Excellent advice, and well-timed in my case since I just returned to working in an office for the first time in years. I remembered that microwaves and break room refrigerators are enemies to be avoided, but I’d forgotten how dispiriting it is to eat from plastic containers every day. Your advice about sandwiches reminds me of a story about MFK Fisher. Maybe you even wrote about it in An Everlasting Meal? The story was that Fisher prepared sandwiches for a meeting with a younger food writer who was interviewing her, and instructed the writer to sit on the sandwich during the interview. After they had talked for a while, sitting on their respective sandwiches, their lunch was ready to eat.
I love reading these. My current favorite line, “But by the time I withdrew my lunch, it would have acquired a discrete whiff of anguish—as though it had spent its time on that little tray in a nightmare world, enduring too much.”
Also, I will say that the container you bring your lunch in can be very important! I use a backpack, and whenever I used a short, wide container, I would have to place it on its side in order to fit. Any tiny bit of moisture in the container- a drop of roasted chicken juices, a whisper of oil on a roasted vegetable - would find its way out and onto the other stuff in my bag, which made packing my lunch a bedeviling prospect. NO MORE! I went online and found a tall, narrow lunch box that works like a bento box, which stays upright in my backpack. And I use a little 1/2 oz size Bonne Maman jam jar for any dressing/sauce.
In my first office job I delighted in the microwave! I would bring in a raw egg (in a single cell I cut out from an egg carton, held closed with a rubber band) and poach it in the microwave, so I could top my hearty salads with a warm egg! I still poach all my eggs in the microwave, lol
I really need to buy the everlasting meal! I refuse to bring anything other than either a salad or a sandwich for lunch, because of the microwave curse. For the first time in my life I’ve been living with a kitchen without microwave (but with a gas stove god bless), and I’ve come to the realisation that there’s nothing that the microwave can do that the stove or oven can’t do better. I’ll happily wait a few minutes more or wash a few extra dishes if that means the meal will brighten my day
I forgot - I’ll be willing to heat a cup of homemade broth on a cold winters day in the office. Perfect pairing with said salad or sandwich when you DO need something warm. And on hot summer days when I’m worried that my lettuce are going to wilt on my way to work a put frozen chickpeas (I cook big batches with lemon, olive oil and herbs and freeze flat) in the container. They will be thawed in time for lunch and the lettuce will be crisp.
Please forgive the shameless self-promotion, but I once wrote a book on this very topic! You can take a look here and see if you might be interested: https://www.amsterdamfoodie.nl/product/lunch-cookbook-vicky-hamptons-working-lunch/ (There's also an e-book version, which might make more sense if you're in the US as the postage is ridiculous: https://www.amsterdamfoodie.nl/product/e-cookbook-vicky-hamptons-working-lunch/ )
Oh I love this!!!!
Excellent advice, and well-timed in my case since I just returned to working in an office for the first time in years. I remembered that microwaves and break room refrigerators are enemies to be avoided, but I’d forgotten how dispiriting it is to eat from plastic containers every day. Your advice about sandwiches reminds me of a story about MFK Fisher. Maybe you even wrote about it in An Everlasting Meal? The story was that Fisher prepared sandwiches for a meeting with a younger food writer who was interviewing her, and instructed the writer to sit on the sandwich during the interview. After they had talked for a while, sitting on their respective sandwiches, their lunch was ready to eat.
😆
I love reading these. My current favorite line, “But by the time I withdrew my lunch, it would have acquired a discrete whiff of anguish—as though it had spent its time on that little tray in a nightmare world, enduring too much.”
Also, I will say that the container you bring your lunch in can be very important! I use a backpack, and whenever I used a short, wide container, I would have to place it on its side in order to fit. Any tiny bit of moisture in the container- a drop of roasted chicken juices, a whisper of oil on a roasted vegetable - would find its way out and onto the other stuff in my bag, which made packing my lunch a bedeviling prospect. NO MORE! I went online and found a tall, narrow lunch box that works like a bento box, which stays upright in my backpack. And I use a little 1/2 oz size Bonne Maman jam jar for any dressing/sauce.
In my first office job I delighted in the microwave! I would bring in a raw egg (in a single cell I cut out from an egg carton, held closed with a rubber band) and poach it in the microwave, so I could top my hearty salads with a warm egg! I still poach all my eggs in the microwave, lol
I really need to buy the everlasting meal! I refuse to bring anything other than either a salad or a sandwich for lunch, because of the microwave curse. For the first time in my life I’ve been living with a kitchen without microwave (but with a gas stove god bless), and I’ve come to the realisation that there’s nothing that the microwave can do that the stove or oven can’t do better. I’ll happily wait a few minutes more or wash a few extra dishes if that means the meal will brighten my day
I forgot - I’ll be willing to heat a cup of homemade broth on a cold winters day in the office. Perfect pairing with said salad or sandwich when you DO need something warm. And on hot summer days when I’m worried that my lettuce are going to wilt on my way to work a put frozen chickpeas (I cook big batches with lemon, olive oil and herbs and freeze flat) in the container. They will be thawed in time for lunch and the lettuce will be crisp.