Work held a holiday part today which is the first to which I’ve been invited in the last six years.  Turns out the giant tent against which I railed as the emblem of anti-snow was for this gathering.  The setup tables each represented the food of a different culture and had three dishes served by an awkward team of a kitchen staffer and an executive.  The plates were about six inches across and the serving sizes were “fun sized” a la the diminutive candy bars dispensed during Halloween requiring six or seven individual trips to create something along the size of an appetizer.  There were two exceptions: The shrimp, which were the size of a man’s fist, and the desserts, which included cupcakes the size of a baby’s head.  I’m pretty sure that the bread pudding was served in shot glasses which was convenient as one doesn’t have enough hands to hold both a beverage and any sort of foodstuff.  Each station held the highlight of world gastronomy: fried starch, which is always appreciated.

I don’t know if the coordinator planned this but the best food was dished out by the most intimidating executive.  The #1 at the company guarded the shrimp, and the #2 monitored consumption of the prepared egg rolls.  This also synced somewhat with the ethnicity of the executive.  I’ll have to see how this tracks from year to year.