. That would keep me going until I got home at 5 or 6 in the evening.
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Post by auntieannie on Feb 4, 2009 21:46:17 GMT
Since I refuse to cook/reheat food in the kitchen provided by my employer, and that a sandwich is about as filling as breathing in, I eat home-made salad Monday to Friday almost every week. We liven it up by changing what we mix in (type of lettuce, vegetables, pasta or rice, cheese or meat, nuts or seeds, mushrooms... the possibilities are endless.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 5, 2009 10:19:25 GMT
I'm lucky to have a company canteen. I have a full meal - starters, main course, cheese, dessert - for €3.85. The food is good most of the time.
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Post by tillystar on Feb 5, 2009 11:47:16 GMT
I couldn't not have lunch, I would just get so angry with the world.
Two days out of the three I work I bring soup (tinned, fresh brought or home made) and make some toast but then another day I have what I feel like. I work in an area with so much choice I might have noodles, pasta, sandwiches, a tiffin box, pie and mash, salad, pizza whatever my mood is. The two days I am at home in the week it is usually soup or pasta.
I don't really do cold sandwiches or salad very often as I don't get on very well with cold food unless it is very hot weather. It depresses me for some reason.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 21, 2010 6:14:45 GMT
Returning to work today and in despair at the thought of having to eat in the Champs Elysées area... I'll probably to go Monoprix for sushi.
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Post by hwinpp on Jan 21, 2010 8:32:56 GMT
They sell sushi at Monoprix now? That's pretty progressive! I doubt they have that at your local 'Spar' or 'Edeka' in Germany.
I have a cigarette and a coffee for lunch as I've already had breakfast.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jan 21, 2010 17:10:53 GMT
Kerouac, reading your most recent post and the OP, I have to ask: you never brown-bag?
HW -- big breakfast, late breakfast? How long do you go between meals? Also, & I guess this is in line with the OP, does Cambodia observe the long break for lunch? What foreigners call the "siesta" here is not in fact nap time, but go-home-to-eat time.
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Post by lagatta on Jan 21, 2010 19:06:40 GMT
I usually work at home, and lunch is most often a soup in the wintertime and a salad in summertime. I make chicken broth from bones and some chicken legs in my crockpot - the poached meat is good in the soup. Often I add pseudo-Asian ingredients like bean sprouts and soba noodles, and always some vegetables. Sometimes I make a more elaborate soup based usually on legumes and vegetables. I often don't really stop working either, if I have something to get done.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jan 21, 2010 23:27:54 GMT
That is so civilized, LaGatta. I am able to skip meals without the crankiness or vagueness that plagues some people when their blood sugar drops. However, when I'd go too long, as explained in reply #4 above, I'd be rather frantically hungry by the time I got to eat. This frequently led to over-eating, as though I had to make up for what I'd missed. Not a healthful way to live. I see you casually mention the crockpot now. It's become an accepted tool in your kitchen?
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Post by Deleted on Jan 21, 2010 23:32:55 GMT
Kerouac, reading your most recent post and the OP, I have to ask: you never brown-bag? I bring lunch to the office maybe about six times a year, i.e. once every two months. We receive luncheon vouchers* (7€ a day) to encourage us to eat a proper hot lunch. *they are accepted by about 98% of the eating establishments as cash.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jan 22, 2010 0:12:07 GMT
My gosh -- to repeat my words to LaGatta above: that is so civilized! Is that common in French companies as part of wages/benefits?
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Post by lagatta on Jan 22, 2010 2:26:57 GMT
Yes. (for the lunch vouchers, if there is not an onsite cafeteria). Note Askar's canteen.
As for me, crockpot is a workaday tool, but its main purpose is slowly simmering chicken bones and parts for soup. I rarely make big pots of stew or beans, though it is nice to be able to do so using so little energy (in terms of electricity or work).
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Post by bixaorellana on Jan 22, 2010 3:12:59 GMT
I guess I'm a little confused, LaGatta. I thought that a while back you said you'd gotten a crockpot at a garage sale. At the time, I was under the impression it was your very first slow cooker and that you weren't sure whether you'd be using it much or not. Did I get that wrong?
I'm really curious about it, because I've never used one, but know so many good cooks who swear by them. Nothing looks more reproachful than an unused small kitchen appliance that's been shoved to the back of a cabinet. (well, okay -- maybe unfinished knitting or crochet projects languishing in closets)
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Post by Deleted on Jan 22, 2010 6:08:34 GMT
My gosh -- to repeat my words to LaGatta above: that is so civilized! Is that common in French companies as part of wages/benefits? Any company with more than 20 employees must offer luncheon vouchers or a canteen for meals. Smaller companies must provide an area where at least simple meals may be prepared. Actually, the luncheon vouchers are not completely free: 40% of the value is deducted from your salary, and the company pays 60%.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jan 22, 2010 7:22:39 GMT
It's an interesting concept. The only thing comparable I know about is the way some Mexican companies, including the gov't, give sort of food stamp vouchers as part of the pay. They have to be used within a certain time span, I think, & supermarkets accept them like cash. One annoying thing about them is that no change is given, so you have to figure out how to either make them come out even, or a little bit over so you can pay the rest in cash. No one seems to mind this system, whereas I always thought it was a little demeaning.
How do French workers in general feel about the system there? Can vouchers be exchanged for anything besides prepared food?
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Post by Deleted on Jan 22, 2010 7:41:31 GMT
When they first started with the vouchers, you had to use them to pay for a hot meal. Of course, times have changed and now you can buy salads or basically any sort of ready-to-eat food. Many supermarkets accept them, too. They are only supposed to accept them for those types of items, but obviously the cashiers don't really care. Officially, change is not to be given on a voucher, but some places do -- for example, the little Chinese place where I often go charges 6.60€ for its meals, so they give me 0.40 back when I go there. Generally, nobody will give more than 1€ change, but if it is the sort of place that gives change, they will give you another coupon for the difference to be used in the future.
Nobody finds it demeaning; in fact, people often find it demeaning when they have a company canteen instead, because it removes their freedom of choice. I have seen some stunning company canteens, though. And many of the industrial ones are "all you can eat."
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Post by bixaorellana on Jan 22, 2010 8:57:37 GMT
I phrased that poorly, as I can see where the meal vouchers would be something extremely handy. It's just that in Mexico I never could see the point of the grocery vouchers in lieu of money that could be spent at the grocery store.
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Post by lagatta on Jan 22, 2010 12:32:25 GMT
Yes, that does seem a little patronising, as if otherwise the workers would spend all their pay on drinking, gambling and partying.
The nicest canteen I've seen here is at Cirque du soleil. As you can imagine, very healthy food, but also very tasty. And beautiful, full of light.
No tickets restaurants here though. One thing I've noticed is that the tickets in France can now be given to charity (obviously I see this in the context of Haiti relief).
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Post by imec on Jan 22, 2010 13:31:19 GMT
Over the years I've followed several lunch regimens from eating at a different restaurant every day to eating at the cafeteria to brown bagging and even running upstairs for lunch when my office was in the same building as my residence. My most memorable lunches were the ones I ate with Sammy, the receptionist/office assistant from Bombay, while I lived in Riyadh. Sammy used to bring his lunch in a tiffin (see pic below) and place it on the wraming plate of the coffee machine to heat it up. At around the time of the midday call to prayer, Sammy would give me the call to lunch. We would sit side by side and share the delights of his tiffin - usually leftovers from the previous evening's meal - sometimes just vegetables but other times fish biryani, or various meat or fish curries or "masala's" (perhaps the most notable being Brain Masala), which we would scoop up with chapatis, parathas or puris. This continued until we, sadly, caught Sammy and the Mahmoud, the Pakistani warehouseman in a scheme whereby they offered our customers a "staff discount" on computers, printers and so on. Of course, they were stealing the goods out of our warehouse, selling them off premises and pocketing the proceeds. I suppose I should have suspected something when the daily offerings became consistently more luxurious...
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Post by bixaorellana on Jan 22, 2010 16:02:35 GMT
LaGatta & Kerouac -- I am really intrigued by these accounts of company canteens (& in your example, the stage door canteen, LaG. ;D) Thanks for getting what I meant about the vouchers.
Poor Imec -- that was a learning experience for you all the way around. Great story, though.
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Post by tillystar on Jan 25, 2010 16:24:12 GMT
I used to have a wonderful canteen. The food was really special, there was a huge salad bar that changed daily, an Italian section that had 2 different dishes usually pasta or gnocci daily, a grill section (that had daily themes too) a pizza section and a main course section which changed but was always fish and chips on Friday. It was so cheap and healthy enough. As good as the lunches were, the most wonderful thing was the breakfast menu. For next to nothing you could have your pick from a breakfast buffet like that of a really good hotel. So much choice! Breakfast is my favorite meal of the day and I used to go in early when it opened at 7.30. If you look at the far left window on the first floor, that is where I would sit every day in the summer. The building was right next to the Tower of London and every day I'd be the only person in the canteen and I'd have a perfect view of the sun coming up over the Tower of London and Tower Bridge. What with the view and the sausage sandwich in my hand I felt like the luckiest person alive most days (until I went to my desk).
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Post by lagatta on Jan 25, 2010 17:16:21 GMT
Spectacular!
The view isn't bad either...
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Post by livaco on Jan 25, 2010 18:22:09 GMT
Aah... I remember previous jobs of civilised sit-down hot meals (& luncheon vouchers!)
Nowadays, though, I use my lunch time to plan & prepare for my afternoon classes. I could (and have) not eaten anything. But since I have never really been in the breakfast habit, I really try to make myself eat something for lunch. But I'm usually not very hungry and I'm so busy that I go for something as simple as possible. I have a fridge in my classroom so recently I have been eating a bowl of cereal w/ milk. Or I bring a sandwich or granola bar from home. Sometimes I'll drink meal replacement shakes like Slim-Fast, just 'cause it's super quick.
The good thing about using my lunch time to work is that I can get home earlier. And when I do, then I am hungry! So I will have something to eat even if it's only about 4pm. And eat supper later with my husband. I don't know why I am not really hungry in the morning or at lunchtime. I really have to make myself eat lunch. So I get most of my calories late in the day.
On weekends or non-work days, however, I eat much more like a normal person (but still usually no breakfast except for coffee -- I have to have that).
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Post by Deleted on Jan 26, 2010 6:00:10 GMT
Breakfast is the meal that I could easily skip 90% of the time, but every now and then I wake up ravenous even though my dinner habits are relatively stable. Lunch I could easily skip at least half the time. Often I eat lunch just because I need to get out of the office.
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Post by existentialcrisis on Jan 27, 2010 8:03:14 GMT
I'm surprized I haven't posted on this thread yet... work lunches are such a daily issue for me. I am one of those people who feel very faint and cranky if I don't eat, and I also work in places where I cannot leave the building... so I need to pack lunches! In Halifax, my work place provided an employee cafeteria and subsidized meal cards, so I could get a hot meal or a giant wrap for a dollar. But the food quality and repetition got on my nerves, so I started packing lunches most days, and would use my meal card for tricky things to pack, like milk and salad dressing. Then there were the cut-backs and the "grand re-opening" of our cafeteria was announced. What a joke. The big wigs upstairs decided to start closing the cafeteria at 10pm (when the majority of the front line workers were 8pm-4ams). But God forbid the cafeteria close during business hours when the HR department was around. So they brought in a bunch of vending machines, with those gas station style sandwiches for anyone who got hungry at midnight .... Here in Calgary, we don't have an employee cafeteria and must buy 5 dollar lunches from the deli or the lounge in the building. So I'm still packing lunches! And when I'm at this job, there is nothing open since it's a grave shift and I'm usually the only one in the building. Tonight I packed some carrot sticks and some hummus and pita bread.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 4, 2010 21:19:58 GMT
today's lunch location: Chez Quan, 66 avenue des Champs Elysées price: 7.40€ item: soupe aux nouilles et aux raviolis de crevettes
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