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The previous
post on Saveur's April 2006 issue highlighted a short article on how
college students are dismissing their standard dining halls, even if they're serving sustainable, free-range,
organically grown, slow food, and turning to things like taco trucks and food carts. Maybe they're cheaper,
faster, easier to get to than trekking all the way back up the hill to the dorm. College was a long time ago for me,
but the article still got me thinking about some of the great (dinners out in the Bay area), some of the not so great
(joints around Berkeley), and some of the downright horrific foods (stuff I "ate" at home) that made up
my diet, er rather gave me a reason to diet.
- Instant ramen -- not even the kind you have to boil water in a pot on the stove top: this was the stuff that you add hot water to from the Sparkletts water cooler, cover, and wait three minutes.
- Steamed white rice with canned tuna and soy sauce -- I have no words. It hurts me to think about it, too.
- Top Dog -- one bird dog = not so bad. Two bird dogs with everything, plus a bite of someone else's hot link at 2 am = very very bad.
- Fat Slice vs. Blondies -- with an occasional treat of Zachary's if I found someone with a car
- The baked potato cart parked at the edge of Sproul Plaza -- I think it was called Spud Brothers. A baked potato doesn't sound so bad, until you add butter, sour cream, mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses!
- A full day diet of pure sugar -- starting with a bear claw (Go Bears! that was the excuse) from King Donuts, a sugar shake disguised as a "smoothie" from Fresh Blend (the store was later replaced by Jamba Juice), and then more sugar! Ice cream from Double Rainbow
- Steve's Barbecue -- Wuan ordah numbah two! Dae-jee bulgogi when I really missed home, because steamed white rice with canned tuna doesn't remind me of home
- Chez Panisse -- made up for four years of crap.
Now don't let me be the only one. I know you didn't eat grilled mahi mahi with pineapple mango salsa at 3 am in college either!
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3-29-2006 @11:59PM Greg said... In the 4 years that I was at Berkeley, I at well. Gregoire on Shattuck and Cedar fed me for 2 years. But there is nothing like 2 top dogs before a football game.
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3-30-2006 @12:53AM Nicole Weston said... Those are some bad Berkeley options, Sarah. Fat Slice? Blondies? What on earth were you thinking? Cheeseboard and Cafe Fanny, not to mention Intermezzo, if you must venture to the south side of campus, are far, far better options than the grease-fest that is cheap pizza.
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3-30-2006 @2:04AM ajax said... As an art student I ate for years in the coffee shop I at which I worked, and where we were allowed free food. We were allowed to take home the leftover bagels. At night I worked at two fine restaurants, so my entire diet was bagels and wild salmon, beef tenderloin, prawns, and lots of espresso. Always did hate top ramen, but I did enjoy a ramlette one night after some heavy partying.
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3-30-2006 @8:22AM lil said... 1. copious amounts of Dr. Pepper (went to college in Texas)
2. The three dollar buffet at Chi Chi's pizza. (A local place that catered to us poor college kids)
3. The Seven Layer Burrito from Taco Bell. (A full day's worth of food for 99 cents)
4. Wheat thins and easy cheese. (I took many a test fueled by these little hor'deurves)
Wow, I just realized those were the only four things I ate on a regular basis. No wonder I was skinny.
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3-30-2006 @8:40AM Brian said... Boxed Macaroni and Cheese made with water, made in the microwave, with cut up hot dogs in it. For me, THAT is college food.
Brian
http://candyaddict.com
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3-30-2006 @9:01AM tr said... when i lived in the dorms, i tried to go to the dining commons as much as i could, but with a busy class schedule, a lot of times i couldn't make it during the dining hours. and that's when i would turn to other, more convenient places. such as this one place that was called "all in one". basically, it was a pepsi co. store: it was a combination pizza hut, kfc, taco bell, and burger place (which was named 'hot 'n now'), plus they served beer! and it was open until 4am. my friend and i would get at least one item from each menu, and a pitcher.
"2. Steamed white rice with canned tuna and soy sauce - I have no words. It hurts me to think about it, too"
hey! there's nothing wrong with that meal! you have your carbohydrates, your protein, your...salt. but yeah, the first few weeks my friend and i moved off campus, we had a steady diet of white rice, soy sauce, and possibly tuna, but more often boxed kraft mac and cheese. it all stems from the fact that we bought a 25 lb bag of rice, a gallon of soy sauce, and got a good deal on a case of mac and cheese. incidentally, this experience got me so fed up with eating this stuff, that i forced myself to learn how to cook. 12 years later, i'm still cooking.
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3-30-2006 @9:52AM anonymous said... 1. Grilled Cheese
2. Ramen Noodles
3. A weekly treat of Beef & Broccoli at the cheap chinese place on "the strip"
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3-30-2006 @10:43AM uc said... My college town had a place called Sugar Jones that delivered hot, freshly baked cookies to your door by the dozen. After my first year (and 50 lbs), I moved on to more pedestrian junk food: calzones, subs and wings.
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3-30-2006 @12:02PM Heidi said... Yes to the ramen, white rice and mac and cheese. But I also have an important addition: cookie dough. In those mini fridges, nothing ever freezes in the freezer "hole." But it was the perfect place to keep a tube of cookie dough for those late night munchies.
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3-30-2006 @12:56PM Cary said... I chose not to take the meal plan, not grasping what a diet of Saltines and butter my roomates could pocket in the cafeteria would be like. Lots of grilled cheese, mac n cheese, and if we were really flush with cash, I'd make big pots of "Bacon and egg spaghetti"-(cheap carbonara). And I still love my carbs and cheese!
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3-30-2006 @1:35PM Jenny said... Dont forget us brits, surviving on beans on toast for our entire college life!!
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3-30-2006 @8:33PM Robyn said... In the dorms I used to have graham crackers and peanut butter for breakfast. There may have been saltine and margarine mornings also. And Nature Valley granola bars of course.
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3-31-2006 @8:11PM Gail said... Elbow macaroni with cheese and an added can of tomatoes. Lots of pepper and, of course, salt. Oh what a meal, what a filler, what a delight...still a favorite unfortuntely when I'm poorer than dirt.
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3-31-2006 @8:12PM A. Adams said... I can really relate to the bad eating habits of colleg students. When I was in school. One of my roomates had a wok( they were not allowed in the dorm) she used to cook everything in it. Including the Ramen noodles. We used to try and spice them up by adding eggs, and cut up hot dogs. Gross !!! I will never eat Ramen noodles again. I would rather starve first !!
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3-31-2006 @8:16PM Jan said... My cousin and I were only on the meal plan during the week, so on weekends we became inventive. She usually had cracker sandwiches for dinner Sunday evenings, which she made from rye bread, saltines, and butter she had taken from the cafeteria during the week.
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3-31-2006 @8:17PM Kit said... Well, I didn't have the dorm experience but I did survive on breakfast of a Bear Claw and Hot Chocolate at Bob's Big Boy, lunch was an In 'N Out Burger and a Lemonade, dinner (if I had a choice) was the 1lb of M&M's I'd eat while working at a department store at night but then I'd get home at 10:00 and my Dad would force me to eat a regular dinner even though I was tired and full.
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3-31-2006 @8:22PM emc said... college and food did not always mix, did it? i remember, thanks to a 7a class, grabbing the ham, cheese, & egg croissant from the cafeteria, and the largest coffee available. lunch was whatever the mood called for, either heading off campus when time permitted (the 3 hour break on tues and thurs was like being paroled)or grabbing something, if anything, back in the cafeteria. i was always running, so i mostly missed dinner... i had a lot of late night burrito runs (runs as in excursions, not bathroom experiences).... and will always fondly remember those crazy 3a assaults on the only 24/7 grocery market -- walking downtown with my roommate (yeah, looking back, we were really stupid to do that), and downing a quart of strawberries and a can of whipped cream before making it back home.
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3-31-2006 @8:35PM Jo Foster said... There was a local chain "Los Betos" that was open 24/7/360 without which most of the student body at Weber State (Ogden, UT) might have starved. They serve a 'California Burrito' that is real beef, real potatos, real peppers, rolled into a tortilla made one the premesis, for around two dollars and fifty cents. It was/is big enough for two average hungry girls or one really hungry boy. Oh, do I miss 'Los Betos'. Did my share of Healthy Choice frozen meals (got 'on sald' for around a dollar each, and managed to avoid the rice-n-beans diet for the most part. Also managed to avoid the 'freshman 15' but I was a tad older than most of the other freshmen.
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3-31-2006 @8:38PM Kristina said... I ate well at UK. You got a meal card and I lived a mere one minute walk from the Commons, where they served pizza, pasta, hamburgers, chicken sandwiches, potatoes, salads, tacos, deli sandwiches, "home cookin'", and soup. However, when you ran out of money on your card, as about 50% of the students tend to do before the semester is over, you are screwed. For the last two weeks of school, with a small donation from my parents, I ate tuna, crackers, Chef Boyardee, and made 4 meals out of one large pizza.
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3-31-2006 @8:38PM rw said... Tuesday was buffet night ($3.99!) at Pizza Inn, exam time meant Waffle House (hey, they'll let you stay all night as long as you keep buying toast and coffee), ramen of course, toasted cheese in the outlawed toaster oven and stuffing as many bagels from the cafeteria as possible in my back pack for later.
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