First taste of office Lunch.

Friday. June 17, 2005. 1:30pm.

This will go down in my journal as the first lunch out with my new officemates. Was it with people from the creative team? No-sireee! It was with the accounts team, someone from finance and IT, and thankfully, one Creative Director.

I was unmindfully typing away on my vintage (read: really old) iBook (a temporary issue until my new one arrives) when Shiggy asks me: "Where are you having lunch?" When I answered: "I don't have plans..." he suddenly disappears, and in a nanosecond, Peter asks me to join them. Being the kaladkarin one, I immediately left behind what I was typing and joined them.

Lunch was at this Indonesian restaurant at Causeway bay. You can tell a lot about a restaurant by the kind of glasses and plates they use. And this place used acrylic goblets! You heard it right, ACRYLIC GOBLETS! They also had melamine plates and very flimsy paper napkins.

But what they lacked in class, they made up for in culinary magic! The food was excellent! The prawns were huge, swimming in this sweet spicy sauce with gritty little bits of garlic. The chicken was smothered in this peanut-tasting gravy that blended so well with the slightly crunchy skin. The vegetables were in this tangy coconut sauce was like our gata, only more liquefied. Finally, there was the fish, the really fat and meaty fish with what I think was tandoori sauce.

The food was spiced up with a lot of conversation about work, upcoming movies, who should play James Bond, and how an American had no right to even come near 007 territory. Of course, there was the compulsory bitching that's present in most advertising lunches.

Best part was, it was their treat. They told me it was some sort of a welcome lunch to formally induct me into the team. I thought that was totally, totally nice.

Lunch wrapped up at around 2:30pm, with the group trying to dodge the rain since no one even bothered to carry an umbrella despite the fact it's been raining since early morning.

After this first lunch out, the first thing that popped in my mind was: "I think i'll get a hang of this new place..."