Souped up servings

For the last two years, I’ve mostly been working remotely. I appreciate this type of work, mainly because it saves me commuting time and also because I can fit my professional duties in between my domestic ones (this is particularly crucial when my child is ill). For some time, however, I’ve been coming into the office quite regularly, which I thoroughly enjoy. I love the people I work with. (And I’m not just saying that, boys and girls in the office!) When I go into work, I like that feeling of being a typical corporate office worker (although ‘Eurobuild’ is hardly a corporation) – the girl in the office who takes her lunch break in town. I often use our office canteen, although I do sometimes go to other places or order a delivery. And here a similar problem arises to when I have to feed a certain fussy five-year-old away from home or order a take-out. In many office canteens or restaurants with a lunch menu for those working in the building, there’s often no vegetarian option (for me) or anything similar to home cooking (for my daughter). I like pierogi and I adore grilled or roasted vegetables. Pasta, I like just a little less than my child, but how much of that can you eat? To make sure that my observations and criticisms were not unfounded, before I sat down to write this piece I went on the internet and checked out the menus of ten canteens and restaurants in office buildings (and a few elsewhere). Yes, there are vegetarian options and traditional Polish cuisine on offer, but they most definitely seem to be something of an afterthought compared to the burgers and tortilla wraps that dominate – and even against Italian, Indian or Thai food. Ever more often, sushi is appearing on lunch menus, but there’s no sign of vegetarian cutlets or celery. So I would like to appeal to the operators of canteens and restaurant chefs to add more meatless meals. It’s not difficult. Kaszotto, vegetable cutlets, courgettes and aubergines can be found on any local market. And on behalf of my daughter (and probably many other young children), please add home-made soup to the menu – but leave out the parsley and the floating bits of carrot.

What else might I suggest? Many canteen customers can’t easily judge how much their meals weigh just by looking at them, so a set of scales (just like in a supermarket) wouldn’t go amiss. You could then weigh up all your fruit and vegetables before you head over to the till. When I put another baked potato or ladle another helping of vegetables into my polystyrene or (oh no!) plastic container, I’m always wondering if I could allow myself another potato pancake or whether that might mean getting a similar bill to a five-course meal in a five-star restaurant. And after I’ve paid up, I’ll find myself walking away muttering, “How can two potatoes weigh that much?!” Such gripes can make even the most exquisitely prepared meals taste rather bitter.

I’d like to add one more thought: when someone’s early… well that’s obviously not a problem. But when someone isn’t, then there’s little food left worth eating, particularly in those establishments where they sell it by weight. So I implore you, please prepare more of these dishes – especially the more popular ones – so that there’s enough even for those who didn’t happen to feel hungry at 12 am or were simply unable to get out for lunch at that time.

I don’t want to just sit here complaining, so to finish off I’d to add that I’m really happy that office canteens no longer look like some cross between a milk bar and a communist workers’ mess hall. This applies both to their interiors and their menus (although I have to say you can find some really good cooking in some milk bars). In many of these places you can hold business lunches or the catering for a company party. More than once, we have done this in our canteen in the Wola Retro building – and the bowls have emptied quicker than the bottles of wine. And that’s not something that happens very often at ‘Eurobuild!