Pleasure Food and Wine: A New Look at How We Live

A Blog Slowly Coming Back to Life*

"Rise like lions after slumber In unvanquishable numberAnd for chrissakes, Eat a proper lunch, will ya?"

(*My thanks to Percy Bysshe Shelley for the above modified quote. and a warning, due to my work schedule, this blog will be an intermittent one...wish I could promise better frequency!)

I started  ALunchBoxBlog.com (now rechristened, "A Thing That Makes Me Go Yum") back in 2011 because I want to start a lunchtime revolution in this country’s workplaces.

What?! you say. A revolution? When people all over lost their jobs in 2008 and have fallen out of the workforce since!?

Shouldn't we just be grateful for the jobs we DO have now, and eat quietly at our desks?

Ah, hell no. These are first world problems, and I intend to be the flag bearer for the middle class whiners who are sick of hiding pleasure, food, music, and wine. Why compete with the pious and virtuous? I say let the Middle East enjoy all the piety and perfection Allah provides. I want a world without a piety that denies folks their human failings. What a boring place earth would be if we couldn't enjoy the fruits of our indulgences.

So yes, a revolution! But not like Bernie Sanders (...or well, maybe a bit like him, he seems open to politically incorrect indulgences). Yes, indeedy, but this isn’t just any workers’ rebellion. Trust me, even your co-workers will freak out on you if you try eating like this at the office.

But I assure you, it’s worth it. It’ll change the way you eat and enjoy food in the workplace forever.

Many of us spend more than eight hours a day in the office. And workers should be encouraged to eat away from the stress of email and pending work assignments during their breaks without being judged by their coworkers or bosses for doing so. “Oh, she should be eating at her desk while she works. We all do. Who does she think she is?”

Trust me, I know that’s what they’re all saying. Paranoid I may be, but prove to me I’m wrong.  It’s time we stand up for our food rights in the face of this tyranny!

Maybe it’s because none of us take a lunch break that so many people have colitis, IBS, etc., in this country. The mix of stress and a lack of a good food break on a daily basis probably contributes to the neurotic eating habits of our fellow Americans.

I understand, sure, sometimes you cannot leave your desk at lunch. This happens to me plenty, usually if I'm procrastinating. Some jobs there are regular periods where long breaks (30 minutes or more) are completely impossible to take without shirking and putting your co-workers through serious agita.

And some periods of intense work are worse than others. However, is it really completely impossible for us to eat slowly and actually savour our food at work?  Is it truly impractical to put our meals on an actual plate, eat with actual silverware, maybe a real napkin, and sit at a table that is not our desk? Yes, many workplaces suck, and it’s absolutely impossible to find a separate space to just fully engage with the joy of eating.

I spent an unholy 5 months working for Post Newsweek Corporation many years ago, and I had to wash my dishes in the men's room. It was revolting. And inexplicable. Like what? They didn't have the money to provide us a kitchenette?

But if you are one of the lucky, or one day hope to be, you can find a place or create a new space, even if it’s just an unused office down the hall. Make it into your dining room away from home—complete with flatware, plates, and actual bowls!

Even canned soup tastes better when you drink it slower in an actual bowl.

This blog is how I do it, as well as how I make what seems like complex meals—simple and sometimes not-so-simple food for those who can envision a new way of living in the workplace.

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I belong to an extended group of food lovers and inventive cooks who like to experiment, making fun and novel food to make lunch, dinner, even breakfast a better meal.

Caveat emptor: most of my meals need to be made the night before (or you can make them on the weekend before the work week starts. And the time these dishes sit in the ‘fridge or on the stove with the heat off only makes them taste better!

Since I work at a typical American office in the suburbs from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., for me it’s all about making lunch-worthy leftovers at or after dinner. 

What can I make tonight that will cook up perfectly at work the next day and taste outstanding?

Let’s find out together.

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