We had more training today and they brought in lunch for us. Luckily, it was not mustard sandwiches from Panera bread, it was alfredo penne pasta with chicken and broccoli (and a tiny bit of artichoke), and garlic mashed potatoes. The potatoes were awesome, made with red potatoes and filled with potato skins. Yum. They weren’t very garlicky, but they were still good. The pasta was also pretty good, but a bit bland. I had to throw some hot sauce in mine. Plus I got to grab the one and only Hank’s black cherry soda. They also had some little mini desserts and I had a macaroon. It was delightful.

After work, we had a going away party at Spamps. I had blogged about the mediocre sushi lunch there before, so I wasn’t expecting much. They had some appetizer type stuff for us. I had some pot stickers, other dumpling type stuff, chicken on a skewer, mini crab cakes, and some california rolls. I quite enjoyed the pot stickers but they didn’t have any type of dipping sauce. That was a bummer. The other dumpling wasn’t very good. It had beef in it, but had an odd flavor. The chicken was quite good, plain, but cooked very well. The mini crab cakes were alright. The california rolls, however, were surprisingly good and fresh. I was quite happy with it. And I had my current cocktail of choice – orange vodka with sprite with a lemon. Totally refreshing.

I used to work at a company that gave us free lunch every day. And by free I mean subsidized, so either free or nearly free, depending on how much you decided to eat. It was luxurious. Not because the food was particularly great, but because you never had to worry about packing a lunch, worrying about where to go out for lunch, or wondering if you should take your leftovers into work the next day. The caf was always there, enticing you with their salad bar, sandwich station, entree line, hot grill line, and soups. You could rely on it. Plus it saved you a ton of cash.

In the first few years they basically served typical american cafeteria fare. Towards the latter years, after they changed vendors, the food started getting a bit more interesting. Some days we had sushi or chinese. They even had indian and middle eastern! They were trying to introduce some pseudo-internationalized cuisine onto unsuspecting American suburbanite office drones. And I admired them for it.

My new company feeds us twice a week. On Wednesdays it varies from restaurant or caterer. on Fridays it’s pizza from Tony A’s. But a few common themes abound through our free lunches – vegetarians and dieters, you’re screwed. It’s not the healthiest in the world, and always meat-laden. Last summer on Fridays was my favorite day of the week because of Chef Donald. That’s right, we had a chef that came in on Fridays that grilled for us. It was unbelievable what that man could do with onions and garlic, his main staple ingredients, and whatever meat they brought in that day. I wish it was summer again, because damn, Chef Donald’s meals were the best.

Today was Tony A’s as usual. And I always eat the same pizza – Bacon Burger. Bacon Burger pizza you say? It has everything you love – bacon, ground beef, caramelized onions, and hot peppers. How can you go wrong? After all, everything tastes better with bacon. The onions on this pizza…. Man! I don’t know what kind of crack they sprinkle on it, but I could eat it straight from a bowl.

I didn’t eat the pizza today though. Last Sunday I had decided to make chili. It was a particularly cold day, and on cold days, there’s nothing better than pho or chili. I’d had pho on Saturday (more on that later), so I decided to make chili. I made a giant vat of it and ate the last bits of it today. Mmm, mmm, good.