Lunches sans Tuna

In this first post I wanted to post about something rather un-glamorous and not very food-fashion-forward. Rather un-mastercheffy. There'll be nothing blow torched or demi glazed. There are communal tables, unfortunately. But the coffee is rubbish.

Lunch at work. And all the troubles that this has involved for me. You see, I don't like tuna. And this seems to have closed off a whole world of lunch possibilities that most people cling to. I know, because I'm often watching them to see what I could eat for lunch. Do you do this? Do other people find lunch as difficult as I do? In my 7 years of full time, grown up working (as opposed to the cafe where I worked part time and spent most of the day trying out various foods in the deep fryer) I have been fortunate enough to have lunch provided for 3 of them. I've only been at this for 4. Though, to be fair, that's a lot of lunch. And actually, I've struggled with this for longer than that. I am now recalling my cold vegemite toast of lunch in primary school.

As an adult, things are harder. Lunch has to fulfil a few criteria: easy, fairly quick to make and eat, inexpensive, reasonably tasty (I'm really willing to go pretty low here, but not tuna-low) and healthy. It seems like it's probably not too difficult to tick a few of these boxes. Tasty and easy? Bread and dip. Not too expensive either. Unfortunately, I cannot justifiably carbo-load as much as my little heart desires without turning into a flabbish heart-attack-waiting-to-happen. Healthy and easy to eat? Chicken salad. But I refuse to spend my Sundays cooking chicken. Or my evenings. I was going to list the number of other errands and efforts that I have to make during those times, but actually, even if I was sitting around on the couch watching Downton Abbey and drinking cider all weekend, I still wouldn't be comfortable making my lunches on a Sunday. I'm 29, not 102. Going out for lunch is out-- way out. The canteen (I work at a school) is basically the realm of the dark lord at lunchtime and the food is-- well, it's for children. And the shops are not viable-- for reasons of cost and yard duty and students wanting to talk to me and meetings and all that crappola.

And then there's tuna. And of late, those creepy little chicken tins with the rather good advertising which can't actually make up for the fact that it's CHICKEN in a CAN. This issue (cannage) also applies to tuna. In addition to which, it stinks. There are other foods that stink, I know, many of which I am quite happy to eat. Cheese can be quite wiffy. Garlic and onion (yum) can make the house smell rather strongly, in a delightfully foodie way. The thing about those smells, though, is that you can think about them and not run into any problems. Cheese smells like feet? For sure, it takes some getting used to but if you consider the process and the concept, it's all really quite organic (in the broad, rather than agricultural sense) and doesn't go against any basic human instinct. Garlic and onions are vegetables! Or... something like that. But they're not weird, is the point.

Meat in a tin is weird, and suspicious. Meat in a can is out. And so, I am stumped as I prepare to start work again, post holidays.