Back to the gym today. I'm not really looking forward to it at all. C'mon rain melt that snow so we have sidewalks again. It will only be a couple of days I'm sure and then the sidewalks will be clearer.

Whining aside...

We had our staff Christmas party last night. Yes, I know it's January but it's apparently a tradition to go in January after the Christmas madness when everyone is a little more relaxed.

I don't usually want to go to the group work event, but this is the one big dinner that we do every year and as I've always said I like the people I work with so it's not as if it's a painful experience for me. I'm also usually a bit wary of set menus since the veg option can usually be disappointing. This year it was not.

We went to the same restaurant that we went to last year in historic Fort Langley. It's a nice little restaurant with a warm atmosphere. The waitress remember db and I as the "two vegans" from the previous year. Our meal was delicious. The food is very good there. I didn't take pictures since I didn't want to reveal the blog. So you'll have to take my word that it was beautifully presented as well.

db and I were served a creamy carrot soup, mixed green salad with cranberries and a raspberry vinaigrette, and our main dish was polenta with grilled eggplant, portabello with tuscan beans (cannellini beans in a tomato sauce) topping it all. There was a side of steamed veg and a zucchini in tomato sauce. We had a nice white wine with dinner that my co-worker chose. It was a viognier which I've never had and was nicely surprised by it. The whole meal was very very good. For desert we had fresh fruit in a mango puree. I really appreciate when a chef makes a nice effort to make a good meal and not just do a bunch of grilled veg with little thought put into making a meal. This was a beautiful vegan meal. Delicious.

I think db and I will have to make that dish one night. It was such a nice combination of flavours. Then I'll post some pictures.

Christmas time is here.

Ah the company Christmas party. db's company held their party last night at a Greek restaurant in North Burnaby. For db and I there were two vegan meals prepared consisting of stuffed peppers, tomatoes with a side of potatoes and a greek salad without the feta. It was pretty good, but way too huge for us to finish along with the bean soup, hummus and baba ghanosh that we'd already been served.

There were gifts and a game. One of the gifts was some very tastey looking olive oil bottled in a wine bottle with it's own label. I'm really looking forward to opening that.
During dinner we had a performance from a belly dancer that got a lot of other people dancing as well, which was almost more entertaining than the belly dancer. Overall, it was a fun evening until the drama kicked in when one of the guys was so drunk he couldn't really speak anymore. We figured he had started drinking before he came to the party since there was no way he could have gotten into that shape over the course of the evening. It wouldn't have been a big deal except that no one knew how to get him home since no one knew where he lived. We had a general idea (as in Surrey) and no one could get an address out of him. Plus he's moved a couple of times this past year so he gave a few addresses when someone did eventually get him to speak. A few people pooled their cash together and put him in a cab with one of the addresses. I imagine he made it home...eventually.

Having catered many parties like this I've seen similar circumstances. There's always one at a company party isn't there?