No such thing as

A free lunch. At work, lunch is provided to the employees at the plant cafeteria. It's local cuisine (which may be true but may be stretching the use of the word cuisine just a little bit). For me, the food is more about eating than about taste, and that's giving it a nice spin. There is nowhere to go for lunch here, no running out to Wendy's, Burger King or The Flavors of Thailand (sigh) for a bite to eat and then heading back to the office. Here it's either bring in your lunch or eat what's offered at the cafeteria (or don't eat) which is what everyone else eats. For the locals, it seems the lunches are okay. For me, an admittedly picky eater (broccoli....people really eat that stuff!?!)....not so much. I can eat the rice and perhaps some of the other stuff but on most days, it's rice with some nibbling on the side items.

To indicate how it works, there are usually 6 "dishes" put on the trays (2 meats and 4 veggies). You can opt out of a couple of the items with a simple use of the phrase (Boo Yow) but what I have found is that I'm not quicker than the lunch lady....the quickest serving spoon in the Far East. You say Boo Yow to one thing and lickity split, she's dumping more of "what's behind door #3" to make up for the loss of the unappealing first or second option. It's almost better to let them give you some of everything and be done with it. If you don't, you may not get the fish but you're getting an extra helping of the brown, thick glass noodles (they're good for you young man). So let's go around the dish in the photo (ok, technically it's a tray for those anal retentive types), clockwise. From the top there's the fish (I think you figured that one out) on top of the rice. Next comes the cabbage/carrot mixture, then some kind of white tofu stuff just below the cabbage mixture. Next comes the meat nuggets, I think it was pork. These are okay but you've got to be careful of bones at all times with the meats here, no kidding, bones are usually not removed from the meat. Next is green spinach (?) or some other bright green leafy veggie. Just beyond that is the reddish colored spicy tofu, made with silky tofu. I can eat tofu but not the silky or soft kind. If it wiggles, I can't eat it, the texture just doesn't work for me. Texture is something I've tried to overcome but it just doesn't work.

I can say that I'm not as afraid as I first was to eat the lunches. The horror stories that were told around the campfire (the sea was angry that day my friend....) about the lunches made for a fear factor type game. I know that my first week here in February was difficult, especially to get used to the smells but now it's all old hat. I may not eat everything (no dessert and I'm grounded without supper) but I do try most everything. It's not like eating my favorites from the menu every day but I think if you eat at some of the places like the Picadilly, I think you would manage to survive. Anybody that can eat collards, grits, ocra and things like that; well you've got a headstart. So remember me next time you are out ordering lunch (I'll take L7, Chicken, Spring Roll and Water. MMmmm, L7).