UK: Brain food - Canteen Culture - Shell.

In the same way that the Bank of England was designed to let Johnny Foreigner know that his gold was safe with us, the canteen in was designed to reassure staff that, while in Shell's employ, they wouldn't go hungry.

When it was first opened there was only one complaint and that was that the size of the holes on the salt and pepper pots wasn't generous enough.

Today there are television screens outside the canteen showing exactly what's on the menu and how many calories it contains. Breaded haddock, for example, is 350M; the M is for medium, presumably the life expectancy you could hope for if you lived exclusively on breaded haddock.