Turkey, Broccoli, and Rice "Casserole": Lunch at Ghafari, October 6

Left to right: Steamed squash; redskin potatoes; turkey, broccoli, and rice casserole.

(Not pictured: Tidal Wave Blue)

It may have seemed impossible, but the food just got even more bland and awful today. I've been noticing a trend towards "beige" as a color scheme for all of the food. Even the formerly yellow and green squash was turned into a nearly unrecognizable mash of ecru tediousness.

My theory is that lunch today was a combination of all the food that was left over from the past few weeks -- I mean, that's what my mom generally throws into her casseroles. The main difference is that hers are actually edible.

I had my doubts when I saw the soupy yellowish mess being ladled out onto other people's plates, but despite my reservations, I decided to give it a chance. I liked turkey, broccoli, and rice (Seriously. Rice. AGAIN.), so I figured a combination of the three would maybe not be too awful.

I was wrong. So very wrong. The rice was literally so mushy it had become completely indistinguishable from the fake cheese blend that covered the top of this pathetic excuse for a casserole. I eventually unearthed a few hunks of turkey, but I'm fairly confident that the broccoli was pureed with the rice, since there was no evidence to suggest that it was ever there to begin with. 

As for the taste, it was like I was literally just eating calories with no flavor. I know I put food into my mouth, but my taste buds must have developed some sort of defense mechanism against the dorm food, making me unable to actually recognize what was entering my digestive system.

Honestly, the most colorful (and best) part of my meal was the ever-delightful Tidal Wave Blue drink. It is consistently delicious, as it tastes exactly like the blue liquid found in freeze pops (and it's really hard to screw up something with so much sugar in it -- impossible, even). One thing I can definitely say about Ghafari is that they have better drinks than Towers: Tidal Wave Blue and root beer are possibly the only two reasons I continue to eat there.

Bottom line: If one could survive solely on a liquid diet of Tidal Wave Blue and root beer, we'd be all set. Unfortunately, the food aspect of the dining halls completely ruins that plan.

Anthony's Choice

Enticed by the promise of cookies, I found myself standing in Jen and Maria’s room patiently ignoring my surroundings and waiting for the moment when Jen would finally give me the irresistible treats I had come for.  To make the time go faster I imagined what they would taste like.  What kind would they be? Would they be crunchy or soft? The possibilities were endless…

The words “blind taste test” and “guest blog post” broke through my sugary fantasies and I reluctantly let them slip from my consciousness.  What had I just signed myself up for?  I remained aware of the real world just long enough to understand that I was expected to perform such dreary chores as describing what I tasted with adjectives… adjectives.  My resolve began to waver, was this still worth it?  But then, I remembered the longing that had brought me this far, and I gravely made my choice. I would go even as far as adjectives to acquire delicious cookie goodness.

I straightened my shoulders and shook off the misgivings that weighed me down as Jen distributed the cookies.

Cookie 1 (Maria's):

This first specimen crumbled almost immediately upon being handed to me.  My expectations of the ideal cookie at first seemed to crumble with it, but upon finally tasting it, I experienced a pleasant reversal of opinion.  The tasty dough was interspersed with huge, scrumptious chunks of dark chocolate.  I, being partial to darker chocolates, found this quite an appealing characteristic.  Though the chunks were not extremely frequent, this fact prevented them from overwhelming the comprehensive taste of the cookie.

Cookie 2 (Jen's):

The second cookie I received was much more solid in composition.  I don’t mean to imply that it was overcooked or stale, rather simply that it did not fall apart as readily as the previous one.  The chocolate here had a decreased cacao composition, and tasted very sweet. While it undoubtedly still tasted heavenly, I found myself longing for the solid earthy flavor of my treasured dark chocolate.  Chips rather than chunks were present in Cookie 2 and made up a much greater proportion of the whole cookie than those of Cookie 1 had.  The symphony of ingredients produced a much sweeter taste, which was the signature characteristic of this sample.

The Verdict:

Not wishing to offend either baking party, I must say that both cookies were to my liking and embodied everything I had hoped for upon blindly wandering into this situation.  However, my love of dark chocolate broke through in the end, and Cookie 1—baked by Maria, I was told—earned my greater affection.  I wish to congratulate both bakers on their talent and courage in submitting their work to my judgment and also wish to thank them both for bringing my the cookie satisfaction that I desired.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Review(s)... TBA

Cody

Besides the fact that I look absolutely ridiculous in this photo. Let’s concentrate on what’s important here, which is these scrumptious chocolate chip cookies. In my opinion, there are very few people who can actually make homemade chocolate chip cookies, so Jen, I definitely commend you on your success with these cookies.  I must say that eating these cookies was like taking a vacation to Hawaii. The chocolate chips take you on a journey to the center of the fucking earth: that’s how delicious they are.  Oh yeah and please let me have the last container of them too PLEASE!!!!

Anthony

Steve

Now that these lovely photos are up online, hopefully Cody, Anthony, and Steve will finally write their reviews of the chocolate chip cookies that my roommate and I made...

Chicken (?) Jambalaya: Lunch at Ghafari, October 5

Fries with a strange combination of chicken, rice, beans, and cauliflower.

Today's lunch was possibly one of the least visually appealing things I've ever seen. The six different shades of brown on my plate did little to improve my hopes for this dish. Honestly, when the most color your food has comes from the fry basket, there's a problem.

I'm not sure why I've eaten cauliflower so many times since coming to Wayne. It seems to make some sort of appearance at every meal -- perhaps there was a surplus several years ago, and now the cafeteria is trying to get rid of their reserves by cooking what's left down to a mushy, unidentifiable brownish substance.

The meal as a whole was edible. I can't really ask for much more. Eaten separately, everything was painfully bland, but the jambalaya added a much needed kick of flavor to an otherwise unnecessarily rice-filled meal. Honestly, who has two separate rice dishes on the same plate? This isn't even counting the third rice dish in the cafeteria, some strange, brownish form of risotto, that I decided was safer to just avoid.

Luckily, I'll always have the mushy fries (sometimes warm, sometimes refrigerated -- always salvageable with enough salt) and some delightfully flat-tasting root beer to make my mealtimes tolerable.

Unidentified (Krab?) Sushi/Rice/Lima Beans: Towers, October 4

Guest post courtesy of Doug Pacholke, Webmaster of Atchison Hall Council!

                                

First off, I've already lied to you. Calling this sushi would be like calling Cody Nelson white. It's just plain untrue. Sushi should be a cold slab of raw fish on a cold block of rice. Not this cluster-fuck of fake crab between warm, moist rice. To draw your attention away from this atrocity, the chefs decided they would just toss something completely unexpected into the mix; lima beans. On sushi. I mean, I guess it was a good distractor. I spent more time wondering where to buy whatever the chefs were smoking than actually eating this abomination. So I did the logical thing, and scraped the little buggers off until I had just the bare essentials; warm rice and some sort of fish-like thing. I don't think it even came from the ocean. But whatever, I shoved my fork in and took a bite. Well, I tried to take a bite. See, unlike real sushi, this thing seemed that it would like to disintegrate into rice and krab bits. Fanfuckingtastic. Worse so, it fell into the light greenish liquid that I think they are trying to pass off a wasabi. Which is actually somewhat solid. But okay, I'll bite. Upon the first actual spoonful, I was greeted by an abundance of flavors that pleasured every single taste bud in my mouth. Then I stopped imagining eating real sushi and tried this shit, which tasted like a mixture of air and pure concentrated essence of nothing. Honestly, typing this is sort of like a Vietnam flashback. I'm gonna need some therapy. 

On a more serious note, this actually wasn't relatively bad. It's definitely not fillet mignon, but then again, it's not the regular crap they shovel on our plates. However, if you were getting this thinking of eating some real sushi, well, you're better off getting the ice cream. Trust me, I'm gonna be a doctor. 

Stone House Coffee & Tea: Northville, October 2

Salted Caramel Crunch Crepe with (not pictured) a large White Chocolate Frappucino, extra shot of espresso. (I promise, it looked equally appetizing).

This weekend, I went back to my hometown to tutor, and what's a good weekend without some quality coffeehouse food? Stone House has been one of my favorite places to tutor, eat, and study for the past several years, and I've never been disappointed.

If you've spoken to me for more than three minutes, you probably know that I'm a huge sucker for anything that's salted caramel (The Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate is a favorite of mine in the winter, in case anyone is interested...), and the Salted Caramel Crunch Crepe is the most perfect combination of walnuts, caramel, pastry, and salt ever developed.

Alas, this makes the return to dorm food that much more unbearable.

Shameless Self-Promotion, October 1

Freshly baked chocolate chip cookies, courtesy of me (of course).

Granted, I think they're delicious. It's an old recipe of my great-grandmother's, so I think the fact that it's been around that long really speaks to its quality. However, I am a tad bit biased towards my own baking skills, so the actual review will be a guest post courtesy of one of my lovely hall mates.

(p.s. These cookies will be given out first-come, first-serve, so if you want one, find me when I'm back on campus tomorrow afternoon and help me carry things up to my dorm room. But I made about 4 dozen, so there are plenty.)