WASHINGTON (AP) - Getting a first taste of the world of challenges on her plate, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton says she was surprised to discover what issue animates State Department employees the most: food.

In a tone of mock gravity and with the timing of a standup comic, Clinton on Wednesday recounted her first trip to the department's cafeteria.

She began by telling a town-hall style meeting of employees that she had plunged into her job by naming special envoys for the Middle East and for Afghanistan and Pakistan, as well as preparing for one of the expected highlights on the 2009 diplomatic calendar - a NATO summit meeting in early April.

"But I went to the cafeteria," she said, pausing for effect, "and I was more directly engaged on price, quality and efficiency of the delivery of the food than on any of these crises that fill the headlines."