Across the street ...

Didn't make it to the The Eatery, headed over to the Bulldog Café with Biddle. Veggie pizza, with some nice banana peppers on it - a little zing to get through the midday lull. 

Conversation centered on whether students are "technologically savvy" or "technologically proficient." Decided on neither, blamed the teach-to-the-test mess that our colleagues in the public and private schools have to deal with.

Then sighed heavily and talked about anamorphic lenses ...

*sigh*

My schedule is rough this semester, Monday and Wednesday I'm not clear until just past noon and Tuesdays - Tuesdays - I teach right through lunch.

And my boss keeps skedding meetings for Thursdays ...

Which leaves me eating lunch at my desk, something I really shouldn't do. But muenster and BBQ chicken on wheat isn't bad, and the accompanying apple was nicely tart. A rarity in Georgia.

On Chicken

"We didn't starve, but we didn't eat chicken unless we were sick, or the chicken was."

- Bernard Malamud (1914-1986)

So What the Hell is "Country Fried Steak"?

Other than my lunch today, what's up with the name? According to Diana Rattray''s (unfortunate name alert when writing about food) article at About.com:

Chicken-fried or country-fried steak is usually made with round steak, tenderized then dipped in an egg and milk mixture, then dredged in seasoned flour or bread crumbs. The coated steak is then fried in hot fat until the coating is crispy and browned, much like fried chicken. A milk gravy is often made to be served with the steak, along with mashed potatoes.

Yes, I had the mashed potatoes, with carrots on the side. Ate with Johnson, discussed whether the department should host its own news site. Fink there for a short while and then went off to teach. Go figure.

BTW, the country fried steak wasn't bad at all. Then again, anything fried in hot fat is good.

The Best Day

Meatloaf, mashed taters, greens: easily the best meal of the week at The Faculty Center. Yeah, that doesn't raise the bar so very high, but still it's my favorite. Ate with Hume and Hollifield. Discussed bears and politics, though we didn't combine the two and consider the pros and cons of bears mauling politicians. Maybe another day.

No Lunch (at least at the Eatery)

Many of us in the department had free sandwiches (but no beer, even though I ordered one!) at a talk today. No Faculty Center food, nothing to blog.

The talk itself was interesting, on how Tennessee has set up an online news site and with an offer to give us their content management system. That'd be cool, though I know who in Hero Support would end up doing most of the work.

Casserole and Department Meetings

Want to make a plate of Sicilian casserole sit poorly on your stomach? It's simple -- just follow it with a department meeting. Blah followed by blaher. The good news is no more department meetings for a while. The bad news is there's always another department meeting out there, crouched in the weeds, ready to pounce.

Meetings are indispensable when you don't want to do anything.

-- John Kenneth Galbraith

Lima Lunch

Georgian chicken, lima beans, potatoes (maybe the best thing they do, those roasted potatoes). Ate lunch with Fink and Hume, wondered where the hell Johnson was. Drank water, wished it was beer.

Faculty Center - Not

Lunch Friday for me, downtown, a gyro and curley fries and Coke. I feel like I cheated on my wife, but then again I had lunch with my wife. She had a gyro too. That makes it okay. No cheating involved.

This is Saturday, so no lunch at the Faculty Center Eatery Place Thing. I may have to fry some pork chops.

The Remains of the Meal

Lunch Looks Best in 640 x 480

Had pepper steak over rice, fried okra, lemon bars. Learned that Hollifield and Hume have no plans to dance together this weekend. Johnson shot video from his Flip that can be seen above, an information-rich expose on menus, food being served, and a number of people at a table staring at their plates and wondering if, perhaps, they maybe should have gone elsewhere.

Lunch at the Faculty Center no doubt looks best in 640 x 480. Definitely not ready for High Def television.

They Want Our Opinion!

Really, they do - via an online survey specifically about our faculty dining hall.

Of Chili and Pecan Pie

Thanks to a late lab on Wednesday, lunch alone in the back -- with the NYTimes. Bowl of Chili and slice of pecan pie and loads of news about the Michigan Republican primary. The pie was better than the primary. The chili was lukewarm in taste and heat, not unlike Fred Thompson's GOP candidacy.

January 15, 2008

Meal: Sicilian casserole, Parmesan zucchini and blackberry cobbler.

Good company, conversations over past, present and future colleagues.