The All Continental PLL

I’m writing this from “Sabari Express”, on my journey from Hyderabad to Kollam, to attend my friends marriage. The White Tiger is too preachy for a train journey, hence this post.

PLL (or Pot Luck Lunch) is one tradition we follow religiously in my team in Infosys, thanks to our Head, Dr. Rastogi. Like it or not, you are forced to cook and bring something to lunch once in a month. If it is chance for established chef’s to showcase their talent, for novices it is a chance for experiment at somebody’s expense! (For the uninitiated: PLL is a form of lunch where everybody brings something to form a complete lunch. This can be planned or unplanned.) We have divided our team into groups and one group organizes the PLL once in a month. We normally cook everything by ourself and keep purchases to a minimum.

I was the in charge of one group, and it was my turn last Thursday. When it came to me last Monday, i thought of ways to make it more interesting. Normally our PLLs are grand in menu, since there will be 8-10 different multi-cusine dishes every time. I decided to theme the PLL. I proposed a continental lunch initially. But the team was very skeptical about this, so the menu turned the Indian way. Further traditional Indian menu made way to typical Andhra menu. With much deliberations, the menu again went west, confirming an All Continental PLL, thanks to the confidence of our chief chef, Hory Sanker Mukherjee. After much discussions, the menu was also confirmed.

Italian Minestrone
Russian Salad
Buttered Vegetables
Spanish Pasta
Chicken/Veg Burger
Italian Pizza
Nachos & Baked Beans with Cheese
Crème Caramel
French Wine (also called Grape Juice, locally)

Now that the menu is all set,begins the hunt for ingredients. Even though each dish is assigned to one individual, we decided to do a collective effort. Many of the dishes were planned to make live at office. I and Raghu went for an extensive shopping for these. We managed to get almost everything but Nachos. So Nachos was replaced with Plain Cheese Sandwich.

So comes the D-Day.  We normally have a monthly review meeting on the day of PLL. We qucikly finished our reviews and went to the Kitchen by 11 to start preparations. With a collective effort (thanks to Hory, Chitra, Vishnu, Ayesha, Raghu & Jayaram) we made the 2 bowls of Russian Salad, 8 medium Pizzas, 20 Burgers and 15 Sandwiches. Pasta (by Mani), Buttered Veggies (by Bhavani) and Creme Caramel (by Ayesha) were cooked at home and bought.

By around 1:30 we were all set for the Lunch. The Table was looking quite awesome. Surprisingly it was tasting good too! It took no more than 30 mins for us to finish the entire stuff!!

Who will be able to work afternoon after such a filling heavy lunch? I went with Mani and Anita for few rounds of walk, though it didn’t help much.

Can’t wait till the next edition of the PLL.

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