The food looks good at the retirement community where my elderly relative lives. The salad bar features brightly colored salad greens, cherry tomatoes and assorted toppings. The steam table has multiple vegetable and main course options. There’s just one problem: The food doesn’t taste good, and the texture is bad. Fortunately, by day two, we found something of a solution.
Day one, though, my chicken was dry, the vegetables rubbery. Even those beautiful greens had no taste. My daughter said her fried shrimp and a dinner roll were OK, but she barely touched her other items. I forget what the dessert was supposed to be, but I remember I couldn’t finish it. (A seventy-ish friend observed last night that one’s senses do become duller with age, but you would think that fact would argue for more flavor, not less.)
Anyway, on day two of our visit, we decided to order from the “off-menu” menu, a short list of short-order foods. We each got the “fresh fruit plate,” which was respectable, although I could have eaten three of them. My daughter ordered an omelet with toast, and I opted for a BLT. In both cases, we got something resembling real food. The omelet was plain - no herbs, cheese, nothing - the “tomatoes” on my sandwich weren’t anything you’d eat if you had a better option, and both dishes featured toasted Wonder-type bread. Still, both dishes were hot and used relatively fresh ingredients that tasted more or less as they should taste.
Meanwhile, the aged relative seemed content with her food, and the service was good. I only hope that if I live as long as she has that someone will have figured out a way to make institutional food taste as good as it looks.
Lynn // Jun 7, 2007 at 9:42 am
Food service has become an area of intense competition at private colleges, we discovered this year as we visited potential places to send our son and our money. All the primo college dining halls seem to have Bon Appetit, a corporate but high-quality provider that works hard to buy fresh and local. On a visit to St. Olaf in Northfield, MN, my son had roast duck for dinner and Belgian waffles with fresh cream and strawberries for breakfast. It’s enough to make me want to go to college again! And I don’t think it’s a coincidence that St. Olaf students are ranked the happiest on various college surveys. You are what you eat!
Janet Majure // Jun 7, 2007 at 10:03 am
St. Olaf is not alone in promoting local foods. Salon magazine not long ago did an article on schools’ local foods efforts. It’s good to see improvements on that front (it ain’t the dorm food of my youth!). We’ll hope it’s a trend that gains momentum.