Day 58: Shorty Got Low

Today, I had a low key lunch of chunk light tuna (from a mini flip top can) and crackers (wheat flavored). I still can’t get the tuna:cracker ratio correct so I ended up needing a pack and a half of crackers again. Shrug. Not the biggest deal in the world to eat a couple of crackers by themselves without the tuna. I ran out of the office on a quick errand (to pick up this week’s People magazine with the Saved By The Bell reunion on the cover, for one thing) and stopped by one of the fruit carts to check out the selection. Prices seemed really high, so instead of paying 2.99 / lb for cherries, I decided to eat the orange I brought with me from home. I listened to my youtube random music playlist as I ate.

Day 57: Fast Day

In observance of Tisha B'Av, the Jewish Day of Mourning, I did not eat lunch today. Funny how fast days can move so slowly . . . This evening, later into the fast, I watched The Wave, an early 80s movie about a teacher who recreates a Nazi like regime in his High School history class as a social experiment. This movie is a classic Trigger Film, and they used to show it to us in High School and in sleep-away camp all the time to prompt group conversations on topics such as group dynamics and peer pressure, or on weightier subjects such as the Holocaust. I found it to be as thought provoking now as I did back then, and spent some time googling the story to see how much of it was true (it's unclear). You can watch the 45 minute film here. After the movie, I was still hungry and waiting for the fast to end. My father always says that his father always said that it's better to eat ten days than fast one day. Ponder that.

Day 56: Lunchtime Lying

I knew I needed a substantial lunch today, so I ordered a personal pizza from Circa. I went downstairs to the lobby of my building to pick it up from the delivery guy, and on my way back upstairs I ran into a very nice, friendly, more senior colleague in the elevator. He asked me where I ordered my pizza from, because he himself had picked up slices of pizza for lunch. I commented that I preferred personal pies during the day, because to me those are more lunch appropriate, whereas I equate slices with dinner. I knew as I was saying it, that this was a complete and utter lie. I totally made it up. I've noticed that when I am in the middle of a semi-awkward conversation with someone I know but don't have much to say to, I will often end up fabricating stories. And then, just like it happened today, I walk away wondering what on earth I had been talking about. A professor I know just wrote a book on lying and he discovered that "new acquaintances will lie to each other about three times in the course of a ten minute conversation". My personal experiences definitely corroborate that. Regardless, my pizza was really good, and very filling. It was slightly more toasty than usual and that was a nice change of pace.

Day 55: Cartoon Review, circa 2009

I went to Circa today for the last of my Tuesday lunches with Steinberg (who just started his own blog!). I was greeted warmly by the management there and we chatted for a bit about their various offerings. They told me that the new Circa will be opening on Sept 1st with a salad bar, pizza bar, pasta bar, sandwiches etc, so those of you who work downtown should look out for that in the Fall. Circa had a split pea soup today, so I tasted it. It was pretty good, but I decided that it was too hot out for a soup lunch. Steinberg and I both opted for pastas – I got the whole wheat penne ala vodka from the Make-Your-Own-Pasta bar, and Steinberg ordered the penne-al-fredo with tomato sauce from the Entrées, which came with his choice of side dish (mashed potatoes in this case). We also split a side order of roasted sweet potatoes and butternut squash. I noticed that while Steinberg’s pasta had the benefit of coming with a side dish, my plate seemed more overflowingly full. And my order was cheaper. So if you really like variety, the entrée pasta with a side is a good choice, but if you can handle only straight up pasta with no add-ons, the pasta bar is a better value. The roasted veges were very tasty. I preferred the sweet potato but Steinberg liked the squash better. I think the potato was a bit sweeter (figures), but ‘berg thought that the squash had a little “somethin’-somethin’ ”. He always likes that little somethin’-somethin’.

Day 54: Ask the Lunch Lady: Lunch at the Bar Exam?

My lunch today consisted of tuna fish, crackers and an orange. I would like to now turn to a new feature: Ask the Lunch Lady. Earlier today, I received the following email:

Subject: LUNCH EMERGENCY

Dear Rebecca, I am taking the bar exam tomorrow (and Wednesday and Friday) and just don't know what to do for lunch (gasp!). Should I bring lunch and stuff it into the 1 gallon clear plastic bag they let you bring into the exam? Should I risk running out to J-2? What if it’s too hot, too cold or too rainy? Should I order in? How will they ever find me amongst the thousands of people taking the bar? I'm taking the bar in the Javits Center (~37th St. and 11th Ave). I am in quite a pickle, and so I turn to the expert. What would YOU do? - Ezra

Dear Ezra, First of all, good luck to you and all my other friends taking the bar this week. We can’t wait for your gchat statuses to be about something else. If it was me, I would bring lunch from home. J2 is far, and even if anyone will deliver to you, it can take up to an hour for food to arrive during the lunch rush, and you might miss your chance to eat. You do not want this extra stress in the middle of the exam. Supposedly there is kosher food in the Javits center – the website names “Eden Caterers for kosher dishes”, but I can’t vouch for its actual existence, Kosher standards or (dairy) food selection. I suggest bringing some sliced bread and tuna packets or cheese, or a small sandwich. You can fit a granola bar in that bag too. Good luck this week- my roommate will be there too! – Rebecca

Have a question about lunch? Email rebeccalunch@gmail.com and you might be featured in a future column!

Day 53: Farmer's Market

Fresh, local grown Southern produce looks and tastes a lot better than the so called "produce" at Keyfood in Washington Heights. Everything at the Farmers Market was brightly colored and huge and perfectly shaped. We saw bright purple egg plants, tiny watermelons, huge green zucchini and perfectly round cherry tomatoes. I tasted white and yellow peaches, black berries and blue berries. Everything was really sweet and delicious. Sara also tasted apricots and tomatoes. My grandfather bought a bunch of tomatoes to make tomato sauce. We went home to eat a much more mundane meal of macaroni and cheese. Sara and my grandfather had some raspberry vanilla Dove ice cream that comes with a chocolate bar inside. I ate some small chips of the chocolate bar, but not the ice cream because I do not like Vanilla ice cream.

Day 52: North Carolina feels just like New York

Even though I ate this meal immediately after I woke up, we're going to call it lunch. On Thursday, I had ordered some deli from Mendy's, and they delivered it to my office. I brought 1 lb of salami, 1/2 lb of corned beef and 1/3 lb of pastrami with me to North Carolina. To eat for one meal. For three people. One of whom is my sister Sara, the fake-atarian. (She only eats salami and hot dogs). So if anyone wants to come to Greensboro for some leftovers . . . We also ate potato salad, cole slaw, salad, potato kugel. For dessert we had mini Black and White cookies. My grandfather loves these and can't really find them here, so we always bring some down when we come to visit.

Day 51: Cucumber Tuna Rolls

My grandfather, sister and I sat down in the sun drenched kitchen in my grandfather's North Carolina home to enjoy almost-matching sandwiches of tuna fish and cucumber slices on challah rolls. I personally opted for chunk light tuna and whole wheat, while Sara and Grandpa went for white tuna on regular bread. My grandfather has lots of little bags of Utz potato chips that he is given with his sandwich at the local Italian sub restaurant he frequents, so we each took a bag of chips to accompany our sandwich. I put my chips rights inside the tuna, but the wetness added by the cucumbers did not go so well with the crunch added by the chips. Next time I would probably skip the cucumbers, or eat them on the side. We fed the extra tuna to the cats. For dessert we compared the cherries I brought from NY to the ones my grandfather had bought locally. The Carolina version were a bit sweeter and more tart.

Day 50: Reader's Choice, Take Four

My readers had a definite opinion today, and 42% of you chose the Penne A La Vodka from Circa (beating out A Circa wrap / sandwich from Penn Station, Circa Pizza, and tuna with crackers). It’s a classic, a perennial favorite – I can see why it would win. I went to the Circa website to check if I could order it online (I couldn’t) and I noticed the return of the Sweet Potato Soup to the menu. This left me with a moral dilemma - do I get the soup which was once a favorite, or do I honor the promise I made to my readers to let them decide. I opted for both (that was easy). I called in my order and then waited an HOUR for it to arrive. I went for the soup first, because it’s obviously best hot. I was really curious to see if it would live up to its old standards or whether it would be more of the kugel batter gloop. I am happy to report that the soup was delicious! It has returned to its former glory and I can once again anoint it as my best lunch option ever. The bread that comes with it can be dipped in the soup as a great combination. Afterwards, I ate the pasta, and it was OK, but its taste paled in comparison to that of the soup. The sauce also seemed a little more oily than it usually is, but overall, a great dish. I hope Circa is paying attention.

Day 49: There's a Bear! Where? Over there!

During my lunch break I ran out of the office on a quick errand. Upon exiting my building, I immediately noticed a giant bear running around the MSG plaza. In a blink of an eye, it was gone. I thought I might be hallucinating but then I found a man in a bear costume standing behind a pillar, gnawing on it with big plastic teeth. I continued on my way. Upon my return, I went to my desk and retrieved a small flip-top can of chunk light tuna from my purse. I was en route to the kitchen to drain the tuna when I realized I was still wearing my flip flops from my outing. This is not appropriate office attire. I decided to risk it and walked to the kitchen and back without seeing anyone important. At my desk, I opened a package of wheat flavored crackers and started scooping out the tuna with the crackers. I finished the first pack (about 5 - 6 crackers) but still had ¼ of the can of tuna left. So I had to open a second pack, even though I only needed about 2 more crackers, and then of course I ate the rest of the crackers anyway.

Day 48: Lunch Special

I met my friends Deborah and Steinberg for a late lunch today. We met up at Kosher Delight. KD has lunch specials so Deb and I both ordered the burgers, fries and drink special. You basically get the drink for free, which doesn't really save me money because I never buy drinks at lunch, but I guess a free bottle of water is never a bad thing. Steinberg insisted on getting a double burger and onion rings, and he paid about twice as much as we did. He says its OK because he only eats out for lunch once a week and other days he just eats cheese. We sat down to eat, and Deborah informed us that a woman had just taken out and rinsed her teeth in the public sink. We ate anyway. I dumped lots of ketchup and BBQ sauce packets on my burger. It tasted exactly as expected - greasy and delicious. The fries were a bit less crunchy than I like them, but I stole one of Steinberg's onion rings (he owes me from the watermelon incident) and those were really good. The food overall was very good, but we all left a little bit hungry. Back at the office, I ate many many cherries and this kept me full enough through the rest of the day and an Ultimate Frisbee game in the rain before I ate dinner.

Day 47: Kosher Street Food in Midtown!

I had heard about a Kosher sandwich truck in midtown and was excited by the prospect of Chickies like sandwiches in my neighborhood. So I walked over to 9th Avenue where the Sub on Wheels truck is parked between 32nd and 33rd. There it was, an actual food truck, with a Glatt Kosher Certification from a Rabbi in Monsey who my friend Ariela says is legit. Their menu consists of all different kinds of sandwiches, including Philly steak, deli, and chicken as well as salads, hot dogs, and soups. They were advertising their daily special which was soup and half a schnitzel sandwich for $5.00. FIVE DOLLARS! I couldn’t pass that up so I ordered it with Zucchini soup. I walked over to the Post Office on 8th and sat on the steps to eat (very Gossip Girl, I know). The soup was thick and creamy with chunks of zucchini in it. It was very good. The sandwich itself was a little disappointing – I guess I was expecting some kind of sauce, but it was just a piece of schnitzel on a club roll, with some veges. The chicken was a bit dry but edible. And I was very full after the soup and sandwich. I am eager to go back and try some of the other options.

Day 46: 'Ello Gov'na

By the time I arrived at Governor’s Island, I was already pretty hungry due to a rigorous round of Ultimate Frisbee in the park in the morning. I was delighted by the selection of snacks that were collectively brought by the other birthday celebrators who had gathered in honor of our friend Aliza. I mostly munched on honey twist pretzels, cherries, and twizzlers. Eating cherries while lying on a grassy lawn and looking at an unbelievable view of the Statue of Liberty is a pretty good way to spend a Sunday afternoon. While not the most substantial of lunches, this filled me up and I was energized for a challenging round of croquet and for other park fun. In the late afternoon, I did have another snack of cheerios and Honey Mustard and Onion pretzels before meeting some other friends and attempting to roller skate.

Day 45: Chulent

Shabbat (Saturday) lunch was another pot luck meal with about 10 friends. Lisa and Deb made yummy chicken and asparagus, which Avi Z spilled all over the floor, and Shlomo spilled all over his pants (the pre-meal l’chaims may have contributed to that). Scott made turkey ravioli which was new and different, and pretty tasty. I made a pumpkin kupiegel, which is a kugel in a pie crust. The graham crust really adds to the sweet pumpkin flavor. I picked the croutons and avocado out of Becca’s salad. I also ate sesame noodles, deli roll, and cauliflower. For dessert, in honor of Sho’s birthday we had Deena Cake , which was De-licious. I wanted some watermelon but there was only one small piece left, and when I asked Steinberg to pass it to me, he ate it. There was no chulent.

Day 44: Disappointing News

In a disappointing turn of events, by the time I got around to ordering lunch today, my Kosher lunch choices had already stopped delivering. At least on Seamless Web. Which was really the point, because I had a $5.00 off coupon that expires tomorrow. What a waste. Anyway, the winning choice in the poll was the Hot Pastrami Sandwich from Kosher Deluxe. I am not sure why, but maybe it's because all of the other choices were from Kosher Delight, and people might prefer Kosher Deluxe to Kosher Delight in general. Although, there were more votes overall for Delight than Deluxe. And in the first poll the Kosher Delight choice won. Maybe the Chinese options split the vote. Who knows. Anyway instead I am eating a bag of BBQ flavored soy crisps for lunch, clearly inspired by Lisa. I also bought an orange but I have not eaten it yet. Only time will tell.

Day 43: Local Flavor

A last minute change in lunch plans meant a trip to Mendy’s with my coworkers, Marisa, Joyce and Clare. Therefore, the poll is still open and will decide my lunch for tomorrow instead. Joyce and I both tried the shwarma in a pita. I had them add chips into mine, in addition to Israeli salad, hummus, and tehhina. The shwarma itself was chicken, which I don’t think is usual for shwarma. It had a weird flavor which Joyce thought might be curry. It wasn’t the best shwarma I’ve ever had but it was really filling. We also ordered some latkes (potato pancakes) for the table, because, who doesn’t like a good latke in July? On our way back to the office, we saw our favorite cross dressing man with his dog in his stroller. We haven’t seen him in over a year, but he’s a favorite local character since he always dyes both his own hair and that of his dog. We couldn’t get a picture but I found an old one online. My facebook friends can also see a rendering of him on my graffiti wall.

Day 42: Hungry? Why Wait?

I had a late start today and therefore ate a late breakfast and also a late lunch. I ordered a whole wheat penne ala vodka from Circa, which is another dish that you need to order over the phone. Why isn't the vodka sauce option on the website? It's annoying. When I went down to the lobby of my building to pick up the food, I noticed a giant plastic cube on top of the overhang in front of my office and Madison Square Garden. Inside the cube, there were people sitting and hanging out on couches. The cube had signs for Snickers bars and apparently was kicking off some Feeding American charity collaboration. But was this supposed to cause viewers like me to buy a Snickers bar? I didn't. I wonder about the effectiveness of these stunt marketing campaigns. They bother me because there seems to be no way to measure your ROI. Maybe the point was just to get media and blogger coverage, in which case, I guess it worked. The pasta was good.

Stay tuned for Thursday's Reader's Choice edition! The poll will be on the top right hand side of the page.

Day 41: Kosher Switch-up In Penn Station

My first attempt at lunch was unsuccessful. I had a meeting to run to, and not much time, so I went downstairs to the basement that is Penn Station to pick up a Yummy Sandwich, hoping for a good ceasar grilled chicken wrap. When I got to Primo Cappucino, I noticed that all of the kosher sandwiches were fish or cheese based, and none had any chicken. Upon further inspection, I realized that they were not Yummy Sandwiches at all – they were Circa sandwiches! They had several different tuna and vege wraps, and assorted cheesy looking sandwiches. I am generally a big fan of Circa, but nothing looked appealing to me. And 8 dollars for a tuna fish wrap seems kinda insane. So I went back to my office, went to my meeting for an hour, and then ordered in from Circa. The website listed a cantaloupe soup, which I would have tasted if I was at the restaurant, but I thought was too risky of an order without a taste test. I decided to get a pizza, since I was hungry and cranky and two of my computers had crashed and almost died in the last 2 days. For some reason, there is no whole wheat pizza option on the Circa website. I had to call my order in and request a whole wheat pizza, light sauce. It came pretty quickly, and seemed to be a bit bigger than the one I ordered last week, so maybe that smaller one was a fluke. It was extra cheesy and as always, deliciously satisfying.

Day 40: New Kosher Restaurant Alert!

After making several requests, the manager of Circa assured me that my favorite Circa soup, Sweet Potato, would be on the menu today. I eagerly checked the website this morning – and there it was! I made plans to meet my friend Emily to sit outside in Herald Square after I picked up my soup. I went to Circa and when the manager saw me, he came over to join me at the soup section. The man behind the counter poured us each a sample so we could taste it. Circa got a new soup chef from some fancy restaurant, so the recipes are different. The manager and I agreed that while the soup was tasty, it had a bit of a kick from the pepper and could use a bit of extra seasoning. The manager had them add extra cinnamon to my soup before giving me my order. He also called over one of the owners of Circa, who told me that he has read my blog (and is happy that I eat at Circa more than I eat at Rosas). He also told me that Circa is opening up a new downtown location at 111 Fulton Street (near Dutch ST)! He said that it will be smaller but have almost the same selection as they have at the Circa in midtown. Big news for all of my readers downtown! I then went to meet Emily and eat my long awaited soup. It wasn’t bad, but it really is not as good as the old sweet potato soup. This one was thinner and more gloopy. And by the time I got to the bottom, it had settled a bit. At the end, Emily compared the consistency to slime. To me, it felt like eating raw kugel batter. I recommend eating it quickly while it is still hot and looser, and tastier.

Day 39: I'm On A Boat

About 6 miles down the Lehigh river, our trusty guides directed us to paddle our rafts over to the side bank. This might have been tricky for others, but with Scott the navigator at the rear of our boat, and Priscilla the fish floating behind us, we were able to safely maneuver over to the side. We were then informed that there was a rattle snake on the shore, so we quickly paddled a little further down the river before we docked our boat, Floaty. We joined our co-white water rafters, Team Flippy Floppies, for a lunch stop in the woods. My stomach was grumbling so I dug into my two tuna sandwiches on whole wheat mini challah rolls (always bring two sandwiches!), and the cherries I brought as a snack. The fruit had gotten a little smooshed in our sealed waterproof bucket full of food, but the sweet treat was a good energy booster as we set off to continue to navigate the (not so) wild rapids of the river.

Priscilla

Day 38: All Girls Plus One

My friend Emily hosted a Shabbat lunch today. There were about 8 - 10 of us there, and it was a classic All Girls Meal Plus One - as in, only one guy at the meal. As said guy is known to remark, when one guy is eating alone with many girls, one of two things will happen. Either, the girls focus all their attention on the one guy and ask him lots of questions, or, the girls forget that there is a guy in the room and speak freely. Either way, the guy learns a lot. I would say that his assessment was correct in this case. I ate delicious chicken cutlets with BBQ sauce and onions, asparagus salad, rice with craisins and mushrooms (I made that), chulent, and some other good stuff. For dessert I had fruit and an incredible chocolate streudel cake, made by another friend. It was rich and chocolately and deliciously amazing. My props to our own resident Ace of Cakes.

Day 37: Pizza Shenanigans

The day after the fast is all about eating the foods you couldn't eat the day before. That means that lunch today was pizza. I ordered a whole wheat pizza with light sauce from Circa and had it delivered to my office. The pizza came in a new box with an ad for Dasani water on it that says "The water that makes your mouth water". Doesn't that kind of sound like the water won't quench your thirst and that drinking water will just make your mouth water for more water? This would actually be a smart gimmick for water companies to increase sales, (kind of like adding nicotine) but it doesn't seem like a smart way to advertise. The pizza itself, inside the Dasani ad box, was tasty. But the personal pies from Circa seem smaller than they used to be. Has anyone else noticed this (or am I just going crazy from thinking about lunch too much)? I was still full at the end of the meal, but I felt a little cheated. Also, the slices were cut very unevenly, so that some took 4 bites to eat and others took closer to 10. I do not approve of such inequity.

Photo Credits: Marisa C

Day 36: Cravings

Today is a Day of Mourning on the Jewish calendar and therefore I am abstaining from food. This means that I am very hungry. During my lunch break, I distracted myself by doing some quick shopping. It is really convenient that my office is right next to so many stores, so I can very easily run over to Old Navy or H&M. But shopping did not make me any less hungry. And when I walked back to my office I smelled the sweet aroma of fresh baked pizza wafting down 33rd street. And now all I can think about is pizza. Bubbling hot cheesy delicious pizza.

Day 35: Dairy Debate

It finally stopped raining in NYC so I have been venturing out of the office for lunch more often. Today I met my favorite Early Childhood Educator (and my roommate), Mor, for lunch. We first walked over to Circa to check out the soup selection. Still no sighting of my favorite soup. I decided to talk to the manager about this, and he assured me that they would serve my soup of choice on Monday. We'll see . . . He also had me taste the eggplant soup which was not terrible but I think it was tomato based and I don't usually go for tomato-y foods. Mor and I then went to Rosas to check out the menu over there. The selection was not bad but we decided to go back to Circa, where we split a whole wheat personal pizza (her half with veges, mine with light sauce). The pizza was particularly awesome today. Good job, Circa. I also ate a side order of roasted sweet potato. I wondered if this counts as a vegetable side dish. Potatos are somewhat gender ambiguous like that. Google research confirms that sweet potatoes are in fact members of the vegetable food group.

Day 34: Something for Everyone

Today I had lunch with my cartoonist friend, Steinberg. (Check out my new Steinberg original cartoon in the blog header!) We went to check out the recently improved J2. J2 used to be a standard pizza store but is now billing itself as a "Gourmet Marketplace". In addition to the regular pizza / salad options, they now have fresh fruit in the front and a buffet- like set up in the back, where you can take different dishes and then pay by the pound. This is awesome for indecisive people like me or commitment phobic people like Steinberg (just kidding). It is also great because it lets you pick exactly what you want to eat. For example, they had mixed roasted vegetables, which I usually avoid since I don't like roasted peppers or eggplant. In this situation though, I was able to pick out JUST the squash and zucchini and eat only that. I also was able to take the cheesiest part of the baked ziti, the exact size of grilled fish fillet that I wanted, exactly 3 pieces of cauliflower tempura, a scoop of grilled sweet potato and one perfect looking strawberry. This came out to about 1.2 lbs. Everything was really good, in a somewhat greasy cafeteria style food kind of way, but it was waaay too much food. Not that I didn't eat it all. Hours later, I am still stuffed. I will definitely be back.

Day 33: This does not count as lunch

After a late return last night, I found myself working from home with no food in my apartment. I tried to improvise on lunch by eating an extended breakfast of cheerios throughout the day. This was only somewhat satisfying. I supplemented this with some cherries, which always make me happy. Happy, but not full. Luckily, I knew that my friend Scott would be bringing a Chickies sandwich for me to Volleyball, so I would have an awesome dinner. This knowledge got me through the day. Side note: apparently I was only allowed to eat 'ch' foods today.

Day 32: Lunch with a View

Gondola rides and cave crawls are fun, and watching a 20-something year old man squeeze through a tiny cave hole as if he was being birthed backwards is always entertaining, but they don't quite work up the same appetite as a full on hike does. So even though I brought two sandwiches up to the top of Loon Mountain, when we sat on the platform of the amphitheater and ate lunch overlooking the view, I only ate one sandwich. When faced with the choice between tuna and American Cheese, I had to go for the smooshy deliciousness of the cheese sandwich. I should eat these all the time. Back at the bottom of the mountain, after experimenting with a trampoline and conquering my fear of a rock climbing wall (does making it to the top before you freak out mean you are no longer scared?) we devoured an entire red juicy watermelon for dessert.

Day 31: Freedom and Liberty

Our July 4th lunch table was festively adorned with our trip mascots, Freedom and Liberty. My fellow Americans and fellow vacationers, Mor, Lisa, Tsufit, Shlomo, Sol, Yair, Steinberg and I sat down to a festive traditional Shabbat meal. I ate breaded chicken cutlets, cous-sous with vegetables, sweet potato strips, grilled veges, chulent (traditional Jewish stew made with potatoes, meat, barley, onions and an array of spices), and potato kugel (which I mixed into the chulent - this is an amazing combination). I made Vodka Twerps for dessert but they were gross. Don't try it at home. The meltaway chocolate crumb cake, cantaloupe and malibu pineapples made for much tastier after-lunch treats. We spent the rest of the afternoon playing games and reading magazines that sound edible but arent.

Day 30: Lunch on a mountaintop

Lunch never tastes as good as it does when you eat it after climbing 2500 feet to the top of a mountain, especially the day after a rainfall that left a set of challenges including mud pits, slippery rocks, and waterfalls on the trail. I was instructed by Shlomo, one of my hiking mates and frequent commenters, that I HAD to bring two sandwiches on the hike. So when we got to the top I started in on my chunk light tuna and whole wheat bagel sandwich. I had an unexpected treat when I discovered mayo in the cafeteria at the mountain top. However, I added too much mayo to the tuna which was a little bit unfortunate. Overly mayoed tuna is pretty gross. But when eating in a cloud at 4300 feet, anything tastes good. Next, I ate my second sandwich which was three slices of American cheese on whole wheat sliced bread. This sandwich was particularly delicious because it was perfectly smooshed from being in my backpack all day. I finished off lunch with some Hershey Kisses, which are great energy boosters when hiking.

Day 29: Reader's Choice, Take Two

Yesterday I asked you, my readers, to vote on what I should eat for lunch today. The poll ended when I ate dinner last night, because I ate the losing choice. Over 30 people voted and the victorious choice for lunch today, winning by a slim margin of only ONE vote, was . . .corned beef! This beat out the breaded dark meat chicken, which I ate and very much enjoyed last night with a side of carrot kugel (traditional Jewish side dish). Thanks Mom. Anyway, for lunch I ate home-made sweet corned beef, which was probably braised in some sort of sauce, and brown rice on the side. The meat was tender and tangy without being overbearing. The brown rice served as a nice balance to the meat. The only thing missing was a vegetable. Shrug.

Feel free to leave suggestions of Independence Day themed lunches for this weekend, but I will likely ignore them as I am going to be out of town and only blogging sporadically until next week. Until then, Happy 4th and lunch out.

Day 28: Heaven on Earth

A trip to Jersey last night left me with a most delicious lunch for today – a Chickies sandwich. Few loves can rival the love between me and my sandwich. Today I had half of an Ian Beatbox sandwich with Kumbaslow sauce and pickles. I requested whole wheat bread, but I think they accidentally gave me regular. Chickies, you are forgiven. There is just something about the honey bbq sauce on the batter fried chicken and the garlic mayo sauce on top (these descriptions may not be accurate; I am not really sure exactly what I am eating) – it is amazing incredible scrumptious-ness. I’m not going to lie, it’s not the easiest on my stomach. It’s a pretty heavy lunch. But that means it is also filling, and since it looks like between a volleyball game and a moving away karaoke party tonight I won’t be eating dinner until at least 10, this sandwich has a long way to travel. I trust that Chickies is up to the challenge.

Tomorrow is Reader’s Choice Day! Vote now (on the poll on the right side of the screen) for what I should eat for lunch tomorrow! Deadline is 10PM(ish) tonight when I will eat the losing choice for dinner.