You know … I am beginning to think that this series on Office Lunches are getting to be boring! So, I am going to try to speed up by making two postings today.

Today’s lunch is more protein and something I have a problem with. Well, it has to do with left over food.

Suanne packed a mandarin orange, a packet of supposedly healthier Doritos and a day old roast chicken thigh. It does look totally charred from this picture, doesn’t it?

The mandarin orange was really fresh and juicy. Buying mandarin oranges is so much a hit and miss for us. We had no way of really telling how fresh the orange is sometimes. This one was fresh and you know why? When I peel off the skin, I got a bit of the juice squished in my face.

We got the roasted chicken from Costco. I bet you notice that almost all supermarket chains where they sell an entire roasted chicken for something like $8 or so. You find it everywhere, in Safeway, Safe-On-Foods, and Superstore. I think I know why all these stores sell these roast chicken and why they are so cheap. I really do think that it’s a way for these supermarkets to sell chicken which is almost past their due date. Instead of throwing away unsold chicken, they roast it on premises and sell it cheaply. You think my theory is right?

I had never quite like Doritos. What’s your favourite chips? I like the ones called Kettle-something. I can’t recall the name but will recognize the packaging when I see it. I like Lays too. Doritos, well, is not quite my favourite. The only reason I had that is because Suanne picked that because the packaging said Zero Trans Fat and 100 calories.

How much time do you spend for office lunches anyway? I have been wondering ever since I started writing this series. Do you bring lunch from home or do you go out to eat? In my office, it is split 50/50, despite the convenience of the office location to all kinds of eating places. I can’t think of anywhere other than Kingsway/Metrotown that has such a concentration of restaurants in the Lower Mainland.

Suanne packed for me a small cup of Pringles, a mandarin orange and a Campbell Chunky Soup. Looking at the Campbell soup, I knew it will be a filling lunch.

Well, bet not many people know that Pringles are made by a shampoo company. The unique saddle shaped snacks are recognized world wide and comes in dozens of regional flavours. They are well known for their packaging in tubes but of late, they are now selling it in smaller cannisters. I think it’s because of the recent trend to consume lesser of such unhealthy snack.

Suane bought the Chunky Sirloin Burger soup from Safeway when they had a 2 for $5 promotion. Oh yeah, Suanne is a coupon clipper. Anyway, she thinks that you can actually get the same price from Real Canadian Superstore at their regular price.

Campbell’s is famous for their soup and it goes without saying that they are the world’s largest soup manufacturer. Their Chunky brand is their flagship product. Most of them comes in cans but the one I had is different … it came in microwaveable bowls. Can’t beat this convenience … just pull the lid off and microwave.

I’ve always enjoyed this a lot.

BTW, the weather in Vancouver had been very good lately. The rain’s gone and we have been having warmer weather. Earlier this week, the entire city was enveloped in mist in the morning. It is beautiful don’t you think?

I don’t really care much about lunch. I know I should have proper lunches but I really cannot stomach a full lunch everyday. Even with all the running that I am doing these days, my weight would still hover around the 4 kg overweight region. I know what the real problem is … I pig out during the weekends.

For today’s lunch, the appetizer was sesame snaps, the entree was the Philly Cheese Steak sandwich and dessert was the Dole fruit bowl.

I had sesame snaps yesterday too. That is the big problem about shopping in Costco. Almost everything we buy comes in bulk packaging and that means that we end up eating the same stuff for a while.

We came across the Raybern New York Deli Style Hot Sandwich while shopping in (where else?) Costco. It came in very bright and delightful packaging that one cannot miss. We bought the Philly Cheesesteak but they also have others such as:

1. Pastrami and cheese
2. Italian Chicken Club
3. Chipotle Southwest Steak
4. Chicken Bacon Ranch

Preparing this is simple … just pop it into the microwave and it’s all ready.

There are six in a box and each sandwich carries 420 calories. It was much much better than I expected form frozen deli sandwiches. As a matter of fact, it really tastes like the real stuff although texture-wise, I could really tell that this is not freshly made. As a frozen sandwich, I’ll rate this 4.5 of 5. I am not sure if they do have this in Costco Canada though, as we got it from Bellingham, WA.

I enjoy the Dole Fruit Bowl. They come on several types. The one I had was mandarin oranges. I am amazed how they managed to peel the membrane off so cleanly. I am pretty sure the membranes are removed mechanically because if they were done by hand, it would not be that perfect and would have costs a lot more.

LOL!

I see I had busted some myth about myself with this series on Office Lunches. Oh yeah, David … it is true … I eat these stuff and they are not bad too.

I had planned to run after work again sometime last week. So Suanne gave me a bowl noodle soup to bring to work. She threw in a mandarin orange and sesame snaps. I don’t quite like this bowl noodle but at least it is convenient.

I like Mandarin oranges and like it more than any other type of oranges. Tell me how you eat this. For me, I pick off every single vine and split the segments. It is Chinese New Year season and we see a lot of these in the Asian stores these days. BTW, did you know that China produces half of the world’s supply of mandarin oranges?

I’ll be having sesame snaps for a long time to come. Suanne just bought a big box of it and from the looks of it, it will last us at least a couple of months. I would think it is pretty healthy, after all sesame seed does have calcium and some nutrition. Taste wise, it is quite sweet. Actually it is more sweet than it is sesame.

You can get this in pretty every store and price wise, there are very little else that can beat sesame snaps. You will find it many times in the check out counters.

Well, I did not eat the bowl of noodle soup. Grant asked if I wanted to go out for lunch and seeing that I am running today, I thought why not since too I have no meetings for the rest of the day. It’s good to get out once in a while.

I reasoned that at least if I eat more than usual today, I’ll burn them off during the run. That way I don’t have to feel so guilty. We went across Kingsway to Metrotown. Hey, I heard that Metrotown is the second largest mall in Canada, is that right?

We decided to check out the new food section in the T&T supermarket. This place used to be a small food court until T&T took over this place and made it a to-go food court. If you have never been here before, you absolutely must check it out. Although you see T&T’s all over Metro Vancouver, this place is simply the biggest of them all and no where else beats them in terms of variety.

Although most people buy them to-go, there is a small section for people who choose to eat-in.

I bought myself a BBQ Mackerel Lunch Box. I absolutely dig this stuff. And it costs only $4.99. I like the way the rice is cooked, not soggy but dry. That piece of mackerel too was a tad too dry but otherwise quite tasty. On the sides were carrots, eggs, rolls and some vermicelli.

You know what is the secret ingredient here? It’s the Kikoman Soy Sauce, I kid you not. There are no better soy sauce than Kikoman’s and at home, I insist on buying only Kikoman’s sauce. T&T gives only 1 pack of the soy sauce. Additional ones are 10 cents each … that is daylight robbery, if you ask me. Soy sauce should be free, just like ketchup in a burger joint.

Hey All:

If you had been reading chowtimes.com via a feed reader, could you please remove your old subscription and resubscribe again? I am going to discontinue the old URL address and use a new one which is this: http://chowtimes.com/feed/

Thanks, Ben

This office selection is a bit more filling. At least there is a sandwich. You will notice that Suanne generally packs my snacks and lunches in threes. I think the constant is always a snack and something fruity.

For lunch today it is another Krispy Fruit snack, a Dole Fruit Parfaits and something I look forward to, a English Muffin Sandwich.

We bought the English Muffin Sandwiches from Costco. We had been buying a lot of these kind of microwaveable lunches from Costco in Bellingham. The selection in the Costco in the US is more wider than what we find in the Costco in Vancouver.

The English Muffin Sandwiches cames in a box of ten and in two flavours:

• Bacon, Egg and Cheese
• Sausage, Egg and Cheese

Each of them had 390 calories. So, it was not too bad, I guess. It is equivalent to McDonald’s McMuffin breakfast sandwiches.

The microwave instructions is quite complicated. There are quite a number of steps. Here are the steps:

1. Remove sandwich from wrapper.
2. Separate the meat and egg from the rest of the sandwich and heat:
   • For Sausage & Egg: 80 seconds.
   • For Bacon & Egg: 50 seconds.
3. Place the meat and egg back in the sandwich between the cheese slices and English muffins.
4. Microwave for another 35 seconds.
5. Turn sandwich over and microwave for another 35 seconds.

Despite the multi-step instructions, the result was pretty good and taste almost like Mickey D’s Mc Muffins. It is not at all dry and was pretty moist. I like it.

For dessert, it was the Dole Fruit Parfaits. It has real fruit on top of a smooth layer of deliciously light creme. The cream layer taste like vanilla yogurt.

I love the Krispy Fruit tubes from Krispy Kernels. They have a good variety of nuts and fruits. Again, we bought these in Costco. I munch on them all morning long and does a good job of staving away the hunger pangs until lunch time.

This may come to you as a shock but really, this is what I normally have for “lunch” almost everyday. People in my office do at times is a bit taken aback at what I had. I generally snack throughout the day. Suanne will prep different things for me every morning before I go to work.

So, breakfasts and lunches are generally light for me.

For this day, I had French Twists, beef jerky and a banana. I start snacking normally at about 10AM when I start feeling hungry. I’ll have a twist, followed by a piece of jerky and hour later and then the banana …

We bought the French Twists from Costco. It comes in two flavours and it’s sweet and light. This seems like a healthy snack from the packaging. I like it … it’s tasty.

Here are some words from the founder we found on their site:

At the age of 42, I suffered a major heart attack. After bypass surgery, my doctors instructed me to limit my cholesterol intake, to exercise more, and to stay within the Heart Association’s recommended diet. To stay committed to a healthier lifestyle, my diet needed some excitement. As a sweet lover, I searched for a treat that I could enjoy without guilt. After months of experimentation, the Original French Twist was born. Layer upon layer of puff pastry dough sprinkled with cinnamony sweet goodness. The only things we have left out are cholesterol, eggs, butter, and yeast.

The French Twist can be frozen in their bag if desired. Just let them defrost to room temperature before eating.

We had blogged about this beef jerky before. This one came from Polly who often gives us packets of Jerkies to try. You know, I don’t think we had ever bought Soo Jerkies before and all the jerkies we had was from Polly. The most popular jerkies in Vancouver is Soo Jerkies which has a factory in Richmond near Steveston.

Banana is a great source of Vitamin C and fiber. We always had a bunch of banana at home. It’s not always eaten and when it gets too ripe, Suanne uses that for baking. Most bananas that we have in Canada is from Ecuador who is the largest exporter of bananas in the world. Ecuador supplies a whopping 30% of the world’s export market.

Bear with me for one more day. I have a few more things to share with all of you before I embark on the Office Lunches series proper. Yesterday, I showed you my desk. Today, I am going to show a bit around the office. I’ll stay off sensitive areas, of course.

Being an aviation systems company, there are lots of plastic plane models all over the office. We get them from the airlines we support. I wish I had one but I don’t. If there is one I really covet, it is the Singapore Airline’s Airbus 380. I guess I could buy one myself but they are really expensive, like $50 bucks or so.

The office has an almost great view from the north side of the building. I said almost because there is this two residential building that is blocking the view of the north shore mountains. I am proud of our north shore mountains because on a clear and bright day, the mountains never fail to make every new visitor to Vancouver drop their jaw.

The snow this year had been a lot more then the past previous years but I think we had seen the last of them already. I am so looking forward to spring and spending more time outdoors.

We have a small kitchenette, if you can call it a kitchenette. I don’t wanna complain but it is often quite messy. The sink always have dirty dishes, cups or cutlery in it. Most people are neat and cleans up after themselves but a handful does not. Let’s see, we have a fridge, a dishwasher, a kettle, a toaster, and two microwaves.

It’s quite well equipped but we keep on losing cutlery. We just had a brand new set a few months ago and what I can see now is a couple of spoons and forks. Some people must have stashed in in their desk and forgot about it.

Just a month ago, we found that someone had food in their drawer for months. It created a huge stink throughout the office when it was discovered and someone opened up the plastic bag containing the bad food. Yucks! Made me throw up.

We love our coffee machine — errr, espresso machine. I remembered that it was a big deal when this was first bought and how the previous boss raved over the fact it costs $2000. It is fully automatic … grinds the beans only when you want a brew and makes all kinds of coffee. The only thing this can’t do is to discard the ground coffee.

I used to have several cups a day and my favourite is the latte. I don’t drink coffee here anymore. Wanted to cut down on this stuff and have water instead.

The office is pretty good … well except for the washroom. Firstly there are only ONE stall for the men’s in the entire floor. I don’t know how they plan this at all. That is not my pet peeve.

My pet peeve is that the sensor is super-sensitive. It flushes by itself every time you twitch a muscle. It is supposed to flush only after use. You can imagine how annoying this is when it flushes five times doing your business. The splashes gets your bum quite wet too. You know what I mean.

Some smart alec (don’t know who) creatively stuck a “Windows Vista” logo on the sensor unit. I thought it was kind of funny.

There is a technique around not getting yourself flushed five times. I know it’s crude but it works.

Tomorrow, I’ll tell you about food … honest.

Some of you know me … and can read me like a book already. For one, I like doing a series on things related to food. So, starting today I am going to start on a new series of “Office Lunches”. It’ll be all about the lunches (if you could call them lunches at all!!) that I had over three weeks. I really hope you all will find it interesting.

I’ll start off the series the next couple of days introducing to you the place where I had my lunches. Oh yeah, I had most of my lunches at my desk and it’s because I had so much to do in the office, I often only have time to grab a quick 5 minute bite.

I have a two desk cubicle all by myself. I love the location of my cubicle because it is secluded and have quite a lot of privacy. I wish I have an office but am just a small fry. Anyway, I am only about 50% at my desk most of the time because I will either be in the meeting rooms or going about tracking folks down.

The company uses HP machines exclusively. I like my notebook which I hack at it almost everyday in the year. The one you see there is a loaner (almost similar model) because mine is under repair because the monitor hinge came off from the casing(!). They decided to repair it instead of issuing me a new one because it not yet past it’s due date.

While at my desk, I connect it to an old-fashioned monitor and make it my extended desktop. I actually work faster with dual monitors. I also have a wireless mouse which I carry it all over the office with the notebook — I hate the touch pad. For some reason, I cannot get used to it.

I have a Cisco IP phone. This is the best phones I had ever used. I mean, it does everything except make the coffee. Most importantly the voice quality is miles better than any previous phones I had ever used. I spend a lot of time on the phone … long distance to our offices in other cities. IP phones saves the company lots of money especially when we have offices all over the world.

My favourite is the headphone. It is super sensitive and clear. When I take calls from my desk, I can be 100% sure the other side can hear me loud and clear. He he he … even when I am in a conference call, I don’t even have to speak real loud and my voice from the headset can overpower the others that makes people stop on their track.

Oh, I think I have a cool ringtone too … it’s exactly the same ringtone from the series “24″. You know, the CTU? Jack Bauer? The CTU uses the same type of phone.

I have my own easel (sp?) with flip charts. It really helps in clarifying discussions. I think most people can relate to ideas, concepts, etc visually. So, I make it a point to write or draw on the flip chart that we can always go back to in case we need to. Unlike whiteboards, once erased, they’re gone.

I like my calendar. It is neat and best of all, it does what I term as a “rolling” calendar. First, it is eraseable and comes with magnetized erasable markers. The weekly calendar strips are also magnetized which I can roll off each week once it’s over. Four weeks ahead is good enough for me to see at high-level what is going on. You can’t put a lot of info here but it does the job.

On the desk is two little toys that I don’t pay much attention to anymore. The rubber stress ball is a souvenir from my ex-company. That is pretty much all I got from being outsourced to Accenture!! I leave it on my desk and many people who come by just could not help but pick it up and squeeze it while talking to me.

Then there is this little 3-minute hour glass. I get interrupted quite often at work. It could get very disruptive. I used to go hide in the meeting rooms or somewhere else each time I wanted peace to get my stuff done. That did not work anymore because everyone had figured out where to track me down. So, I resorted at some time to the hours glass … people would come by asking if they could have a minute with me and I told them, I’ll give them 3 minutes … and flip over the hour glass in front of them. It was funny but it did not work at all. If you want I can sell that to you for $1.

Most people knows that only Ben uses the small yellow writing pad. I go all around the office with this, jotting down every important note because I have such lousy memory. Also, most people knows that I am the only one who uses the 4-color BIC pens. It’s really useful in writing notes and being able to differentiate what is what when the whole page gets busy.

The company issues us coffee mugs but they are so puny. I got this larger one from our supplier which is much bigger. I used to drink lots of coffee at work but for a long time now it is only water I take.

I also have a one of a kind pewter pen holder. I used to work in a manufacturing company called Royal Selangor who makes these sort of stuff. This pen holder has a motif of dragons and is a prototype which never saw production. I rescued that from the melting pot.

There are other books on the table. These two had been there for ages. I read perhaps two chapters. I am like that. I get lots of books and only about 20% of them gets read from cover to cover. :-)

Then there is the Bible of the Project Management profession. It’s called the PMBOK (pronounced as pim-bok) which is the definitive guide to project management. If you aspire to be a PM and if there is one book you want to read, it’s this.

I had all kinds of notes that pin up on the walls of the cubicle. This one is a simple self made time conversion which I used to convert time zones. For the life of me, I could never do time zone conversion mentally and always had to rely on this handy list. I used to have to deal with BOTH London and Singapore at the same time and it’s a nightmare, I tell you. London is 8 hours ahead of Vancouver and Singapore is 8 hours the other side. So, I used to have to get on calls at 11PM at night and then go work normal office hours. These days, it’s more saner because it is just Atlanta and London I had to deal with.

I also had some little reminders that I make up over the years. They are as useful today as it was the first time I come across them. Click on the picture if you want to have a clearer read of it.

The plant was handpicked and nurtured by Suanne. I am pretty proud of this because it is so packed with leaves. Not only that …

… it is so long that I extended it to the other side of my cubicle which currently is empty.

Tomorrow, I will share with you some other things about my office before I launch on my “office lunches” series proper.

Whew! It took us an entire weekend to migrate chowtimes to Wordpress. We know it is still rough around the edges but the good thing is we’re back in business. We will take the next few weeks to cleanup the odds and ends.

If you had bookmarked any of our internal pages, please note that they will not work anymore. This is because WordPress names pages different from MovableType and we decided that it is best adopting fully what WordPress does.

Oh … ignore the corvette on the header page. We’ll fix that later on to something more foody.

Enjoy!
Suanne and Ben