Hob Nobbing Pt. Deux . . .

 . . b/c you have to use French when really hob nobbing it.

Monday started things off with a bang and today the week ended with a bang.  The middle pretty much sucked though and is not really worth mentioning.  I think I had some leftovers and then I went out of town and had some bad airport food followed by some government agency cafeteria food, followed by more bad airport food.  At one point I think I had a meal that consisted entirely of a king size Mr. Goodbar.  This also prompted me to look up that movie about Mr. Goodbar from the 70s which I always assumed with a name like that was a kooky rom com.  Um no.  It is totally F'd up man and nothing I think I ever need to see.  So, where was I?  oh yeah, bad airport food:  FYI Tidewater, when you say you have a crab cake and describe it as having Lump Crab Meat, that seems to imply that you have a higher crab meat to breading ratio.  Not the other way around.  Super disappointed in your crab cake, but then again, I was also at the airport so perhaps the blame is all mine.

Thursday while I was eating Government Agency Cafeteria food (which was a nicely done grilled cheese with bacon) in DC, my cohorts were over at Grove for our department Christmas holiday lunch.  Pretty sucky that I missed out on that and instead was stuck doing some admin litigation in a room full of crazy people.  But anyway . . . today more than made up for it.  Twist and I joined a couple of entertaining and pleasant folks from the regulatory floor for a last hurrah buffet lunch at the Plaza Club before one of companions cancelled her membership.  I'd never been there before but use "club" and "buffet" in the same sentence and I'm in.

Look at the fancy sign and the marble entry!  It reminded me of the old executive dining room that the McGraw Hill building in Rock Plaza used to have.  Anyone know if they still have it or if its been repurposed as office space?  It was sweet and so was this.  Great views but poopy weather today.  However we did have a super view of the building that our company is moving into over the next couple of years.  Check it:

Aww and they even put out green and red napkins for the holidays!  How can you not love that?

No photo of the buffet b/c I did not want to embarrass my host, but nice spread.  Not your typical buffet either.  My compliments to the PC for inventive buffet menu.  A Caribbean table had some panfried pork, an unidentified roast veggie of some sort that may have been a plaintain but was more squash-like, fried oysters and fried shrimp and Caribbean cabbage slaw.  There was also some fajita chicken and tortillas along with some sausage that I meant to try but didn't get around to getting up and procurring.  Also- a soup and sandwich table.  Brilliant!  Soup was gumbo.  Tasty gumbo with a nice kick.  Made my nose run, but not so much spice my mouth went numb eating.  Juuuust right.  Base was really dark brown which freaked me out a little but I was reassured by the service piece which was a giant cast iron and enameled dutch oven.  It looked like the gumbo was actually cooked in that pot then carried out to the table.  No warning dish or crappy soup tureen.  It was sort of impressive.

I forewent salad and jumped right in with entrees.  I had a full plate before I found out about the sausages so missed those.  Reports were that they were very tasty and had a good spicy kick.  I just did a little bit of everything.  Highlight was fried oysters and smoked salmon.  I am a whore for smoke salmon.  I would stuff myself silly with it if I could.  I was trying to be classy though and not pig out so only got a few pieces.

This is not my plate.  The picture of my plate has mysteriously disappeared so you get to see um-- the other guy who is not Twist's plate.  Now that I have lunched twice with these two and expect to do so on a more regular basis I think they qualify for code names.  I'll have to work on that for next time. . .  Suggestions?

Meanwhile, dessert options were presented.  Choc mousse cake, turtle cheesecake that actually looked pretty bitchin and dripping with caramel, banana fosters pie that also looked intriguing eventhough BF is not my thing.  Keylime pie, um, some other stuff and mango creme brulee.  Actually all pretty tempting options.  Key lime pie most definitely IS my thing so I ordered some up.  Again, distracted by conversation on how cats are dicks so forgot photo.  You tell me if I liked it or not:

Yes- absolutely disgusting.  No, just kidding.

Really lovely and not a fake green color which I appreciate.  Solid graham cracker crust that tasted homemade and some nice heavy whipped cream on top.  A perfect finish. I don't know what a membership at this joint costs but the buffet would make it totally worthwhile unless it's like crazy money every month.

Company again, fantastic and almost brought me to tears at one point I was laughing so hard.  Cats really are dicks.

I guess you had to be there.  Ran into Chungry and Ducky Momo on the way back  and got the stink eye from both of them. Not sure if it was for going off floor for lunch mates or going to the Plaza Club without them or both, or maybe they are just a coupla cats?  hmmmmm

PS-- found it! This is my plate.

Lunch Round Up . . .

I have been remiss in my postings this week and am getting behind.  Here is a brief recap of what has been going on with lunch and the menu for today:

Monday:  Called to duty as lunch companion again.  And went for dumplings, again.  Pork chicken combo with spicy sauce instead of mild.  The spicy is only marginally so compared to the mild so I'll be getting it from now on.  Dumplings were good.  Wrappers not too doughy which is always a plus for me.

And while we are at it, let's check on the quality of lime garnish Starbucks is putting into its Refreshers.  You may recall the last one I got was pretty gross.  Here is the most recent lime slice:

Eh, not much better.  Not sure why this Starbucks repeatedly has old yucky looking limes.

Tuesday some of us piled in the car and took a field trip to Arby's.    As I was on the heels of the Trader Joe's burrito fiasco I wasn't that hungry and had a salad with Diet Mountain Dew.

That was not a typo.  I did indeed have a Diet Dew fountain drink at the Arby's.  I know you're jealous.  The fountain Diet Dew is hard to come by.  It was heaven.  Salad was good too.  Very fresh.  First salad I have ever had at the Arby's.  My usual fare is the junior roast beef, potato cakes and jamoca shake.  To mix it up I will have a french dip.  Since I didn't get my usual I took a picture of my friend's food.

You see here he got curly fries in lieu of potato cakes.  While I do like the Arby's curly fries, as a lifelong potato cake person I cannot personally advocate for the curly fries, but will not hold it against you if you get them.  Our other co-worker had ordered a chocolate shake before I could stop him.  After extolling the virtues of the jamoca shake he went back and changed his order then concurred that it was indeed a fine shake.  While we ate, known Arby's fanatic, Favorite Lunch Buddy 1/Ducky Momo regaled us all with tales of living in NYC and trekking far distances to the only known Arby's on the island and singlehandedly educating the franchise about the appropriateness of serving potato cakes all day vs. just at breakfast.  And I have to agree, who doesn't know that? That is just criminal to deprive people of potato cakes after 10.  Oh that's right, it was an Arby's in New York City.  Combined with a Cinnabon.  Down in the West Village.  So many reasons why they would be completely clueless as to Arby's tradition.  Reasons, but not excuses.  There is no excuse for running an Arby's that way!  Anyway, Arby's was a pleasure as always, and we all left happy.  Do I even need to rate it for you?  Fine then.  A 5 with a RECOMMENDED.

Indeed!

Which brings us to today, Wednesday and leftover Trader Joe's chicken enchiladas.

They are not quite that color, I used an Instagram filter b/c they came out kind of dark and I wanted to show some details.  Details of an enchilada are kind of impossible though.  Especially leftover enchiladas.  So these came in a pack of 4--clearly 2 servings thank you very much Trader Joe's.   Hubs got these for dinner Monday night.  He ate most of it and thought they were just ok.  I tried them then too and will say I thought they could use more ranchero sauce and the chicken was dry.  What a difference a day and a half makes.  Leftover these are fabulous!  I could still use a little more ranchero sauce on them but overall very nice.  Great melding of flavors.  Chicken is nice and tender now and moist.  Not too much cilantro.  Not a big fan. People over use and it drives me crazy.  This is just right.  Ranchero is nearly 100% the way I prefer it.  Little bit of a beef stock undertone and not too much of a just plain tomato flavor.  Good hint of garlic.  Reminds me of my favorite place back home.

 

Here is the unfiltered shot after I have eaten about half of it.  Please excuse my dirty utensils!  Just overall feeling very pleased about this lunch.  From a calorie standpoint, it's 590 for both enchiladas.  If I'm being honest I should have only eaten one.  That started out my intent but I got carried away but my enjoyment of them.  No bundt cake for me later.  Which reminds me, we just got a Nothing Bundt Cake next door to the Trader Joe's which makes it all to easy to go buy cake.  And they are f'ing good.  I need to check on those calories.  I'm sure they are just short of catastrophic.  So far we have had cinnamon swirl, white chocolate (that I had none of b/c Hubs and Little Dude ate the whole thing before I could say Boo), white choc with raspberry and chocolate chocolate chip.  No one liked cinnamon but me, but it was really nice.  All the flavors are great.  Not too heavy which unfortch makes it easy to eat the whole thing.  And by whole thing I mean the small 4 inch cakes, the Bundtinis.  And yes, you do feel ridiculous ordering a Bundtini.  I just ask "for the small one there".

Oh, ratings.  Cake and enchiladas I would actually give 5s to and recommended.   

Now we are all caught up.  Tomorrow I will more than likely be having my leftover Trader Joe's Chicken Tikka Masala.  Stay tuned.  I know how thrilling that sounds.