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Top College Food Trends Over the Decades

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Sodexo, a company that provides food services to more than 600 college campuses in the U.S. and Canada, has just released some of their long-term data monitoring taste preferences over the decades. Check out the list of students' favorite dining hall foods from this year, compared with the list from 1989. The results are pretty interesting.

Favorite foods in 2009:

1. Locally-grown fruits and veggies
2. Crispy garlic-ginger chicken wings
3. Mac 'n five cheeses
4. Vietnamese Pho
5. Green tea and pomegranate smoothies
6. Crab cake sliders
7. Mini samosas
8. Tilapia Veracruz
9. Goat cheese salad
10. Chicken Molé

Favorite foods in 1989:

1. Fruit and cottage cheese plate
2. Chicken nuggets
3. Turkey Tetrazini
4. Chicken Chop Suey
5. Egg, bacon and cheese English muffin
6. Half sandwich and cup of soup
7. Taco bar
8. Spanish beef and rice
9. Vegetarian bean chili
10. Algerian lamb stew

The "fruit and cottage cheese plate" strikes me as particularly '80s (this was the decade of aerobics and leg warmers, after all), and the "chicken chop suey" is as retro as it gets.

For those of you who got to partake in the delights of college dining hall fare, please spill - what were your favorite dishes?

Source

Filed Under: Trends
Tags: college, dining hall, trends

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Reader comments (Page 1 of 1)

Gobo

3-03-2009 @2:08PM Gobo said... There are dorm cafeterias serving crabcake sliders, pho soup, goat cheese salad, and "tilapia Veracruz"? All I remember are metal vats of shepherd's pie, stuffed shells, and macaroni & cheese.
Reply

KimmyDarling

3-03-2009 @2:24PM KimmyDarling said... I went to college in the South, 1988-92. I remember eating lots of fried chicken, chicken pot pie, green beans, and cornbread. Chocolate cream pie for dessert.

Had forgotten about the stuffed shells, but that was our occasional eye-talian fare.
Reply

allison

3-03-2009 @3:41PM allison said... I want to know where you can get a green tea and pomegranate smoothie. I was in grad school just 2 years ago and it still was a lot of chicken nuggets.
Reply

Jenn

3-03-2009 @4:17PM Jenn said... I just graduated and my food was more like the 1989 list. Then again, it does say "Favorite foods in 2009" so these dishes could be uncommon but well liked. I just know that the pasta and sandwich bar were the safest things in the dining hall... Now I want a smoothie.
Reply

agent54

3-03-2009 @4:35PM agent54 said... hmmm...my freshman year...that was 95-96. i got to eat french fries, belgian waffles, soft serve ice cream or "salad" that was really just brown lettuce, white tomatoes, shredded cheddar cheese and/or carrots (it was tough to tell which was which sometimes) and bacos. rock hard bread bits, errr, croutons were optional. sometimes, there were stale bagels left over from breakfast. being a vegetarian was tough that year.
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billtron

3-03-2009 @4:57PM billtron said... Sodexho-Marriott 1996-2000: omelette bar, waffle bar, cereal, and the secretive TAVERN WRAP!
Reply

michelle

3-03-2009 @6:15PM michelle said... i graduated in 1990 and let me say the menu from today would have appealed to me far more then the 1989 menu if it had been an option. we had two entrees and a giant salad bar to choose from in the dining hall.
Reply

RobynT

3-03-2009 @6:32PM RobynT said... I had the Sodexho-Marriott omelette bar too, but it was so greasy! And not tasty grease either!

I was in dorms at two different schools from 1997-2000. I remember pasta bar being the safest option. We also had Korean BBQ chicken, which was also the best of the worst. And we had real ice cream, NOT soft serve!

At another school, waffle fries were the best. I remember there also being white gravy (even though it wasn't in the south); I never tried it.
Reply

mpero62

3-03-2009 @7:04PM mpero62 said... Sodexo Brunch - eggs, bacon, pancakes provide the "Br", tater tots add the "unch"!
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Gobo

3-03-2009 @7:36PM Gobo said... The best thing at the U. Cincinnati dorm cafeteria circa 1993 was the grilled cheese bar. Your choice of white or wheat... american, swiss or pepper jack.. and top it with grilled onions, mushrooms, tomatoes, ham, bacon, or jalapenos. I lived on grilled cheese that year.

A typical vegetarian entree: "black bean surprise", which was a vat of black beans boiled with unpeeled oranges. Horrible.
Reply

Amber

3-03-2009 @7:40PM Amber said... I went to college from 1996-2000, and the food was so bad in the cafeteria that I ate plain white rice and a lettuce salad for every meal except for breakfast. I wouldn't say it was my favorite, but I lost the freshman 15 instead of gaining it!
Reply

SaraFist

3-03-2009 @8:16PM SaraFist said... I was also a victim of Sodexho-Marriott (2000-2002), and suffered the omelet bar, pasta bar, and Sunday manicotti and steak suppers. My suspicion is that these favorites are based on either one-off specials that school caterers occasionally do, or on places like Middlebury--which have real catering.
Reply

lisa

3-03-2009 @11:27PM lisa said... How about the 70's ?
Sally Lund bread
Square Tonys pizza
err...that is really all I can remember actually liking !

Reply

Samme

3-04-2009 @3:38AM Samme said... College wasn't all that far back. Only one dish really comes to mind and I ate it only rarely as a comfort food: macaroni and cheese with smoked kielbasa sausage and a pickle. The whole thing was very simple, yet really delicious.
Reply

Chrissy

3-04-2009 @8:29AM Chrissy said... We have a bunch of sushi places, panini stations, make your own salads, stirfries, etc.

My fave dish is served in the "healthier" dining commons...morrocan brown rice pilaf, raspberry glazed portabello mushroom with feta cheese and a side of steamed broccoli.

Or any of the sesame tofu dishes. Or our smoothie bar.

I love Penn State :)
Reply

Crystal

3-04-2009 @12:39PM Crystal said... Went to college in the South in the mid 90's. Our food was definitely closer to the 1989 menu than the current one. I think I ate chicken fingers for lunch at least 4 times a week my freshman year. My other favorites were country fried steak and roast chicken. My favorite dessert were these apple taquitos, they were flour tortillas wrapped around apple pie filling then deep fried and dusted with cinnamon sugar. So good!
Reply

alison

3-04-2009 @1:00PM alison said... what's the correct link to original source for this? can't be the photo ...
Reply

Elizabeth

3-04-2009 @1:42PM Elizabeth said... Wait...someone actually LIKED the turkey tetrazini? That stuff was disgusting!

-Fellow victim of Sodexho-Marriott, c'96
Reply

David

3-24-2009 @2:58PM David said... Um, what colleges actually serve these 2009 foods? And where are they?

UTexas Longhorn, '06
Reply

19 Comments / 1 Pages

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