The home cookin' is back in action! I'll be brown baggin' it a lot more now, starting tomorrow. I made enough pasta w/pesto, mushrooms and sundried tomatoes last night to have a lunch leftover. I don't like to have the same thing for lunch as I had for dinner the previous night, though, so I'll have the pesto on Friday. I know my lunch tomorrow, but not today! How weird is that?
I have no idea what I'll have today....NONE! I'm just walking out the door and seeing which way the wind blows me! You know what, I'm going to do that. Whichever way the wind blows, I'll go that way. I will walk 427 paces, taking whichever "walk" lights are available, and at the end I will go to whatever is the closest purveyor of lunch. Let's everybody try it!!!
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Must be nice. I'm out of tomatoes and I definitely don't have time to go out today - at least not before 3 or so.
Ethics is putting a chokehold on my lunchophile ways.
I rarely brown bag, but when I do the food somehow tastes so much better than it did the night before. Today I've got an annoying conference call that will push back my lunchtime. I'm thinking about potbelly since I'll miss the noon rush. Maybe chiken salad with bacon and swiss...
Ended up with an Italian sandwich from the White Hen on Wabash and Wacker. I was really pretty close to the Potbelly’s, too, and since the White Hen is more of a convenience store I thought I could get away with bypassing it. But, they do have food there, and it was a little closer, so I went in. They actually have a full sandwich counter. Other people were ordering, so I figured it couldn’t be that bad. They have an automated touch screen ordering system, so you just punch in what you want and the folks back there get a printout and make it up for you and set it on the counter. Anonymity! I was thinking, “Gosh, if they only had a meatball sub on the menu I could e-order it with mayo and not have to worry about asking anybody for it”, thereby relieving the anxiety I mentioned in previous blogging.
I guess the sandwich was tolerable – they were clearly trying to knock off Potbelly’s. However, White Hen toasted Italian sandwich is to Potbelly’s toasted Italian sandwich as Dan Quayle is to Jack Kennedy. No, that does the sandwich a disservice. I’m sorry, White Hen toasted Italian sandwich in my belly. That was uncalled for.
I got Sunchips (original flavor) and washed it all down with a nice cool glass of water. I think I spied some fun-size snickers and kit kats in Carol’s (the sweet old office matriarch) candy bowl. I think I’ll brew a fresh pot of coffee and have a little chocolate and call it a lunch.
Sometimes Carol’s mom, “Ma,” makes WAY too much food at home and I’m the lucky beneficiary of a free, home cooked, meat n’ potata lunch. I’ll be sure to write more the next time that happens.
I had a "combo" Italian Beef and sausage sandwich with sweet peppers yesterday at Portillo's in the Chicago suburbs. I was underwhelmed. I should have gotten either the straight Italian beef double dipped with hot giardeneira or two maxwell st. polish dogs.
The touch screen ordering system is used at Wawa now (PA/DE convenience chain). Everytime I go there I get the Italian hoagie with double meat, extra cheese, heavy mayo and just about everything else. Not ordering from a live human opens up all sorts of possibilities...of course it backfired once when the sandwich artist pointed me out and said, "Hey you! You sure you want both styles of pickle? These dill ones are REAL sour, don't go so well with the sweet peppers and bread and butter slices."
I've changed my mind about Potbelly for today, I'm thinking something Asian...maybe glass noodles...
Wow...were there people around for the pickle pickle? What did you do? Did you hold your ground? "Damn right I want both styles of pickle! You just read the ticket and do your fuckin' job!" Or did you quickly acquiesce to get the attention away. "Oh sorry, right. No dill. Thanks."
He actually offered me a sample of the pickle before I could say anything, I accepted it and quickly agreed with him.
Wow. I was too busy to leave the building so I called downt to "Mom's" the lunch place on the 1st ffloor of my building. I ordered a cheeseburger with grilled onions and bacon, heavy mayo, ketchup LT.
I walked down 5 minutes later and it was waiting for me in a closed white sandwich box. I picked up a gatorade and some potato salad and left. Just got back up to my office and opened the sandwich up...they used two bottom buns.
What am I supposed to do?
Call and ask Mom's what you're supposed to do. I'd love to hear what they say.
Well considering that "Mom" is the best English speaker there,(It is run by 3 Korean women) and she is not there today, maybe they interpreted my order for "GRILLED ONIONS, YOU KNOW, FRIED ONIONS" as "GIVE ME TWO BOTTOM HALVES OF BURGER BUNS PLEASE". The point is moot however because the burger and the buns are in my belly.
At 4pm I have finally gotten around to food. I went to my old reliable au bon pain with the intention of procuring a trusty wrap, when out of nowhere I was struck by a menu item so strange it had to be tried.
At first glance, the smoked turkey, emmenthal swiss and jalapeno guacamole doesn't seem so odd, but when you read the fine print to learn that it also includes tomatoes and - wait for it - SNOW PEAS, well, it's a weird little sangay. Plus, there's enough mayo to drown a cat.
My review: actually quite nice. The snow peas take the place of iceberg lettuce to lend crispiness. The guac is a spicy enhancement. I would go with a whole wheat or seven grain bread next time, but the plain white baguette isn't so bad.
Still. It seems more like something I'd concoct while high, than something that would make it out of the test kitchens of abp.
Also, since it was after 4, I got a cookie. Oatmeal Raisin.
Today I also realized that I won't eat other people's leftovers. Maybe if I was at their home, but something about eating out of other people's tupperware skeeves me out.
I like your order Ethics, IF we had an order of the week I'd nominate that sandwich (or sangay).
I love eating other people's food.
It's not other people's food I have a problem with - it's something about eating it at work out of their tupperware - especially if you've never been to their house and even worse if they have kids. I have this whole, "You don't know where that's been" thing about it. I was offered homemade ravioli from someone's dinner last night, and she's a lovely girl and doesn't even have kids (to me, kids ups the ante that the tupperware/food contained therein has been somewhere suspect) - but I couldn't do it. Now, if we're at a potluck or something, and the food's been specifically made for the event, that's fine. It's like, if it's leftover, someone could have touched it, or licked it or something. Totally irrational, I know.
Thanks for the nomination, Josephus. It was a total spur of the moment ordering choice. I'm satisfied. And I'm off tomorrow - so I have 4 days of weekend lunches, which are a whole different monster.
I'm just glad to hear you got out for something, ethics. We were all pulling for you.
I have an ABP sooo close to me and I've been to it exactly zero times. I don't know why...I guess I don't like the idea of sandwiches on freedom baguettes. Too hard...cuts roof of mouth and insides squish out. But there's whole wheat grain what?
If you get around to it, can you provide an abp primer? I'll check it out next week.
When I see a tupperware container full of breaded and fried "Ma" chops, potatos and peas...glory be!
dipso, dipso, dipso - abp has a wide array of breads! The aforementioned freedom variety, but also focaccias, lahvash wraps, sun dried tomato loaf, croissant and many others. I'm not a fan of the baguette, myself, and agree that they can transform even the most delicious sandwich into a lethal weapon, slicing up the soft tissue of the interior of one's mouth. But there are so many choices at your local abp.
There are baked sandwiches, and cold sandwiches. (and, in the case in the front of the store - sandwiches baked in parchment) There are made-to-order breakfast sandwiches, fritattas, and a yogurt bar in the morning. There are no less than 6 soups on offer, daily. Not to mention the cookies and other pastries, including Krispy Kreme donuts, if that's your thing. There are also a wide variety of salads available, including watermelon goat cheese this summer.
Now, some of the combos at abp are a little odd. But as we learned today - odd is not necessarily bad. But you can design your own sandwich just by checking the little boxes on the form. (this ordering method scared me at first, but I've grown to be quite fond of it)
I was not initially an abp convert. It wasn't until I was forced to go there that I began to embrace it. I recommend you give it a chance - opt perhaps for the turkey cobb wrap (which can often be plucked from the fridge at lunch, made that morning in advance of the rush) or the baked roasted turkey sandwich (turkey, some kind of cranberry cheese, almonds, and honey mustard on focaccia). You won't be disappointed.
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