palatal shock + awe

rob has been forwarding me google food emails, and the end result is that i increasingly want to work in what is essentially the google cafeteria. as in, i really, really, really want to work there. here's an email:

We have another new set of menus that culinary team put together for some palatal shock-and-awe action. The menu today features the cuisine of Provence, a French region whose cuisine shares marked similarities with Italian and Greek cuisines more so than cuisine we typically consider French. For example, as a mountainous region bordering the sea with little grasslands, grazing dairy-producing animals are not as common, thus the heavy reliance on olive oil as the preferred fat component. The dish Provence can lay the most claim to culinary fame is bouillabaise, which we have a variation on today. Typically the dish contains several types of seafood in a stew, however we did a filet in a boulllabaise sauce - saffron, fennel broth, etc. It should be delicious. There is also the tuna nicoise salad to consider, which the chefs turned into a quiche, an interesting twist. A wide assortment of salads and veggies are also available.

can you imagine a place where the engineers - but also the culinary team ("culinary team"? at a corporation??) gets to be creative? this is such a rare occurrence that it seems like an opportunity of a lifetime. i would gladly spend a summer working at google as a chef. or even as a food-related menial worker. let me weigh two dream options: working at google-food, or doing a stage at the french laundry...and the winner would be...ok, it would be the french laundry. but there would be a decision to make there.

p.s. i thought "palatal" couldn't possibly be a word (though thinking about it now, it's pretty logical that palate (n) --> palatal (adj), but the oed confirms that it is indeed a word, and it is used in the correct context here.