Summer Lunching (2020)

At moments, this work/shelter from home thing isn’t so bad.  I am so fortunate to have an easy way to step out and take a break from it all.  The office has a dining terrace too, which I used whenever possible, way back when I could eat in a cafeteria...

Oh, I do hope the cafeteria staff have landed ok; during an office update some weeks back, it came out that much of the vendor-employed caf staff was laid off or furloughed - because we are not there.  Technically they are the food vendor company's employees, but pragmatically they are the firm's - they only ever served our firm.  Not sure whether law firms these days make it a practice to outsource services as the one I work at has, but that's just an economic and maybe liability protection arrangement; I would argue it's hard to escape the moral responsibility for what follows from that - the caf staff lost their livelihoods because the partners did not want to keep them on.  This pandemic has exposed all the ambiguities of our capitalist society.

Separately, a propos of this, once-NF posted an article about how Americans are averaging a 16 pound weight gain during this pandemic; opposite situation here, I think that is about equal to my weight loss - I sometimes am just too lazy to make myself a proper meal (and when stressed tend to eat less). I have come to appreciate how much I relied on others to help me feed myself, even though I felt like I cooked a fair amount, for a New Yorker.  I was almost entirely dependent on the caf staff for lunch on work days.  And I did eat or take out dinner at least once or twice a week.  The pandemic has changed all of that, of course.

Lunching outside at home, without significant worry about my food budget, is a blessing I don’t take lightly.  I know any moment the other shoe can fall.

For all I lament about my northern exposure and limited sun for the plants (the reason they are all pushed against the northern parapet), the layout does provide a nice shady area to sit and eat, read, contemplate, sometimes even work (but usually there are too many tempting gardening distractions to attempt to work outdoors).

The lunch: Handful of spinach, one Persian cucumber, Thai lime chili cashews, and - controversial dietary choice - on the cusp of going bad frozen watermelon... I try very much to avoid food waste, especially in these times; I forgot about the watermelon in the fridge - being a lazy meal/snack prepper and all.  I have discovered that freezing cuspy watermelon concentrates the sweetness and masks some of the fermentation.  Sprinkling salt and some cayenne pepper on said frozen watermelon masks this further and turns it into an interesting dessert.  Adding it to a salad that way makes it almost like I let it go on purpose for an intentional summer lunch.