Hey y'all,
Headin' off to Rochester today to see ol' Miso (I'm sure her busy ass sends her love) so I'm doing this the day before.
Today is a research day. It's Friday, you certainly don't feel like working so why not educate your lunching brothers and sisters with a bit of worldly lunching knowledge. Maybe this will inspire OWFL to reach other lands (beyond Russia and Mexico) or move an existing OWFLer to travel to Tuva for some fermented ox milk to wash down his bologna sammy.
For example, this is what i found out about a typical Polish Lunch:
A typical lunch is usually composed of at least three courses, starting with a soup, such as barszcz (beet) or żurek (sour rye meal mash), followed perhaps in a restaurant by an appetizer of salmon or herring (prepared in either cream, oil or vinegar). Other popular appetizers are various meats, vegetables or fish in aspic. The main course may be the national dish, bigos (sauerkraut with pieces of meat and sausage) or kotlet schabowy (breaded pork cutlet). Meals often finish with a dessert such as ice cream, makowiec (home-made poppy seed cake), or drożdżówka, a type of yeast cake. Other Polish specialities include chłodnik (a chilled beet or fruit soup for hot days), golonka (pork knuckles cooked with vegetables), kołduny (meat dumplings), zrazy (slices of beef), salceson and flaczki (tripe). Many dishes contain quark.
So take some time, do a little research, pull from your ethnic brains, make something up...just make our lunch knowledge the best in the world. OWFL should our prowess as lunch aficionados. If it's a regional American tradition, throw that in there too.
I hope you all have a wonderful lunch and PeeP will see you on Tuesday.
Much love.
Oh, and WFL????
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Dang, and the boss lady is here today ridin' me arse to do actual stuff.
I'll see what I can dig up at some point today.
safe travels PeeP
My pet Chupacabra turned me on to BARBACOA!
This stuff is the schhizzill-fo-mizzel. My favorite place in H-town is the Taqueria around the corner.
mmmm Sabroso y sabrosito!
Barbacoa is "face-meat". Saying it and realizing it kinda makes most people queazy. I love the stuff. True barbacoa is really sweet meat that is very soft .. kinda like sloppy joe that isn't ground up. Put that in with "home-made" tortillas (mmmm so chewy) and fresh 'maters and pico ... and its the bomb.
So, that is a little Tex-Mex (more Mex than Tex) for ya.
That sounds good for lunch today.
BTW - whenever someone wants to give me a spot on the posting list again ... I'll post my draft.
In Eritrea they have a proverb that says: "He, who visits us during lunch or dinner, is blessed"
"The usual diet consists of "Taita" or "enjera" (injera, anghera), a type of bread or pancake eaten with a meat or legume sauce or stew walled "Tsebhi" or "zigni." Taita is made mostly from cereal called "Taff"; however a mixture of cereals can be used to make taita. Legumes are an important part of the diet and are largely prepared in the form of stew or wot. Stew usually is very spicy and contains a variety of condiments, including onions, garlic, berbere (hot chili powder with other spices, cardamom, white and black cumin, basil, ginger, etc.).
Fruits and vegetables are not commonly eaten, except in some of the larger towns and during the period of religious fasting."
Eritrean food is very similar to Ethiopian cuisine but due to the countries difficult histories I would advise you do not to assume that they are identical out loud.
Here are some traditional Eritrean dishes:
“Zighinì”: chopped beef prepared with berberè, a typical Eritrean spice, onions, rosmary, boiled eggs, and served on anghera, typical flat bread.
“Dorhò”: chopped chicken prepared with berberè, onions, rosemary, boiled eggs, and served on anghera.
“Kiftò with anghera”: minced veal meat with spicy sauce and served with traditional bread.
“Tuntumò” mixed vegetables prepared with spicy sauce.
“Shirò” cream of chickpeas prepared with berberè powder.
"Allicha Bagee" mildly seasoned cubas of lamb mixed with potatoes, carrots, peppers and curry
Here is a good guide on ordering in an Eritrean or Ethiopian restaurant.
My people, The Hispanics, have got it right.
(There are many 'my people' out there for me, what with being all Irish, born in Puerto Rico, living in Michigan and being an honorary member of the Ockanickon Nation. It contributes to my broad appeal)
The lunch tradition, coming from the home land of Spain is the Siesta. How wonderful is this?
After starting work around 9:30 or 10:00, they take a late lunch around 1:00, but it is like a 2 or 3 hour mini weenend in the middle of every work day. You eat with no pressure to get back to your desk, milking stool, pick and shovel, classroom, or air traffic control station. that in and of itself is a great treat, but that's not all folks. There's more. Built in to Spanish, and to a slightly lesser extent Hispanic culture is the allowance, no the expectation that after this long relaxing lunch you go home and take a nap.
Shops close, towns shut down and everybody kicks it horizontally for a bit. Then they return to work in the mid afternoon and work until about 7:00 or 8:00, then come home for dinner, then they go out for wine and dancing and are in bed at the ripe time of 12:00 or 1:00. That is brilliant.
I think that is partially why we have the image of the lazy Mexican. It's not laziness, it's culture.
I remember when I was a kid and moved to the midwest from Mexico. It totally threw me off when I was playing with the other neighborhood kids and they were called in for dinner at 5:30. The freaking Sun was still up. It made no sense to me at all. I thought they were stupid barbarian hicks. Maybe I wasn't too far off.
Now if I could pick and choose the elements of my mixed heritage's traditions. I would totally take the Spanish start time and lunch practices, then I'd bring it home by coming back to the American convention of clocking out at 5:00.
Lunch today will probably be skipped... unless you count free coffee and filtered water as a lunch.
BTW I always wondered if the Predator was based on the Chupacabra now I know its not.
A Rastafar warrior? Isn't that like ... an oxymoron? Oh well, I think they stole the idea from the Chupa .. my poor pet. Never gonna get none of his own.
Awww...Peep gets all mushy when he's going to Rochester.
(How does one denote the act of vomiting onomatopoeiaotically?)
Bloarfulugg!! Gloooshoorrkhuuuhhhg!! Harguhuhuulllggg!!!!
Now I'm hungry.
yeah, let diz post this month...he got left out!
diz, i want that taqueria next door to my office. i want it now.
don't know what to have for lunch today. in fact, i got paid, but i also have some serious billz-nicks to pay off. therefore, something cheap would be nice. does any other DC OWFL-ers want to join me?
here's a culinary factoid about how kimchi can protect you from all kinds of diseases:
Kimchi has played a role as an important source of nutrients in fermented vegetables during the long winter months. It has different kinds of nutrients based on materials and the level of fermentation. Usually, the materials used in making kimchi have few calories and low levels of sugar, but contain high amounts of fibers, diverse vitamins (especially vitamins A and C), and minerals (such as calcium and iron). The nutrients produced during fermentation (lactic acid bacteria and acetic acid) help protect against cancer and germs.
The fiber in cabbage is not a nutrient, but it aids digestion, allows smooth movement of food through the intestines, and helps prevent constipation and intestine cancer. Red chili peppers and garlic help to lower blood cholesterol and aid in blood clotting. The nutrients and activities of the various micro-organisms produced during fermentation are also very beneficial to the human body.
diz: if I remember my vague grasp of south Texas cuisine correctly, the real off-putting part of the barbacoa is that its traditional form is cooked still on the head.
Ewww.
Of course, I may have made that up.
Speaking of traditional Mexican cuisine to which I've never really been able to reconcile myself: menudo. When I was working with the jail crew for Habitat for Humanity down in San Antonio, some of the homeowners we worked with would routinely make us lunch on the Fridays we worked on their house. That lunch was inevitably menudo and tamales. Both were fantastic (especially when I was hungover, which was most days). The menudo was brilliantly spiced, but I just could never get past the texture problem with the tripe. It's like eating a well-boiled slice of my own love handle, only it used to be full of cow shit.
I don't know what I'm having for lunch today. What I do know is that it will probably be from a drive-thru after I leave the office at noon to take the afternoon off to volunteer downtown.
Don't worry, Quarter Pounder, I hear you squawking...
diz: if you want my spot on Monday, I'll hold on to my posting gem until the next rotation. It's my second spot this month, and I don't want to feast while some have none.
lachoi, your kimchi is still in my fridge.
How long does that stuff stay good?
jo, it stays good forever. in fact, even if it does go bad, you can make a stew/soup out of it. if that freaks you out, then just hand it over to me or i'll make some for you to try. usually, it incorporates either mackerel or bacon. your pick.
I secretly think it is Jo's way of saying "fix the new site ... now". So I'll take the hint and get it fixed. Earthquake its up to you. If you have a gem by all means use it. It will be my second I believe as well .. but I didn't notice how after the rotation changed .. I am no longer in it. :)
I think mine is a good one as well. Its not a bad idea to have a few saved back for emergencies if the mood hits you. Its easy to have a member go in and push it out if you get stuck that day.
Meetings suck!
nowitty - mmmmm ox tail soup is the bomb!! If its made by a Colombian dude or a Hungarian dude. That stuff is just manna from heaven (esp on a cold day).
BTW I totally disagree about bee poop .. I love the stuff and it has stuff in it that makes your immune system react to it... Jonas Saulk didn't make healthshakes.
Okay, I'll just hold on to my slot then. I'm sure you'll come up early in the November schedule after this exchange.
(Shit, now I better come up with a gem over the weekend...)
earthquake - yeah it is cooked whole head .. but I'm not watching that crap ... I'm sitting down with my 40oz and a pile of hot fresh tortillas and a bowl of that and pico. mmmmmm
In my country for lunch...
They go Hungry.
They wait in Line.
They invade Hungary.
I think some of those were jokes from Yakov Smirnof. Funny guy.
diz, you have never had korean oxtail soup...b/c it is surely the best out of all those others. (i'm sure HT will fight me on the hungarian one.)
No but since my country was tite with the Cuba, some of their exotic tastes made it to the lunch table back home.
I like the cuban sandwich, but it was rare that you had bread, pork, ham cheese and piclkes at the same time
My favorite was the croqueta. It sweet ham, spiced and rolled. Looks like a cheese stix from TGI Fridays, but really really good. Not as much flare tho. Anybody ever see the movie office space?
No, LC and Diz - we're not an oxtail soup people, actually. We do indulge in the occasional bit of Lo Kolbasz (horse sausage - hey, where's Rico been?) but not so much the oxtail.
Diz speak up dude!! If I f up then let me know! How bout you take Nov. 1 fo' sho'?!
Hey Diz...you were on October's schedule for the 4th, but I think HT had to fill in for you. We got a lot of peeps now a days so some folk get only uno day per month(like moi-self). If you have something that you would like to share just let your fellow lunchers know that you're up for a swap or trade! We are loving and flexible folk around here!
ran and got curried rice and lentil soup with a multigrain hunk o' baguette. then swung by breadline to get some fresh belgian pomme frite. delish.
Yeah, my weekend won't be as fun as yours Miso. Siiiiiigh. I'll be studying. Ugh.
Lunch today was the remainder of my Gaeng-Kew-Waan (green curry - coconut milk chicken) thai from yesterday. Yummmmmm. And somebody didn't eat their rotis yesterday, so I ate those, too. They were greasy. Oink.
Mmm, I think we all need to move to Spain. Lunch is the main meal? Naps are not just allowed, but encouraged? Yay!!! That was the best part of my trip to Spain. In fact a couple of days it was the only thing that got me out of bed.
Um, lunch in Indonesia is rare. They are lucky to have dinner, let alone lunch. But when they do have lunch, a lot of times it's chinese food, b/c they have a good-sized chinese immigrant population. Uh, no, I didn't research this, why do you ask??
Is it just me or is unfrozen caveman lawyer's language skills getting worse the longer he visits our little blog?
On the oxtail soup tip, that reminds me of some awesome mexican lunches I used to have, in Mexico!
Those were the best quality to cost lunch ratios I ever had. For $3 you would get a small garden type salad to start. Then my favorite soup on earth, sopa azteca, which is like oxtail soup, but it has tortillas that somehow stay crunchy, avocado, oaxaca cheese, and other awesome spices.
Main course would be pollo de mole. Mole sauce is the best sauce ever invented. Get some!
Desert would be leche flan. You'd be stuffed, and out about $3.50 with tip.
Then it was siesta time! I loved the 3 hour lunch breaks in Mexico. I wasn't so keen on working until 8pm though.
i just got back from lunch.. yeah.. it was an hour and a half.. dammit i deserve it!
i had some type of beef curry, i think it was called kovsla or something... it was great.
i really wanted to do my research on djibouti.
everyone loves djibouti. but apparently they really don't want much of the rest of the world knowing what they eat for lunch... i guess they have a softspot for the french though because that was the only language i could find recipes in..
i suggest for dinner we all have:
*Ambabour (à l'occasion de l'Aïd)
*Soupe djiboutienne (Fah-Fah)
*Riz djiboutien (Skoudehkaris)
*Poisson en sauce (Marake Kaloune)
*Poisson pané au four
*Samboussa
the recipes for those
I had lunch with a colleague at Raku.
I had the Korean bbq spicy beef soup and some pork sticky buns. The soup was very filling and very blah.
I have never been a connoiseur of soup from Asian cuisine, (except for the fast food staples from Chinese joints, hot & sour...). I've never had pho before nor any of the other things I have seen my good friends order at Cafe Asia or that I often hear you all talk about here on OWFL.
So, what I'm saying is I need a tutorial. Next week I'll be requesting some of you to order my soup for me as I attempt to add this uncharted territory to my repertoire.
Diz, fix the new site. Please.
so for anyone else bored and suicidal at work or at home looking for work or at home praying never to work again or at work praying not to work again...
what are you dressing up for halloween as? i believe i may be part of Ron Burgundy’s Channel five news team.
if the other's member's suits dont work out i was thinking of being a block of tofu. so when people say:
what are you supposed to be i can say
"Tofu"
i may say that even if i am a member of the news team.
and here is an interesting fact that someone can tell me i'm wrong about but...
i'm learning mandarin and i just got on the unit of "how to beg for sustenance" and as i understand it
the verb
"To Be"
is the same word as
"To Eat"
with some tonal differences...
but how cool is that? finally a culture that realized the importance of meals...
Its sounds good Lady A. I totally use my aingst constructively all the time.
So I drink more coffee to become edgy and testy and then I'm better off at work. Until my co-worker pulls back a stump.
Its all fun and games until someone pokes an eye at ... and then its just fun.
Caveman Layer (henceforth UCL .. hehe add an 'A' and you've got a good law school) - the glowing screen actually contains fire ... don't get too close to your monitor or you might burn yourself.
I hate it when I do that.
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