No Geese Were Harmed In The Eating Of This Meal

[kerravonsen]

The downside of doing my hair in a twist for the work Christmas party is that I have to re-do it in two braids before going to sleep (else it will be one big huge knot in the morning).

As ever, the food and the conversation were excellent. Our table consisted of the usual suspects, plus a couple I'd missed in the last few years, plus Talkative Support Person, plus another couple I didn't know well. Talkative Support Person held forth on many subjects, but it was interesting, and also the conversation flowed and split between and across clumps of the people at the table, so it was good (particularly as I was in the middle of one side of the table, which meant I could participate multiply).

The food was of the style where tiny artistically arranged morsels were displayed on huge plates, but it was very delicious also. A set menu from which one could choose; four choices of entree, four (no, five) choices of main, four choices of dessert.

Hors d'oeuvres: tiny morsels, less than a mouthful, which I can hardly describe. One was a salmon jelly thing that wobbled, about which TSP made jokes.
Bread: nice bread dipped in parmesan-infused olive oil, with three garnishes to dip it in; a seaweedy one, a sweet-spicy one, and a dark salty one
Entree: Prawn dumplings in tom (kan?), which turned out to be a sweet spicy soup
Main: Roast beef, mushrooms, asparagus and greens all in a stack over a layer of potato (but the whole was probably no larger in size than the palm of my hand); and for everyone, roast potatoes and a green salad which was basically green leaves sprinkled with wasabi peas (which was different from last time; last time it was just green leaves)
Dessert: two scoops of five-spice honeycomb ice-cream with gingerbread crisps, surmounted by a lacy halo of clear toffee. Sooooo yummy.
And coffee or tea to follow.

The conversation ranged over many topics: "how preferential voting works", the meaning of "grok", Monty Python, Felix the Cat, XKCD, BOFH, Open Source, the evils of Australian Internet filtering, Google (the verbing of nouns and the dilution of trademarks), the evils of Big Business, the frustrations of tech support (People Are Stupid), transputers, restaurants in France Italy, My First Computer (When I were a Lad, we were lucky to have punched cards...), the difference between Procedural, Functional and Object-Oriented programming, the pros and cons of various computer languages (including C, C++, Perl, Python, Cobol and Forth), all in all fairly geeky. The catch-phrase of the evening was "there are two kinds of people..."

A good time was had by all, I think.

Comments

[kaffy_r]

Oh my goodness, that menu sounds so much better than the usual rubber chicken staff holiday dinners of my youth!

And this? "When I were a Lad, we were lucky to have punched cards..." Gave me my first laugh out loud moment of the day. Thanks!

[kerravonsen]

The owner of the company is a gourmet and doesn't mind sharing the wealth. The restaurant is one of the top restaurants in Melbourne, and we've been coming back to it for our work Christmas parties for the past several years. One can also tell that he's a gourmet because his current joy is a vineyard (I think vinter would now be his third career) and some of the wine of the evening was from his vineyard.

[vjezkova.livejournal.com]

Mmmm...the menu looks excellent!
I am glad you enjoyed the party!!!

[kerravonsen]

8-)

[izhilzha.livejournal.com]

I'm sort of drooling over your description of the dinner. MMmmmmm.

[kerravonsen]

(grin)
Let's see if I can remember some of the other offerings on the menu...

Entree: wagu beef burger with Quail's egg; seared scallops; crispy zuchinni flower
Main: green chilli duck on rice, garnished with crispy shreds of carrot (TSP had that and he was in ecstasies over how spicy it was); two fish dishes that I forget the details of; and an extra "special of the day", tuna with avocado and coconut rice
Dessert: berry cheesecake (TSP had that and complained that it was the most boring-looking of all the desserts); chocolate mouse, chocolate pudding and a tiny morsel of orange sorbet sandwiched between two tiny meringues; and I can't remember what the last dessert was.

I still think I had the best dessert, though.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

The food sounds good (it was probably tom kha, which is a spicy Thai coconut soup) and the conversation excellent. Maybe it's rather boring at Greg's company meals because it's partners (and yes, I'm one). I find meals for just employees more fun because of the shared interests. Not that I am one any more.

[changes to a more festive icon]

[kerravonsen]

it was probably tom kha, which is a spicy Thai coconut soup
That sounds right. It would explain why it was sweet as well as spicy. Not something that I would go for normally, but it was delicious. The work Christmas party is my annual excursion into the dizzying heights of avante-garde gourmet food, and it's always good; weird but good.

Maybe it's rather boring at Greg's company meals because it's partners (and yes, I'm one). I find meals for just employees more fun because of the shared interests.
No, it was partners as well. In the before-dinner drinks I was talking to the wife of one of the developers, and it was hard going at first, until we hit on two good topics: her work, and the weather. (C'mon, living in Melbourne, one can get a lot of mileage talking about the weather. (grin))

But sitting at table, the geekiness was also contributed by some of the partners. The others at table were JL and his wife M (M was not geeky but she still managed to join in to the non-geeky parts with good humour); JB and her husband C (C is a hardware geek, he contributed transputers, assembler, Felix the Cat and Forth to the conversation); I and his partner L (L is also a computer person, but she works in academia); TSP, who didn't bring a partner; and K and his partner S (she was the person I'd talked to earlier). So there were really only two non-geeky people at the table, despite the fact that the invitation included partners. I expect some of the other tables had a less fortunate mix, but I tend to grab my favourite people and sit with them at the Christmas party: particularly JL and JB, who are my closest friends at work.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I love tom kha gai (gai = chicken) while Greg goes for tom yum gai (hot and spicy, no coconut). I think you'd like the Thai food at the local place down the road (which wasn't there when you visited); a lot of dishes have no chilli at all.

I'd have been happy to have geeky conversations, but I couldn't hear any going on. A lot of them watch Lost (Greg got them into it) but they were too far away for me to talk to them about that.

Lucky you to have a good job and fun people to work with. I've haven't had the latter for ages, though I've stuck out jobs where the work was interesting even though the people weren't. I really miss the good old days when both were fun.

[kerravonsen]

I think you'd like the Thai food at the local place down the road (which wasn't there when you visited); a lot of dishes have no chilli at all.
That's one reason why I like Thai better than Indian; it's easier to find non-chilli dishes. Or it uses whole chilli which one can pick out if one is very careful.

Lucky you to have a good job and fun people to work with.
Yes, which is why I've been working at the same place for the last fifteen years...

Unfortunately, I've been rather frustrated lately, because it's been happening that I've been doing good work which has then been ignored or overturned by Management (not my manager, but by the General Manager). It hit me this morning that he considers me to be nothing more than a glorified secretary, and I cried. Then told myself that I forgot my to take my anti-depressants yesterday and I had a late night, so I should ignore it and try to remember that I'm on holiday. But I'm also tempted to say to my manager (when I got back to work) that if he doesn't talk to the general manager about my multiple concerns, that I'll talk to him myself. Problem is, my manager is a nice guy, but he doesn't appear to be as... persuasive and forceful as some of the other managers. Or maybe he just keeps on being overwhelmed by the urgent things he has to deal with and can't deal with the important ones. Dammit, I want to do my job, but every time I do it lately, everything I've done is shelved, ignored, overturned - apart from the company newsletter (hence my remark about the GM considering me to be a glorified secretary).

(sigh) I should stop dwelling on this.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I'd definitely speak to your manager. It sounds as if he'd listen, and they must know how good you are since you've been there so long.

In the meantime, enjoy your holiday and don't worry about it till you go back. There seem to be a lot of very good things about working there anyway.

Greg's off from today too, until the 11th.

[pinkdormouse.livejournal.com]

Sounds like an excellent meal.