An army marches on its stomach, Napoleon Bonaparte famously declared. Silicon Valley's more benevolent employers put this maxim into practice with on-campus dining facilities to keep staff happy, and therefore, productive.

Of all the companies in the Bay Area, Google is the most famed -envied, even - among the tech chattering classes for its cooking. Forget the engineer's staple diet of pizza, Jolt Cola and all the cookies you can handle. Think Mediterranean, Middle Eastern and Thai. And lots of it, too.

The latest, Café 150, opened for business on Google's campus offering: "a robust broth teeming with slices of beef skirt steak and hand-made yam noodles; clams sauteed with disks of handmade Chinese sausage and wisps of fresh basil; a sandwich bar with nine made from-scratch condiments, and grilled romaine lettuce, persimmon and poblano chiles; and composed salads such as wild rice and hazelnut, and crispy tofu slaw."

No wonder the "lunchtime line wrapped from the dining room into the work cubicles" on Café 150's opening day. According to one Googler: "We eat here because it's better food than in restaurants, it's healthy, there's variety and it's more casual."

Now if only they could get Google Video looking half-way decent. ®

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