My Dining Options at Work

I've been super busy at work lately and have been spending lots of time traveling and studying for my exam whenever I can squeeze the time.  So I haven't had much time to update my blog or even shop (gasp!).  But I was in heaven with my lunch at work today, so I had to write about this...

My work really goes all out with the dining room.  I should really say, dining floor!  Yes, we have a whole entire floor dedicated to dining facilities, as ridiculous as it sounds.  And yes, it's a big high rise building in downtown, so one whole floor is a lot of square footage!

There is a large self-serve room, and tons of smaller full-service private and semi-private dining rooms.  They are all beautifully furnished in an old school style so everything looks very rich and classic.  They run it like a professional restaurant, with a huge commercial quality kitchen.  All the dining staff are full time employees of the firm.  There are quite a few full time chefs and even one full time dessert chef (makes amaaaazzzing pastries and desserts!).  From what I hear, the founder of the firm went to some really exclusive members only club for lunch more than 20 years ago, really liked the food, and decided to just hire the whole staff from there and transplanted them to my company.  And most of those people have been around ever since then.  Every morning they get in at around 5 am and meet about what to make for the day.  All the ingredients are delivered from local farmers daily so they are always fresh, organic and top quality.  Then they just get to work with breakfast, then lunch!  They always make different things everyday and never repeat.  Usually they make a couple main entries a meal, but if you don't want to eat it, they are also very accommodating and can make whatever you special order.  They wear suits with tuxedo vests under the jackets, and they take their jobs very very seriously.  And, if you want to eat there, you better wear a tie and jacket.  Otherwise they will bring out a loaner jacket for ya.  They are more lax with girls though.

The dining facility is available to AVPs and above, which really separates the "important" and "non-important" employees.  I personally think it's kind of lame since it sends out the message of "you are not good enough to even eat at the same place as me" to lower level employees.  And some high level executives choose not to eat there because they don't endorse it.  But most do since the food is just so good, and it's very convenient to not even step outside the building to get food or worry about bringing lunch to work.  We do have to pay for the food, depending on our title - the higher the level the more expensive, I guess they figure that higher level people get paid more so they can afford to pay more for the food.  But it's relatively very inexpensive still.  I only pay like $150 a month and it comes out of my pre-tax income.  I believe the lowest level officers pay $75 and the highest pay around $300 or more a month.  That's for breakfast and lunch.  For the quality of food we get, you just can't beat the price no matter what level you are.

Today the entree was sauteed scallops and risotto, and it was just heavenly!  I normally special order a salad (without dressing) or sandwich with no mayo or something boring like that, because if I ate everything that looked yummy, I would gained tons of weight without blinking an eye.  And most people there do gain lots of weight as soon as they get promoted or start eating there.  But today I just couldn't say no to scallops!

I even took a picture of it, but I took it to go (they also use bio-degradable to go boxes) instead of eating there on a real plate, and the lighting wasn't the best for my iPhone camera, so the picture doesn't even do the food justice!

I don't know how much calorie was in that thing, but I ate about half of it and it was worth it!  I'm still drooling as we speak.

I was looking at the daily menu emails that they send out, and I'm copy/pasting this week's menu here just because I think it's fun to share!

Wednesday October 6, 2010

Mixed Green Salad with Choice of Dressing

Thousand Island        French       Roquefort Cheese

Fat Free Fig Balsamic

SOUP

Albondigas

ENTRÉE

Sautéed Scallops and Risotto

VEGETARIAN

Pasta Primavera -

Orecchiette Pasta, Asparagus, Mushroom, Tear Drop Tomato, Green and Yellow Zucchini

SALADS

Turkey Tomato & Lettuce Salad  Tuna Avocado & Mango Salad   Fruit

Chef’s -

Swiss cheese, Turkey, Ham, Tomato, hard-boiled Egg, Black Olives and Romaine Lettuce

SANDWICHES

Turkey – hormone and antibiotic free                   Club House

DESSERTS

Fruit    Ice Cream   Sorbet   Cookies

Non-Fat Plain Yogurt and Fruit Flavored Yogurt

Cream Cheese Pound Cake

BEVERAGES

Coffee     Espresso     Iced Tea     Mineral Water

Sodas    Assorted Teas:  Herb, Black, and Green

Tuesday October 5, 2010

Mixed Green Salad with Choice of Dressing

Thousand Island        French       Roquefort Cheese

Fat Free Fig Balsamic

SOUP

Curry, Turkey and Vegetables

ENTRÉE

Grilled Chicken Breast -

Teriyaki Sauce, Brown Rice and Baby Bok Choy

VEGETARIAN

Margherite Pizza -

Pesto Sauce, Soy Cheese, Red and Yellow Tomatoes

SALADS

Turkey Tomato & Lettuce Salad  Tuna Avocado & Mango Salad   Fruit Salad

Calamari -

Cucumber Radish Relish, Frisee and Mizuna Lettuce

SANDWICHES

Turkey – hormone and antibiotic free                   Italian Ham Pinwheel

DESSERTS

Fruit    Ice Cream   Sorbet   Cookies

Non-Fat Plain Yogurt and Fruit Flavored Yogurt

Pear Tart

BEVERAGES

Coffee     Espresso     Iced Tea     Mineral Water

Sodas    Assorted Teas:  Herb, Black, and Green

Monday October 4, 2010

Mixed Green Salad with Choice of Dressing

Thousand Island        French       Roquefort Cheese

Fat Free Fig Balsamic

SOUP

Butternut Squash

ENTRÉE

Grilled Top Sirloin -

Roasted Shallot Sauce, Au Gratin Potatoes, Broccolini and Baby Carrots

VEGETARIAN

Beluga Lentil and Root Vegetable

SALADS

Turkey Tomato & Lettuce Salad  Tuna Avocado & Mango Salad   Fruit Salad

Cobb -

Avocado, Bacon, Turkey, American and Blue Cheese, hard-boiled Egg, Watercress and Iceberg Lettuce

SANDWICHES

Turkey – hormone and antibiotic free                   Tuna Salad on Croissant

DESSERTS

Fruit    Ice Cream   Sorbet   Cookies

Non-Fat Plain Yogurt and Fruit Flavored Yogurt

Chocolate Volcano

BEVERAGES

Coffee     Espresso     Iced Tea     Mineral Water

Sodas    Assorted Teas:  Herb, Black, and Green

See, they are really serious about this!  I wasn't kidding... and I only copied the lunch menu!  Breakfast is a whole different story!

Yeah, talk about practicing self-control!  Everyday I literally have to walk past the dessert and pastry section without glancing at it.  But once in a month or so, I do indulge in a very fancy looking dessert that I think would be worth the calorie splurge!  Now that I'm looking at Monday's menu, maybe I should have looked at the Chocolate Volcano, whatever that is?  Sounds interesting.

And tomorrow I shall continue my struggle to make the right food decisions.  It's really really hard when everything is so easily within reach.  Oh how I wish I could be one of those super humans that have abnormally high metabolism and could eat whatever I wanted and still be thin!  What good deeds does one have to perform in order to come back as one of those people in the next lifetime??