Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

My first taste of sushi with eel was from a coworker. I was a RA and we had a RA from Japan in the building (she was an adjunct for the university as well) and she made a big batch of food one night in the kitchen for one of her classes and taught a bunch of us in the dorm about sushi. It was super cool!

I used to buy my employees lunch on paydays (every 2 weeks) usually pizza. They really liked that free lunch.

At my old job one of the regulars would bring in fresh tomatoes from her garden. Only me and one other coworker were really excited about it so we sliced them, sprinkled with some salt and pepper, and ate them with a knife and fork. Everyone else thought we were weird but they were delicious and we didn't care how strange we seemed.

In the olden days when I worked at an advertising agency we landed the Dom Perignon account. When it was announced, they brought in cases and cases of the stuff to celebrate. I don't really like champagne, but it seemed to be a once in a lifetime thing.

Getting back to a more realistic situation, a guy at work brought me an unexpected reuben sandwich last year. It was good, and more befitting of how my life actually operates.

I would have to say this 76 year old Vietnamese lady that I worked with that could hardly speak English would bring foods from her homeland in and give me some. I had no idea what some of the things she made were, but I tried it and 99.6 percent was fanastic.

I used to manage some Shell stations in Illinois for a guy who owned 20 of them. Every week or so, he'd send out a crew of Mexicans who'd wash windows, islands and the pumps. Every so often, I'd buy bottles of Jarritos, the Mexican soda in neon colors, for them.

Once, two of the guys were taking their lunch break in an unused garage bay and I walked past on the way to my office. Javier called me over and handed me a margarine tub and something wrapped in aluminum foil. I was apprehensive at first because I don't mind a little warmth but I can't handle heat, so I asked, "Caliente?" and they both answered no.

It was kind of poor-man's food, homemade corn tortillas wrapped around a finger-sized filling of lumpy mashed potatoes with a watery red sauce for dunking. It packed a little more warmth than I was expecting but oh, my gosh, it was heavenly. How something so simple could be so full of flavor was beyond me. I asked Javier if he would ask his wife for the recipe and he seemed to understand, but he'd be at one station when I was at another and I never saw him again and now I live in Seattle.

I don't know what those things are called, or if they even have a name, like some of the stuff I come up with the day before payday when there's only odds and ends on hand. The sauce was sort of like mole without the chocolate--whatever peppers were used had a fruity flavor, sweet but spicy without packing a wallop. Thanks for reminding me--I think I'll do another recipe search for them right now.

One of the men in my department is from Bangladesh. Every now and then his mom sends in food for me becuase she knows I love Bangla food.
I'm a lucky, lucky girl.

i work at a radio station, so we constantly get free food and beer, but nothing gourmet or exciting. i live above a chocolatier though, so i used to bring in boxes of chocolates to share....now w/the economy in the tank i don't even really buy them for myself anymore though.

I could never find Meyer lemons in my area, so I picked a few up on a trip to NYC last year. I brought one home for my foodie friend and co worker. We both showed up to work on Monday with a Meyer lemon for the other. She had been out of town as well and decided to bring one to me!

The strange thing is that we had never discussed Meyer lemons before. This coincdence went down in the books as "The Great Meyer Lemon Exchange of 2008." Because we are huge nerds.

I wouldn't call it interesting, but I was so underpaid and broke at my first job out of college that I would go to work with no lunch, and try to drink water to stay full. My awesome, awesome coworker/stand-in mom would go next door to Whole Foods, buy some tuna and rolls, and make us lunch with some perfectly peeled and sliced asian pears on the side. That woman literally kept me alive, and never made me feel embarrassed about it.

We had a potluck a couple of years ago for Halloween, and one of my colleagues, who is from Laos originally, brought in some handmade spring rolls that his sister made, and what's more, her knew that I did not normally eat pork (I was still getting my tolerance for it back, after being a vegetarian for far too long) and had made two of them just for me, with shrimp instead! I loved them! And he has done it a couple of more times, since then.

I have a basica standing order for the same type of sushi from my local makers every week, essentially, and every now and then, they give me more than I pay for, and don't say anything - like an extra six pieces of tuna maki, or an extra spring roll. They are the greatest. :)

However, since I am the resident baker, I tend to be the one donating to others, whether in the office, my mother's work ("nurses will eat anything" she says) or grad class (when I had class, which I am proud to say I just finished and will graduate soon!!). I enjoy it, because it allows me to be creative and try new things, attempt and tweak recipes for competitions and just share the wealth. If I kept it all to myself I would be a thousand pounds!

ok so maybe "gotten" wasn't to word to use. how about what food items have co-workers shared with you or vice-versa? better?

anyway, on the donation side. my fiances father has a huge garden filled with okra, squash, zucchini, tomatoes, cukes and onions and i usually bring in some to the various jobs and they never last a day out on the counters.

At Wesleyan, where I went as an undergrad, my department used to have the most heavenly and unusual food--health food like this wonderful pasta, carrot, and ginger 'slaw,' spice cakes, vegetarian sushi--at its get-to-gethers. At debate tournaments, the schools hosting the events were responsible for feeding the students and I remember with great fondness the homemade Bavarian and chocolate cream doughnuts at Vassar, the Indian food at Brown.

Of course, at grad student functions, since everyone is supposed to be starving, there was always muffins the size of a child's head and bagels with fancy spreads as well as fruit!

But at the places I worked, sad to say, I have found that free food often=bad or super-unhealthy food. At a doctor's office where I temped, the drug reps brought in absurdly rich foods for lunches and breakfast (truly gigantic bagels, fettuccine Alfredo, chocolate cakes)--I could have eaten for free the entire time, but I didn't and am glad, because the employees who always at the drug rep food put on 20-30 lbs (no joke).

@HeartofGlass's 'starving grad students' -exactly!!
the grad school free food really helped me save my grocery bill, but it broke my stomach at the end (muffins, donuts, cookies, beer and pizza-> acid reflux).

Jerzee, get in the RV and quit forking. lol.