10th Apr 2008
Menus with Pho and Lobster
Within the last couple of months, I’ve developed an elaborate fantasy in which I return to college for the sole purpose of eating. Yes, the eating in college was good. At Smith, it was on China, and customized for my vegetarian tastes (as I was friends with Chef Glenn), and at Wesleyan, the food came in an enormous cafeteria where I could graze at my leisure, including from the longest salad bar in Connecticut.
That was then. This is now. I cannot afford to go to Smith or Wesleyan in my adult life (actually, I couldn’t afford it then either). Instead I simply have this elaborate fantasy made worse by an article in the New York Times, Menus with Pho and Lobster, that implies the food at private colleges, including Wesleyan, has simply become much better as they compete for top tier students by offering pumpkin chocolate muffins and everything else under the sun. A slideshow of upscale college food here here.
Ah, regression. And, yes, there’s room for a whole deconstruction of my middle class childhood against the upper class education and food. So tasty though just to consider the food. Students, count your blessings, and pass the pumpkin chocolate muffins.
I wasn’t tempted by the pho or lobster (two dishes I can easily pass on), but the photos of the rib-eye steak, and tomato with cheese, and the salmon, and the cappuccino muffins whet my appetite in a serious way. I didn’t even need to read the article.
I’m not much for lobster. The notion actually repulses me, but the rest looked pretty good, as did the elaborate descriptions. Perhaps I just need to get up and cook something.
I think Mike made me lobster when we were first dating, and he described the experience as “disturbing.” He’s never made it since. I’m off to make a bean and cheese burrito.
Ah, Mocon. How we loved thy salad bar, never knowing how much until we graduated and moved to a part of the country where salad bars are few and far between. Or maybe they’ve gotten scarce everywhere?
The cafeteria at the college where I work did a lot of upgrades a couple of years ago, adding wood floors and a more open, less cafeteria-line layout. Now I see why they did it.
Dude, yes, they’re totally competing with Bowdoin! Can you imagine Wes now? I’m tempted to fly there for dinner. Though I suppose that’s not technically possible for so many reasons.