When it comes to food, it's tough to please

It’s tough to tell who gets the better advantage when it comes to food. Is it the students that eat something before going into the cafeteria or is it the students that go into the cafeteria on empty stomachs? To be honest, the students who eat a little something first come away with the advantage most of the time.

Granted, school food (any school food for that matter) doesn’t compare to home-cooked food. But at the same time, while away at school, school is our home. At home, don’t you get as many portions of food that you would like? At home don’t you get to pile seconds or thirds or even fourths on your plate? So how come the amount of food we get is smaller than what we expect?

This year, the cafeteria went through a major upgrade. The entrance and exit spots have switched on the veteran cafeteria visitors. There are new seating areas in the Alumni Galleria. And even the location of standard utensils have changed. It all looks nice and spiffy and even fancy. But looks can be deceiving.

Like past years, the food at the “Caf” (the commonly known nickname for Boyd Dining Center) is completely hit or miss. Meaning that you’ll either get a chance to eat delicious, fulfilling food or you’ll have to choke down something completely gross. For examples, take the pizza. One day it is overcooked. The next day, it may appear to be perfectly fine until that first bite into the raw dough. Or glance over at the dessert area. Are those really freshly made cookies? Or are they just leftover from lunch and dinner from the previous week? Here’s a little hint. If the cookies are nice and chewy, they are freshly cooked. If they are hard enough to be used for ice hockey pucks for the Norfolk Admirals, then they are old. Another key to the food area is the salad bar. Yes, veggies can grow old quick, especially if left in nice, warm air. But when is the lettuce ever fresh? It seems like the only time there is fresh lettuce is during the very opening of lunch. And even then, the freshness goes downhill quickly. By dinnertime, that fresh lettuce resembles a faint green, limp-looking leaf. But then again, like any school food, it is all hit or miss.

Portions are something different. There are some people at Wesleyan that can eat a tremendous amount of food in one sitdown. So why do these people get cheated out of the portions they need to feel full? You can only have one entree, but as many sides as you want. Go back to the pizza. Two slices of pizza equals to one entree. This means you can’t get anything from anywhere else unless it is a side dish. The slices of pizza aren’t all that big in the first place. As a matter of fact, the size of a slice of Wesleyan’s pizza can rival that of a slice of Chanello’s pizza. And Chanello’s doesn’t necessarily have the largest pizza slices either. Students are known for going through pies of Chanello’s in one chowdown. Athletes generally come to dinner after practice and are starving. How much fun is it to get dinner, sit down, eat your food and then have to get up 5-10 minutes later because you just demolished everything that was on your tray? Those that think they can polish off two entrees and anything else they can fit on their tray should not be penalized. Food is expensive, especially when buying it at the Farm Fresh up the road or even take-out food.

No food place is ever going to please everyone. Everyone has a different taste and different expectations of food. If there was one place that could please everyone, it’d be a miracle.