i like to eat.

For lunch, I had a mediocre fried chicken salad from Gap's cafeteria. It was nothing spectacular and doesn't compare to the mouthwatering version I had in Austin. I need to fly back to Austin and eat it again!

Gap's doing these Nacho Fridays too often. They're not as special anymore. :(

Related: Nacho Friday 1, 2, 3, 4

My lunches at Gap have been unexciting, so that's why you haven't heard much.

This particular day was a pretty good lunch though. I had a vegetarian sandwich with tomato, cucumber, lettuce, roasted peppers and avocado on wheat. Sounds kind of boring, but the avocado sealed the deal and made it interesting.

I sometimes wonder if I could be a vegetarian...

Hmm, probably not. A juicy steak and glass of red wine easily makes me drool.

Seriously, this is the fourth time I've had nacho Friday. This one was actually pretty darn good though. Then again, when are they never good?

Related: Nacho Friday 1, 2, 3

Lunch from Gap's 7th floor cafe - applewood bacon, fried green tomatoes (in cornmeal) and lettuce on grilled sourdough bread. Instead of typical potato chips, the sandwich came with a side of orzo, tomato and cucumber salad. Yummy.

I had an amazing salad at Gap a few weeks back. It was a plate full of ice berg lettuce, ground beef, corn, black beans, salsa, chipotle lime dressing and tortilla chips.

It was pretty much a taco salad, minus the cheese. Yummy.

I wasn't in the mood for anything in particular, but the weekly special "sandwich" from the upstairs cafe looked flavorful.

It was a corn cake with bbq pork with a carrot and fennel slaw and housemade zucchini pickles.

The corn cake was more like a pancake with sporatic corn kernals. I've never had something like this before, but the corn cake was sweet and satisfying. I would have liked a little bit more corn because certain bites tasted too much like a regular pancake. The vegetables were nice, not too tangy or sour, but complimented the meat well.

Interesting lunch, but doubt I'd have this again.

The sweet crew of my creative department threw me a little "surprise" celebration of Ciao Bella gelato and cupcakes for my birthday.

We had a gelato buffet line with flavors of Tahitian vanilla, pistachio, coconut and Madagascar chocolate.

I, of course, had to try one of each. The pistachio was surprisingly really good. I thought it would be a little weird (it sounds weird!), but it was a nice fragrant flavor. Madagascar chocolate was too rich for me, almost like fudge. It even had the consistency of fudge. Coconut flavor was really coconut-y and I felt like I was on a beach. Tahitian vanilla was certainly not plain, but creamy with a ton of vanilla beans.

BFF Alison brought homemade cupcakes with yellow cake and chocolate frosting. I usually don't eat chocolate frosting since it tends to be too sweet, but it was just the right amount of sweetness. And the yellow cake was moist, fluffy and delicious.

Thank you creative team all so much!

   

Click here to download:

BDay_Celebration_Part_1_tag_de.zip (426 KB)

Side note: I had two more meals while in Los Angeles, one in Chinatown and the other at the airport, but I was feeling extremely sick and didn't have enough energy to even take pictures. So...back to reality...and work.

My first lunch after the LA trip was not exciting or filled with unique dishes. It was a simple poached herb chicken with a tomato and bread salad (basically, a panzanella) from the upstairs cafe of Gap.

I should have known - chicken sitting out on steamed tables usually end up dry. And this piece of chicken was. After a couple of bites, I couldn't take it anymore. You can even see the dryness in the picture. It was THAT dry! It didn't help that it was served with a BREAD salad.

But surprisingly, the simple combination of croutons, heirloom tomatoes, chopped basil and olive oil was yummy. I've never had panzanella before, but have always wanted to try, and this one was good. I'd prefer slightly more tomatoes, but at least the bread soaked up enough flavor.

I ended up eating all of the panzanella and left the chicken aside. The meal was semi-satisfying with the panzenella saving the day.

Lunch on Thursday was a delicious classic sandwich of turkey breast, cheese, bacon, lettuce and tomato on grilled sourdough bread. It's funny how something so simple, once put together, can be so good. Such an easy, gratifying sandwich.