On Christmas eve I went to lunch at the Ginseng Restaurant with a couple of blokes from work. The Ginseng Restaurant is in the Hellenic Club at Woden. It always amuses me that this centre of Greek culture has both Chinese and Italian eateries in it. 

I was eating with a couple of work friends. I mentioned to one of them that I never worked as a waiter while I was at medical school. He suggested I’m not really Chinese 

The good thing about Ginseng is the service is quick and the restaurant is cheap and cheerful. 

We each chose a dish for sharing. I chose the sweet and sour pork not because I particularly like it but because it connected with a story from earlier in the day. Christmas eve in Canberra started as a fantastic warm and moderately humid day. I sent a text message to my friend, who was born in Victoria, about just how good the weather is. He responded that he was growing mold in his nether regions. I suggested coating his scrotum with corn flour as per the movie Chef. I also added we could cut them off and make hush puppies in a deep fat fryer. You really need to have seen the movie Chef to understand the connection. The closest thing we were going to eat to hush puppies that day would be sweet and sour pork.

We shared duck pancakes for a starter and then got stuck into some sweet and sour pork, chicken and noodles with ginger and some prawns. 

It was a very nice lunch. It cost us about $30 each and were in and out within about an hour.

Earlier in the day we enjoyed a Kirkland pavlova too.

I hope your work place Christmas lunches went well.