SiSi's and Marks & Spencers

I went to lunch with a girl that I work with at this tiny little Italian place in the town where we work called SiSi's. When I say tiny, it is tiny for even Ireland. it has 4 tables and maybe 10 chairs. I ordered the lasagna and it was excellent. I only ate about half of it and was full. I was really wishing that I had a refrigerator back at the office so that I could take it and enjoy the rest for dinner. Not sure if I wrote this before, but there is no refrigerator and no microwaves in the office. NONE! It sure makes taking your lunch challenging. The girl that I was eating with jokingly said that I could ask the restaurant if they would keep it for me until after work. Even though I knew she was joking, I decided to ask. Crazy enough they said sure. I don't think I have ever asked a restaurant to hang onto my leftovers and refrigerate them for me! :) I picked it on my way to the train after work and happily enjoyed the rest of my lasagna later.

Marks & Spencers is a UK based company that has stores in Ireland that sell high end foods. Similar in produce and meat quality to Whole Foods. M&S specializes in prepared but uncooked food. For example, they have this wonderful chicken breast with wild mushroom sauce that comes in a little tin container and you just place it in the oven. It sounds like microwave meals, but they aren't frozen, they only last a few days and actually taste good. So, I went in there yesterday only to discover the shelves were nearly empty. I had been in a different M&S on Monday and it was nearly cleaned out too. I thought it was just because it was a holiday weekend and nearly everyone was off work Sat-Mon. I got back to the office and asked a bit and found out that Ireland has severely restricted food imports from the UK due to the recent confirmed cases of mad cow in England. I have not encountered a nearly empty grocery store before. They have about 3 sections of shelves about 6 feet wide and 6 feet high that are normally filled with all of the breads, croissants and pastries. Just to put something on the shelf, they have filled all 3 sections with hardened meringue cups. I think anything that they had in storage they are putting on the shelves just to not have a completely empty store. It was very odd. I know that there are recalls of certain food from time to time in the US, but they have never impacted my ability to buy a variety of grocery items from produce to meat to baked goods. I went in search of yogurt and strawberries and whole wheat bread. I walked out with empty hands...very strange.