The Marketplace, the dining hall or “the Caf” — regardless of what you may choose to call it — is arguably the most social and active space on campus. At all times of the day, it is full of students sharing a meal, catching up and working on various assignments. In that way, it is a reliable and consistent place to spend your time. However, many believe that the consistency — or in this case, repetitiveness — of the food options can be a downside. I mean, how many slices of pizza or cheeseburgers does one person really want to eat a week? By thinking of the dining hall as offering only a few options as opposed to a kitchen with a plethora of ingredients, one misses out on some amazing meals.
The first step to enhancing one’s dining experience is not to limit oneself to a particular station each time they go. It is better to see what is good at each and build from there. If one has good protein while another has good vegetables, it is always an option to mix and match them as much as you would like. You can also get extra or smaller portions if you ask.
A consistent, though forgotten about, station is the salad bar, which is not on any sort of rotation aside from breakfast time. The food items available here can be used to add onto other stations’ food to enhance the meal as a whole. Proteins or vegetables from the other stations can be added onto salads to switch it up, such as grilled chicken or roasted broccoli. Salads are both easy and limitless — there is so much variety to what can be in a salad that truly anything in the dining hall could be added on.
My personal favorite station that I feel is underrated is the smoothies. One of the things I miss since living in a dorm is being able to make my own food, and this part of the dining hall, along with the salads, is one of the only ones where you get to make a meal from scratch. The smoothies are quick and easy to make, with a range of ingredients to choose from. These ingredients are also useful for making other foods as well, such as taking the fruits for a salad, yogurt for a mid-day breakfast bowl or taking some berries to top off a sundae. You can even fill up a cup with ice cream from the dessert section and make yourself a milkshake. There is much more versatility to this station than just smoothies.
On the topic of desserts, one popular combination is making an ice cream sandwich by adding a scoop of ice cream between two cookies. This ice cream can also be added to any one the a wide range of sodas to make a float.
Another part of the dining hall that is often overlooked is the access to a microwave, which can be utilized anytime the food is just a little too cold or for any of your own personal creations.
A complaint that students sometimes have for choosing the dining hall over the other dining options is that unlike these other locations, you can’t take it to go. However, now with the ReusePass, this issue is resolved. Students are able to pick up to-go containers upon entering and fill them up as much as they like before leaving. For anyone that wants food from the dining hall, but does not have time to sit down and eat, this is a convenient and simple alternative. When finished, they can return the containers during their next visit to contribute to the dining hall’s sustainability mission.
The dining hall can offer so much more than what is seen on the surface; it’s as much your kitchen as you choose to make it. You can either see it as just a few options to pick and choose from, or as an opportunity to try out new foods, mix and match different cuisines and expand your palate.
