Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Please Excuse My Voracious Appetite

How do you go about ensuring that everyone on a work trip is comfortable, welcome, and able to enjoy themselves especially during the after-hours times?  Well, pre-planning is key.  Choosing interesting and unique restaurants (but not too interesting as to be unapproachable).  And finally, make sure that you are always ahead of the crowd leading by example.

During this most recent trip to Charleston I made sure to employ the above lessons learned in many ways.  The most noticeable of which was my willingness and ability to out-eat everyone at the table.  For example, during the sushi dinner most people ordered 1 roll and a couple nigiri.  I made sure everyone felt good about what they ordered by ordering and then eating almost 4 rolls and a half dozen nigiri.  Rinse and repeat for the fried seafood dinner the next night.

And of course there was the multiple helpings of biscuits and gravy for breakfast.  I say helpings, not servings.  I think the FDA would probably have something to say not only about the size of a serving of lard-based biscuits and gravy but also the placement of said breakfast item on the food pyramid.  Upon seeing my breakfast choice, a certain Minnesota-based sponsor asked what was in it.  He seemed slightly appalled with the non-chalance my answer "biscuits have lard and flour, and the gravy has lard, flour, and sausage."  Of course after hearing that and watching me consume a couple more helpings I did notice he kept watching me for signs of the inevitable heart attack.

I did warn everyone that I would eat an appalling amount of seafood, fried food, and biscuits while I was there.  It was all in the name of making everyone feel comfortable.  I swear.  It was just a leading by example.  And I'm sure you can all extrapolate that into the beer.....  But I don't have a recipe for beer, so you'll have to leave the details to conjecture and photographic evidence.

1 comment:

Denise said...

oh emily.... you forgot about the heaping helping of shrimp and grits which looked quite lovely!