The end of an era

After 8 years in the same office, my work group is moving. Has moved in fact, today is my last day at the old office tying up some loose ends. You may be asking yourself, what on earth does this have to do with a recipe blog? Well, I've been working in the middle of some of the best eats in LA. Within walking distance of my old office:

Groundwork Coffee
The Hungry Cat
Life Food Organics
Umami Burger
Cat & The Fiddle
The Mercantile
GO Burger
Caffe Etc.

My new office? Well there's a Zankou Chicken across the street. And umm... there's a 7-11, a Subway and some genuinely bad tacos & thai food. On Wednesdays, we can walk 4 blocks to a farmer's market, but not much else. For me, personally, this is probably good. All the more reason to pack my own healthy, delicious lunches.

But the foodie in me is a little sad. No more of my occasional treat lunches of fois gras brioche or raw oysters or duck fat french fries. No more of the amazing cherry chocolate scones tempting me when I refill my coffee (in fact, nowhere decent to refill my coffee). So today, I celebrated... no, I didn't go crazy. Those scones don't have the same hypnotic spell over me that they used to. But in all that foodie bliss, one thing stands out: Caffe Etc's brie-chicken panini on sourdough bread. Good god it's perfect. Just the right amount of gooey brie melting over thinly sliced chicken and accented with sharp green apples & a pinch of cranberry sauce. To. Die. For.



I had myself a pretty nice lunch today... And yes, I may well have a vertigo attack tomorrow. But for one last time, it was so worth it.