P wanted to get together and have lunch and suggested Tiffin. Since I had just gone there the weekend before, I had to kindly request another choice. So he suggested “that asian place next to whole foods”. That meant Sang Kee. I was in! It was pretty late for lunch so there weren’t very many people there. Outdoor seating was set up too. They asked us inside or out, and I almost laughed in their faces. It was a terribly hot and humid day. Inside, please!  So P got the Roasted Pork and Roasted Duck and Vegetable On White Rice. Yes, they get extremely creative with the names of their dishes here! It’s a giant plate heaped with rice, a bunch of greens, a crapload of roasted pork, and a sh!tton of roasted duck.

I usually always get the noodle bowls here, but it was just too darn hot for any kind of hot steaming bowl. So I opted still for noodles, but not the hot soupy kind. So I got the chow fun with the roasted pork. I love the roasted pork there, so I was happy to chow down on a whole bunch of that. And a wide flat rice noodle is probably my favorite noodle. I’m a big fan of this place, you all know that. I would be happy to eat lunch here all the time! The only annoying thing is that they don’t have a separate lunch menu. So there aren’t any lunch deals. But their prices are fairly reasonable anyhow (at least for dinner), so it’s not that big of an issue.

A was in town over Memorial Day weekend and she wanted to go have lunch. I like when other people decide where to go, and she suggested H-Mart. Yay! There wouldn’t be very many reasons for me saying no to this. A got the dolsot bibimbap. She doesn’t put the kochujang into her bibimbap and mixes it up before she eats it. So you can see that the rice is still white and nothing is spicy. But she takes little dips of the kochujang and adds it bite and bite if she wants. It’s a different approach. Hey man, whatever works! It’s good with the spice or without.

It was a hot day, so I did not want hot food, but wasn’t really sure what to get. Then, we saw two employees eating from this giant, and I emphasize, giant, bowl. That particular shop sold tuna albap and shrimp albap, but these girls were eating it with tofu. That’s what I wanted. But it wasn’t on the menu. But I asked for it anyway. The lady behind the counter got confused. So she asked one of the girls who was eating this, and she said sure, why not. So they made me one. What I thought was a serving for two employees turned out to be actually just for one. It just happens to come out in a giant bowl. You cannot see how giant this bowl is in the photo. That bowl with all the shredded lettuces, cabbages, carrots, cucumber, and tofu, does not have any rice in the middle of it. That stilll has to be added later. This giant bowl was just positively filled with a giant heap of shredded veggies. It was awesome.

When you throw the rice in there, the kochujang, and mix it all together, you get this lovely firey mess. Really, it looks like a giant mixed shredded salad or shredded cole slaw with a red dressing. Oh, but with a little teeny bit of rice mixed up in there. On a hot day, this really is just the perfect food. Raw crunchy cold ingredients, with a hint of spice. The tofu was warm with some sesame oil, and it was the perfect protein. Aside from the imitation crabmeat, this was practically vegan!

I was in Orland to work a trade show with my company. This particular trade show is the BIG one of the year and well, it was rather overwhelming. The space at the Orange County Convention Center was absolutely ginormous. I’d never experienced something of its sheer vastness. The thought of feeding this number of people all day long is kind of mindboggling. There was hot breakfast, but I never made it to that as I was on my feet and working from very early in the day. Luckily, there were stations all around the main show floor with breakfast snacks. I think I took all of the bananas near me and took full advantage of the fruit cups. I only wish they had some yogurt.

The proper lunches were hot and served in the official dining area, which was huge. There were three stations: mediterranean salad, italian, american carvery. And for the three days, it was the same food, every day. Same three options, same dishes at each station. It was disappointing, to say the least. I ended up eating at the italian pasta station every day. The other two stations just did not appeal to me at all. So it ended up being pasta with red sauce and sausage. I wasn’t very impressed. The sausage was ok, but the pasta was overcooked, which tends to happen when you’re cooking for thousands.

In the afternoon, they tended to set out several snack options at various stations. There would be chocolate, lots and lots of chocolate. Sometimes, they had donut holes. They didn’t particularly care to have healthy snacks.

On one of the nights right towards the end of the day, they had a little reception thing and offered more snacks as well as beer, wine, and cocktails. More donuts, sweets, chocolates, mini salads, fruits and cheeses, and shrimp cocktail.

I liked these little mozzarella and tomato shooters. I’m a big fan of food shooters it seems!
They even had sushi, fried rice, and pad thai, and takeaway containers, which made it all kind of cute. But overall, it was just ok. The lunch was the biggest disappointment. Keep the same three stations every day, I can understand, but mix the options up a bit. Is it that hard to come up with different pastas for 3 days? I think not!