Last year I picked the 8 best school lunch items I remember from my school days (admittedly, a long time ago). But what about the lunches that a lot of kids hate? Here are my choices:
1. Mystery meat: What exactly was this? I'm trying to go through my mental Rolodex and I can't remember. Was it meatloaf? Salisbury steak? I'm not sure, but it just seemed to be this mass-produced glob of grayness topped with lame gravy. The days I saw that this was the lunch were the days I just had something to drink and maybe a bag of chips.
2. Chicken Stroganoff. Again, I'm going by memory here, and it might be just wishful thinking that this was chicken stroganoff and not just a mass of chicken pieces smothered in gravy and noodles. If I saw this today I might try it, but back then as a kid it just equalled vomit.
3. Chili. I love chili, but the chili I got in my school was terrible. It was more like cans of mushy beans thrown in a giant pot with some beef and spices. A great chili isn't easy to make, even though it seems pretty damn easy. A good chili isn't that hard. A bad chili is really easy to make.
4. A drink and chips. While this was one of my "go-to" meals when I didn't like what was being served for lunch (see #1), it doesn't mean I liked it.
5. Soup and sandwich. While this is something I love as an adult, it always seemed kind of lame to me as a school meal. I'd eat at home with no problem though. Maybe it was because the tomato soup served at school was lame, and certainly not something I'd dunk my cheese sandwich in like I did when mom made it for me.
6. Tuna fish sandwiches. Again, I'd eat them at home but it just looked gross to me at school.
7. Jello. What, is this a school or a hospital? Again, mom made great Jello desserts, but it just didn't taste the same at school. I did love that fluffy, sweet pink dessert stuff that I still don't know the name of.
8. Cereal. With apologies to Jerry Seinfeld, cereal as a lunch meal (especially at school) is kinda sad and lonely.














