Support CALCIUM! Drink expired milk!

I admit, I almost dashed...or I sort of did. I took a friend to get his hair cut between Cedar and Alder street on  6th avenue in Tacoma at Nani Hair Cuts. We ended up deciding to visit another friend to wait until traffic died down. I ended up cooking some frozen ground turkey. Most awkward thing ever. Not really, but when you have meat that is clumping up in long flat strips when you want it to be finely ground...just slight awkward. I never got it as fine as I wanted. This summer I learned that you don't always have all the time in the world to cook. This led to Hamburger Helper every once in a while. Tonight I made Whole Wheat Beef Stroganoff. I didn't really do anything special with it - I do have a special way to make Mac and Cheese though. There wasn't much to say about it...something saucy with some slightly rubbery meat. I think the turkey would've cooked better had it been properly thawed.

I actually got stuff from the store on my way home too. I have some gram cracker crusts, half and half, and some marshmallows. I plan to melt chocolate and marshmallows together to and thin it with a little half-and-half to make a filling to put in the cooked crust. I will then cover the pie in marshmallows and broil the it to golden perfection.

When I arrived home I went to the bakery so that I wouldn't waste my $13.75 - so instead I was charged $13.75 for less than $7.00 of over priced food ($5 for the sandwich, $2 for the chips and soft serve Ice cream). The only good thing was that I was given free milk - that expired today. The sign on them said that they were free because Tahoma Bakery supported Calcium, conveniently the expiration date did not face the people taking it. It is ok to offer free milk to people because you can't sell it when it expires and it would be wasteful to toss it, but false advertising that they support calcium isn't professional. Dining Services would offer free milk at swipe meals at the bakery if they really supported healthy decisions and calcium. Its not like the cost wouldn't be absorbed by our meal swipe we payed for.

Beef, Chicken, Sausage...what??? Mystery Meat Might be better...

 Beef Soup

• unchewable onion -
• too big of beef = tough and less flavor ---
• Surprisingly, Not too salty! +

Chicken Strip

• Cold -

Sausage Lasagna

• hot sausage +/-
• huge chunks of tomato +
• Good thing - until the entire bowl -
• slightly undercooked celery -

Chicken

• No Flavor -----
• rice masks the lack of flavor - clearly my friend liked rice +?

Stir fry kills girl...almost...i wish shed had...dashed

I actually went with Swedish Meatballs - a good solid choice. I believe that they can be improved in only one way - extra gravy. Meat balls are often too dry in the center, and gravy - no matter matter how much butter was used - is a perfect solution to the dryness. Had there been some extra gravy the meatballs would've been perfect. Ok, they could've been slightly less dense too - I mean, eating too much meat only gives you cancer. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7959128.stm 

The potatoes were fine - just too big of pieces, too large of a serving, and way too much Dill. WAY too much. The lingonberries were good - but a bit sour against the gravy's flavor. I got a little bit of the beets...quickly regretted that. Beets never taste good - but the thick sauce looked like the huckleberry sauce from my mothers and grandmothers non-bake Huckleberry Cheese Cake...how deceptive, I should've known that it wouldn't be sweet and full of the flavorful fruit.

Apparently the Peppers in the Chicken Cashew Stir-fry was dangerously horrible...I really don't wish the girl died, but a little bit of the UC love did when she chose the stir-fry chicken - I avoid it on principle that they over cook the chicken making it hard to chew.

Dining Services is Robbing us Blind

Update: you pay $13.75 for dinner. Yes, you and I are being robbed blind. It would cost you less to NOT have a meal plan and eat at the UC for dinner. Kreidler is suddenly starting to look WAY cheaper - go without a meal plan and just eat at the UC, saving three dollars a meal. Ridiculous...also shows that they care more about "visitors" then actual students.

I guess I should just spray the dirt on while I am annoyed. I got a text this morning saying that someone couldn't cut through one of their two pancakes. I don't know if this is more a comment on the fact that the butter knives aren't very effective or the fact that the pancakes were rockcakes - ok may be just really tough. I also watched another bag of soup be brought out of the kitchen today...I am not sure how it is suppose to be hot if it comes out in a plastic bag...

On a positive note, dinner was actually good tonight. I enjoyed a really tender chicken leg from crave with Mashed potatoes, gravy, and green beans. I also had the Cheese Tortellini with pesto sauce. The actually mixed the sauce with the tortellini before they served it. It was WAY better than it has ever been before! The basil garnish  provided a fresh complimentary flavor to the pesto - which is basil. I actually dived into the tortellini - leaving everything else to get a little cold...not a good plan. I felt like the green beans were perfect but the coldness distracted from the quality. I didn't feel like I left them that long either...I did do a rotation between everything after eating half the tortellini. So I am not really sure if they lost heat really quickly or they were served warm. The mashed potatoes were good! Needed more flavor even with the gravy but it wasn't anything a little salt and pepper couldn't improve. I also asked the server for a very small piece of fish, just to compare to the Salmon. I had to confirms my past experiences since things

Dessert was good too. Think blueberry muffin made into a bread form. It also appeared to have small chunks of what I believe was butterscotch chips. SO GOOD. Moist and absolutely delicious. Oh, how sugar makes the world go round...

Apparently the beef Fajitas were amazing. I may have missed out, but I am more than content with what I had!

What the!? You call this dinner? Should've dashed...

September 27th

Ok so maybe I am being dramatic, but the bakery would've been the better choice, I mean, I am starving now and I WENT to dinner at 5:30! I got general Tso's Chicken - I might add this seemed to be the ONLY line. The line reached all the way to the entrance of the commons when I got food. Tso's Chicken has been one of my favorite dishes the last two years. The brown rice tonight was nice, not sticky or dried out. The chicken was cooked fine, there was only a little bit of pink on the inside...and I am not puking...yet. In the past there was the problem that the chicken became soggy from being mixed with the sauce and waiting around for people to eat it. This year they have switched to pouring the sauce on top. Maybe its just me, but it seemed like a thinner sauce this year, water thin. Also, when having it poured on I thought the idea was to get it on the chicken. My sauce got poured all over my rice, leaving my chicken dry. Not really an ooo ah moment for me. Apparently the tofu version was great - of course my friend Sam also asked for extra sauce...fail on my part.

I also had the raspberry and rice pudding. LOVED it. Most of the time it is too sugary or not sweet enough or the rice is overcooked, ect. Instead everything was almost perfect. There were a few grains of rice that weren't fully cooked but it wasn't like I had to crunch my way through the bowl. During this wonderful bowl I got to listen about how the Stuff Portobello Mushrooms were way too salty -immediately qualifying it a mention in my blog. Another girl heard and immediately passed me some of her Grits...ok all of it...stabbed by a fork...and it a solid play-dough mass. For a dish that is suppose to be ground corn and have the consistency of oat meal, this was not appealing. As for taste, there really wasn't much of anything. It was just had a thick and rubbery texture.

Oh how I wish I had dashed!

Dash to the Sea

Although I didn't make it to the sea, I did make it to Costco, and that was good enough for me. Really, I broke down and decided I wanted salmon. The UC has never been good at cooking fish in my opinion. The fish they serve generally looks good but it is always dry and hard to choke down...maybe that is the true reason we waste so much food at PLU. We are attracted to the food by how it looks and shortly after we sit down and start eating we realize that the beautiful food has deceived us and is inedible - in which case I wouldn't even feed it to the raccoons that walk past the Common's windows. We then go back and to the lines to get something else. Again, a quarter of a dish is eaten when it gets to the point that it is unbearable to eat. Some of us settle and go for another dish, some of us leave discontent, and others of us, like Davey Fisher, go and eat four bowls of cereal. Ok, Davey is different and smart enough to not fall for the false advertising of the food - he goes straight to the cereal.

Taking our half eaten dishes of food we go and place them on the conveyer belt. Dining services then makes the conclusion that we are being served too large of potions. Slowly, this mentality that we are wasting food spreads until we are served smaller servings during every meal including lunch. We then over paying for even smaller meals. Its vicious cycle. The solution is easy enough. Serve food that people are willing to eat the whole serving and then no food gets wasted and cost can go down because less money is being spent on half eaten food.

Where was I...oh yes, Salmon. So I bought two pounds of Coho and Sockeye. I really didn't know the difference between the two so I thought it would do a comparison. I cooked them exactly the same way so that comparing them would be easier. I took long pieces of aluminum foil and then placed the fish on them.  I put onion under the whole fish. I seasoned them with a bit of salt, pepper, dill, and Montreal Steak Seasoning - my favorite season for meat. I then put onion and lemon slices on top. Folding up the sides of the tin foil, I squeezed lemon juice over the salmon to guarantee that it would stay moist. I then gave it another dash of dill and Montreal SS.

We cooked a pot full of wild rice from Costco as well. I loved it, but I definitely added butter to it. One of my favorite dishes that my grandmother cooks is a wild rice soup. It warms the soul. The last thing I made was plain old french bread. There is nothing like a fresh loaf of brown hot bread with butter melting on it. I also had the Cougar Gold cheese out as well. My friend really wanted to get this salad kit from Costco. Salads have never been a strength of mine so I didn't mind. When it comes to salads I turn to Kate Miller or Lynsey Tveit. Last night the salad was Dole's Cherry Almond Bleu. Bleu cheese crumbles, dried cherries, sliced almonds, and white balsamic vinaigrette over butter & Red Leaf lettuces. It was SO good. I am not really a fan of bleu cheese's but I didn't notice it at all.

Did I mention I had milk?

Everything worked well together. I actually had a piece of the Sockeye and was so content that I didn't take a bite of the coho until after I was stuffed. The sockeye had a darker pink color and was firmer than the coho, leaving the coho feeling mushy in my mind. If I had started with the coho I think it would be a different story. All in all I was happy with the meal. As for cost, I only spent around $42. For an expensive meat, we payed $5 each to cover all costs. A full well balanced meal - less than half the cost of an All-you-care-to-eat dinner at the Commons.

Dash to the Quiche

Quiche - it never really made a strong impression on me as a kid. I think i had it once...maybe twice...I have this crazy aunt which I love - I love all my aunts, crazy or not - but she was the first one who made it that stuck in my memory. She also made the most amazing scones - another ground breaker in my mind. My aunt is a really good cook. Of course my childhood memory was apparently killed until after I tried a quiche again my sophomore year. I had a friend who was slightly obsessed with them. Tonight he made it, which means it was taken down to the Best Basics Ever! (sorry - I couldn't stop orientation from coming out) Swiss cheese, eggs, half-and-half, nutmeg, salt, butter, and...BACON! Food that is reminds me of my childhood tend to be my favorite. Bacon falls into that category of home food. When cooked well, it reminds me of saturday mornings with my Dad making breakfast. There was extra half-and-half in tonight's quiche, making the eggs extra fluffy and light. When I cook quiche I always feel the need to add diced tomatoes, green onions (shallots), and sometimes even mushrooms. Extra nutmeg and a little pepper and cinnamon make a good addition of spices.

To change up the night we tried some of WSU's Cougar Gold cheese. The cheese comes in a metal tin can with bright yellow stipes. I actually bought it because of a childhood memory. When I lived in Moscow, Idaho, I went over to WSU and toured the creamery where they made the cheese. My mother bought it once because I was so excited that I had seen the same cheese being made. This white cheese is made of only pasteurized milk, cultures, salt, and enzymes. The longer the cheese ages the more liquids are drawn out of the cheese and the more crumbly it becomes. Also a hard white crystal forms from the amino acid tyrosine The cheese we had was aged two years. I actually spilled the liquid from the can all over my pants and the crystals definitely needed to be scrapped off. I couldn't place the familiar taste until another friend named it straight off, parmesan. Parmesan only softer and less crisp.

I don't really like lying, so I will tell you the truth. I had two deserts. The first was some fresh raspberries from Costco. The berries didn't have that sun ripened flavor but it was a nice change considering I actually didn't buy raspberries this summer - one of my favorite fruits. The last desert was sour patch kids. They have actually been in my backpack for weeks, a product of a Winco run. Nothing makes a contrast like cheese and sour patch kids. Now if you will excuse me I am going to get another piece of the quiche that my friend referenced as his personal crack.

Dine - Peanut what?!?

Chicken Shawarma. Not the best dish, but not the worst. I actually asked what it was, but the servers didn't know. Shawarma is a Middle Eastern sandwich-like wrap with shaved meat of some sort. The chicken was actually quite nice tonight. Tender and well spiced, had a nice punch to it. The peta bread that was served was still warm on the first bite. There was too much of the toppings for the size of the peta bread though. I would've loved two of them with fewer toppings. The tomatos were good, but I got an over dose of onions causing me to remove half of them, and the yogurt cucumber sauce (tzatziki sauce i think) was nice and cool and helped to counter the strongly spiced chicken. I was happy I didn't get the peper sauce on top as well. The last topping was a peanut sauce. I actually asked what was in it. Peanut butter, garlic, and parsley. I never really tasted it when it was mixed in with the food - maybe a sign that the taste complimented the rest of the food, but by it self...ugh...it was not good. At first the sweet peanut butter flavor kicked in, with a slight awkward flavor I couldn't place - possibly the  parsley - quickly followed by the sharp flavor of juicy raw garlic. Too much. WAY too much. It did blend well with everything in the shawarma, but I never will touch it alone again. Overall I liked it. I felt sympathy for the people who ate Rigatoni with Short Rib Ragu though. The Short Ribs have never been good...ever. Ok that is an exageration, I think i liked them once...maybe...let me know if you ever have.


I also enjoyed a soup tonight which is not on the dinner menu. It was a bisque - and I enjoyed it so much I actually ate it first. I learned last year that only one ladle full of soup is good. I mean, you can only trust fresh soup out of a plastic bag so much.

Dine on Lamb

I hope you enjoyed the Caribbean Themed dinner - too bad the only warning was on MyLuteLife...not even mentioned on Dining Services main website or their list of meal options for the day. I know I enjoyed the dinner line tonight. Often its a lot of waiting and it's not often that you over hear a great conversation. Ok, I admit it - when I am not talking or listening to a friend i eavesdrop...a lot. Its a great way to pick up information, most of it is useless but some of it isn't. Tonight I was listening to two girls discuss whether the chickpea dish was chicken. I felt I should step in when they started to talk about getting the "beef"dish. I was immediately compeled to tell her that what she was about to order was not beef...but lamb. Judging from her reaction, I am not sure if it was kinder to tell her or to let her accidentally eat Little Bo Peep's Sheep - but the reaction was definitely worth the comment - whether it helped her or not. She made the obvious choice and asked for the chickpea dish. I, on the other hand, had no problems in ordering the Lamb. I also asked for some of the chickpea dish as well. I realized that I haven't had much curry in my life. I do know that the lamb was amazingly tender and the carrots were undercooked. The chickpea dish was nice - reminded me of hummus - imagine that, as chickpeas are the key ingredient : )


The chocolate cake was fine - really I don't know. I kind of bolted it down so I could come back to my wonderful residence hall. All I remember was good frosting, a mass of possibly dry chocolate cake, and really crunchy blue sprinkles...yum...maybe I am lowering my expectations...


Did you know that whole milk is only 4% fat? Napoleon was right when he said "you could drink whole milk if you wanted" - I now have no guilt in getting 2% - besides skim is often too thin for my tastes, unless its for cereal.

Tahoma, a Dash or a Dine?

I promised that I would tell you why the Tahoma Bakery should bring back the homemade sandwiches...an explanation I now feel is over due. The first semester at PLU I ate there almost every day for lunch. I would get the same thing - ham, turkey, and provolone on organic cracked wheat bread with lettuce, tomato, and pesto - the perfect sandwich. I never tired of it. Soup, chips, soft-serve ice cream, Naked, or one of the many fresh baked treats would add the variety I wanted for the meal. As it got colder I started to turn to the Panini sandwiches. They were so good. My favorite was the chicken panini. Provolone, chicken, and stun dried tomatoes was amazingly hot and filling.

This story was actually sparked because I just ate at the bakery for dinner. I love that you can eat dinner at the bakery for free if you haven't used your dinner swipe at the UC! Excited, I grabbed an order slip and filled it out...exactly like had two years beforehand, the perfect sandwich. I was surprised at the addition of more options, pleasantly of course. I mean, heated sandwiches with bacon?!? I plan on making a BLT with ranch one day, also a double order of bacon and lettuce!!! It also looks like they separated sauces from the veggies too. Before I had to get pesto as one of my three topping choices. It looks like I can now add cucumbers! They did stop offering the sun dried tomatos though. The sandwich was just as I remembered - fresh and delicious. I was also sad to discover that they had go rid of the panini sandwiches. The ones they offered at the bakery were always better than the ones at Old Main Market...by a long shot. My ex-roommate use to get them all the time...he also developed an obsession for collecting Lipton tea in the glass bottles and piling them on his desk...

For my two sides I choose chips and a cookie. The cookie was nice - but cold. I love the Hawaiian chips, but I had to settle for the BBQ instead of the sweet maui onion, which I have a slight obsession with. I was disappointed because they had removed soup from the options. Soup and sandwiches are sooo good together! My first year you could get a half sandwich and soup for the same price of a whole sandwich.

I did notice that the side options aren't really fairly offered either. You can get one half pint of milk, valued at 50 cents, or a pop valued at $1.50. Does that make sense? I mean, way to make health options readily available dining services. You should at least be able to get two things of milk The only healthy thing besides the milk was the whole fruit option...I guess offering veggies for the sandwich automatically equals a balanced meal.

As for if I dashed or dined...I wasn't really running from something so I would say I dined...of sorts.

Dine Week 2

I was the third one into the UC today. I quickly learned that I should eat later...always. Didn't really have a full appetite but I had work later so I had to. The Mac and Cheese was good, but the cheese started to be come clumpy as it cooled down. Definitely needed salt and pepper and a little contrast...toasted bread crumbs would've been great. I enjoyed some of the scalloped potatoes...but I was kind of wondering where they came from...as I really don't remember them being served for lunch...good old left overs.

I also had a bite of the cherry pie tart. The crust was nice and flakey with just the right amount of sugar on top. Kind of tasted like it was filled with canned pie filling...it probably was.

I actually started lamenting the loss of the Sweet Potato fries that are no longer served. They taste SO good. I heard that the reason they got rid of them was because they were so expensive. Easy solution would've been to not give them out at an all you can care to eat dinner. I know I would pay extra for them at the Crave. Certain things are just worth spending the extra cash - like Naked. Favorite drink ever...after strawberry milkshakes. I settled for my good old 2% for dinner like normal.

Weekend Knowledge - Dash Saturday

I originally wasn't planning on writing anything on Saturdays, as I have no intentions of eating on campus. Lets face it, when it comes to dining dollars we don't have enough for eating on campus Saturday. According to an Alumni, when Dining Services changed from the "all you can eat" meal ticket system to the dining dollar system they did so because students were only using 60% of their meal tickets. Depending on plan, you had tickets for each meal to get in. In response to this information they wanted a cash system so that people wouldn't lose their money, as extra tickets were lost at the end of the week. With the Dining Dollar system set up they told the students that 20 meals a week would equal the Lute choice plan. The truth is that the plan doesn't equal 20 meals because prices rose. The plan didn't then and it doesn't today.

If you have the Lute Choice meal plan, you have about $51.70 to spend each week, according to Dining Services website. This means that you have $8.62 to spend each day or $4.31 per meal. At a quick glance you are probably thinking you can do this but you are probably forgetting something. Saturday. You have three meals which you need to cover on Saturday. Divide by the total of 13 meals to cover a week and you are left with $3.98 a meal. For the normal person at eating at the Commons this is not enough - especially when the average cost for a main meal is MORE than the amount budgeted.

The average cost for a lunch entree this last week was $4.40. This is not counting a drink, a side dish, salad extras, or even fruit! Once you get a drink, you are paying $4.99. That is just an average for a meal that may not fill you - many meals cost more and I included Pizza as an entree, reducing the average cost.

According to Dining Services website."The Dining Dollar program was designed to get you through the semester with nutritionally balanced meals" Getting through is probably what we will do, we won't starve, but we will survive. Which is the reason the small meals cost an average of $2.36. If you get a side dish to make it more like a meal expect to hand over another $1.59 for a side dish. Add a drink and you are over budget at $4.54. As for nutritionally balanced - I wish Dining Services was telling the truth. It costs $5.99 a pound for salad or cut fruit. How is Dining Services actually providing balanced meals if we can't afford the food? Eating healthy comes at the cost of not eating another meal later on.

The food we pay for is also over priced. A single banana costs 60 cents and you can buy a pound of bananas for less than that often, 48 cents at Fred Meyer the other day. The simplest ragu spaghetti (meat marinara sauce) costs $4.95. To put it into perspective you can buy a pound of ground beef, canned tomato sauce, garlic, onion, and pasta for $5.50 - and feed six to eight people. Lets not even talk about the "all you care to eat" meals which cost us $10.75. Even by the high cost standards of Dining Services, I haven't eaten ten dollars worth of food in one dinner. If you have been reading my earlier posts, you know its true.

We are over charged and forced to make a budget that will "get us through" but not give us a well balanced or filling meal. The only solution in my mind is to Dash every Saturday so that the money I don't gets divided between the rest of the week, giving me $5.17 a meal. I have to pay more out of pocket for food, yes, but it is the same cost and better than eating in the Commons. 

Dinner at The Hub, downtown Tacoma, was so good! I had Fish & Chips, a dish that reminds me so much of my childhood. My favorite thing was that they give regular fries and sweet potato fries as well! The UC used to serve them...and they were just as good as I remembered. I also stole a piece of my friends chicken Bruschetta pizza. Pesto, chicken, homemade bruschetta, mozzarella , cream based and drizzled with balsamic vinegar - I would recommend it to anyone! Warning, if you order the risotto be prepared for some heavy garlic flavor!

The Hub: Check out their menu!

http://hub.harmonbrewingco.com/  

DASH!!!

What do you know...I have dashed away and they served Meat Lasagna. Its ok I made Chicken Pot Pie. I know, intense right? The fun part was making a crust without having a rolling pin. Ended up using a Martinelli's bottle, still full, to flatten out the dough. Worked out well in the end. In the background there was the sizzling of the onion, carrots, and celery in butter...have I mentioned I love butter? It just happens to find itself in almost everything I cook. The crust alone used a stick and a half and then there was another stick of margarine added as well! My mother fears that I will have a heart attack by the time I am twenty-one, I guess I may only have six more months to eat more butter. On that note, cooking off campus also means that I can use alcohol - which a twelve year old could buy - cooking sherry. A little cooking sherry can improve lots of dishes. The alcohol burns off and the flavor is left behind. Goes great in Alfredo! Imagine that : )

Garlic, thyme, chicken broth, heavy cream, chicken, bay leafs, and parsley. I almost forgot salt and pepper! Key to almost any dish. By the time it was done cooking in the pot it could have just been served as a soup with dumplings, but I am a traditionalist and like my chicken potpies covered.

I bought a loaf of thin french bread five days ago and it is now as hard as a rock. Don't worry, I planned this. The hard loaf was cut into thin slices, brushed with olive oil, and then topped with Parmesan cheese and rosemary. When broiled perfectly they turn golden brown and the cheese melts to the same beautiful shade - something that didn't happen tonight. The cheese was perfect, yes, but the bread definitely started to blacken around the sides. The final product was way too dry for my taste, and being burned didn't really encourage me to eat them, thankfully others weren't as picky. Burned food is one of my pet peeves.

In my past I have heard that there is a huge difference between olive oils but it wasn't until today when I really learned that. I tasted the one my friend had provided for me to use. There was no flavor to it at all. It was like licking, well, oil. It was just a greasy liquid with no substance. I now know the reason why it’s good to buy expensive olive oils. Too bad I don’t have the spare cash, or space, to buy and store a ton of olive oils just so I could know the differences between them all.

Dine #3

Sorry for my late blog, but you didn't miss much at dinner last night. I mean, if you had the manicotti you would know what I am talking about. I don't fully trust what the TV menus say as advertising can be very deceiving so I usually look at the food before I decide to take it. I quickly passed the Crave and then saw what I thought was lasagna. I went up and asked for meat and she gave me what looked like a big slice. I didn't really pay attention to it though because I was focused on moving through the other people milling to get milk. Keep coming out of the UC wishing I had eaten more so I went to the taco line as well. I got a soft shell, ground beef, and half servings of rice and beans. I then got sour cream, salsa, the dry powdery cheese (I am blanking on the name - I asked a DS chef once) and lettuce. I decided I would skip the cilantro as it was still attached to the stem.

The taco was good - but over stuffed with meat. Last year I would always ask for a half serving of meat, I should've last night as well. The Spanish Rice was starting to clump but it had good flavor. The Black Beans had a consistency much like refried beans, too thick in my opinion. Overall, it was taco that was fine but didn't really stick out in quality. The Cheese Manicotti with Marinara though really stuck out. The cheese used both in and on the manicotti was just slightly rubbery. Cutting into the noodle the ricotta cheese shot out of the end. It didn't spill out but shot out in a little rubbery tube. Rubbery discribes both look and feel. The cheese would break up if you applied enough pressure but the rubbery texture never fully left. The noodle was the best part of the manicotti, a friend actually stole mine after removing all the cheese. Did I mention that I didn't notice any marinara sauce at all? Maybe I was distracted by the cheese...

I also had desert last night. Two huge tubs of a mass of chocolate stood before me. On top of a perfect gooey chocolate sauce lay a brownie/chocolate cake top that looked ever so inviting. Lava Cake. I took a whole bowl. This was a mistake or maybe I spared more people from having their hopes raised and destroyed. The cake was dense, moist, and bland. The chocolate sauce wouldn't have been too bad had it not been for the grainy texture of the undissolved sugar and the random globs of congealed chocolate gloop. The best description I heard was that if you went to Candy Land and started eating the mud - this lava cake is what it would taste like. One friend said they could have made this in an easy bake oven and  still have it come out better.

Dine #2

Lets cut to the chase - I LOVE Alfredo sauce! My love is on the verge of an addiction. You can guess what I get when I go to the Olive Garden or what I got tonight for that matter. I had the Broccoli Alfredo with Penne – which doesn't really makes sense as normally people have pasta with some sauce and not sauce with a little pasta...It was great though! In the past Dining Services biggest mistake with this dish has been adding the broccoli TOO soon. What starts off as an Alfredo dish quickly becomes a broccoli flavored cream sauce, covering the creamy parmesan flavor that makes Alfredo so good not in a good way. I personally like Alfredo when it has a bit of garlic in it, but I didn't notice as I was distracted by the half melted parmesan that covered it! I wish I had gone back for a second bowl!

I also had the Taco pizza. I actually didn't enjoy it that much, but at lunch it was amazing! It is really an interesting if you have never seen it. It was all the taco toppings, (seasoned ground beef, cheese, salsa, tomatoes, lettuce, and sour cream) on a piece of pizza. It really is great - but once cold it loses its quality of taste. The cheese loses flavor, the seasoned ground beef becomes over powering, and the crust starts to harden a bit. Personally I enjoy more lettuce on my taco pizzas, preventing the pizza from becoming too dry and just a tad more sour cream - both were lacking during dinner.

I had a fun realization today looking at the dinner menu . On Monday the Crave served Grilled Chicken Breast. On Tuesday they served All Natural Grilled Chicken Breast...does this mean that Monday’s was artificial?

There’s some food for thought...

Dinner Menu for the week

http://www.plu.edu/diningandculinary/Menus/cms_dinner.php

Dine #1

The first true Dine and dinner!

I actually wasn't that excited about dinner as I was getting a headache but I was happy with the company I had. On the other hand, I possessed no patience tonight, skipped the two huge lines (Aglio and Good Things), and took a quick glance at Crave...fish and chicken...no thank you. This left me with the two person long Cross Cultures line. I quickly turned around and walked away from the sight before me. There was brown mush #1, which had a red tint to it, and brown mush #2, some bean dish. I was slightly annoyed as I just wanted to get out. On reflection I turned around. After all, Isn't it my mission to see what ALL the food tastes like? I answered yes – a decision supported by the nonexistent line.

I received Chicken Mole and Ranch Pinto Beans over a bed of quinoa. Quinoa (ˈkēnwä) is a “starchy seed that was widely cultivated for food before the Old World grains, which has also been used for the production of alcohol” - thank you built in Mac dictionary! I actually thought it was couscous because it looked so similar. The only visibly difference was that quinoa looked like it had little roots on it(maybe bran?), but was just as enjoyable as couscous. The Ranch Pinto Beans tasted nothing like ranch. It had a bit of spiciness to it but I couldn't quite place what the flavors were…some pepper probably…at this point I started to unconsciously mix the beans and quinoa together and eat out of need instead of interest - I was starting to feel sicker. The Mole was wonderful. The chicken was soft and, thankfully, not dried out because it was covered in some brown sauce. My friend sitting across from me actually talked about the flavoring before I even tasted it, but I agreed with his every word, "the Mole is sweet but then it has just the perfect kick of spiciness afterwards." I actually felt like it had a bit more kick than I wanted - I drank my whole glass of milk while eating the first three quarters of my palm sized piece of chicken.

Desert was simple and enjoyable. It was a spiced bread with raisins. Nutmeg, Cinnamon, and another spice which I am completely blanking on...think Christmas or pumpkin pie...maybe a little powered ginger? I only ate half of it, deciding my time would be better spent lying on the bench of my booth.

Overall it was a good meal, I did leave unsatisfied with the amount I ate but I wasn't willing to stick around. I went to grab a banana but they were all gone. Instead I settled for a sad looking orange which I later dropped during Hinderlie's fire drill.


ugh...If only bananas grew on trees..oh wait they do! (and cost less than 70¢ a pound off campus!)

Dine and Dash

I must confess I haven't started the year off too well for actually eating at the Commons. I have already missed four meals for various reasons, I have completely fallen for the Grilled Ham & Tillamook cheddar sandwich, and had to toss my long explanation of why the Bakery should bring back the homemade sandwiches - but that is a story for another time.

Today at lunch I got one of my favorite meals - Sesame Chicken & Rice - $6.25 at Cross Cultures. Mixed in with my six pieces of chicken were carrots, water chestnuts, and onion. I asked for some extra veggies, gaining two large pieces of broccoli and a few more veggies before. Asking for the brown rice was my biggest mistake.

Brown rice is actually much healthier for you than white. The reason for this is simple. Brown rices still has the bran, or covering, over the soft center of the rice - making it a whole grain. Whole grains have more fiber which make you feel fuller, slows the absorption of suger, and also helps food move through the digestive system, according to mayoclinic.com and kidshealth.org.

I personally like brown rice because it is usually less sticky than the white rice served at cross cultures. Today my rice was sticky and just plain unappetizing. I left most of it untouched in the bottom of my bowl. The chicken was tougher today, but I felt like there was more solid chicken in each bite and actually cooked all the way through. There have been times when the chicken has NOT been cooked well, so it was a positive thing in my mind. All said and done, I paid a dollar for each little piece of chicken and a few veggies. My friend actually commented about me not eating my rice. After she said she loved rice I offered it to her, saying I didn't think it was really enjoyable. She gave me a dubious look before her first bite. After that, her face changed immediately to a smile because I was right. She went on to explain how it tasted like oatmeal, which makes sense as a whole grain, but isn't really appropriate at a time that's not breakfast. A glass of milk helped to fill me but didn't prevent me from leaving with a half full stomach.

Despite my negativity I do have another positive thing to say about the Old Main Market. My friend split a cookie with me on Sunday. It was amazing! I believe she got the White Chocolate Macadamia (nut) cookie. It was moist but firm, had a great fragrance, and, the part that really won me over, had ginger added to it! The ginger is what pushed it from a cookie to a treat! It would go excellent with tea or hot chocolate - not that I am encouraging cold weather.

I managed to reach my fifth Dash. My friend’s mother was about to leave town and invited me to come along to dinner at Indochine. If you have not been there you should. The focus of the food is Thai, but there are other Asian influences such as Chinese, Indian, Japanese, and Vietnamese. The place is amazingly decorated with beautiful cherry woodwork that sticks out amid the black interior and other furnishings. In the middle of the main dining area is a pool between two rows of benches. The running water adds a nature effect to the room, which is only straightened by the orchids served with drinks or floating in the water. The Phad Thai Chicken had great flavor and wasn't over powering with a two star spice level. The Orange Chicken was sweet, had an intense flavor of orange that, in my experience, is often lacking in this type of dish, and had a good spice level that didn't completely overpower me at four stars. The only downside of the experience was having buy a dish of Lavender Rice to go with the meal. In the end our portions were so huge that we have enough food left over for lunch tomorrow. Given the decor and the environment it was great to eat a great meal for only $13. We ended the night with a cup of pistachio gelato, which also came with its own orchid. I admittedly haven't had a pistachio in a long time, but the gelato reminded me heavily of pecans and pralines - nutty with a bit of caramel.

For my first written dash, I have set a high standard which I doubt I will meet every time I leave campus - but who knows? I hear that there are some great pizza joints in Olympia!



Restaurant link:
http://indochinedowntown.com/

Sources:
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/whole-grains/NU00204/NSECTIONGROUP=2
http://kidshealth.org/teen/food_fitness/nutrition/fiber.html

Dine or Dash?

Welcome to a new year at PLU! All the on campus students are moved in, athletes are practicing, and classes have started in full swing. Every year two things are guaranteed: the coming rain and Dining Services. For all of us living on campus this is especially true as we are required to have meal plans. This meal plan ties us to eating a $13 pre-paid dinner every night but Saturday. Personally I am a huge fan of food - or at least when it tastes good - and cooking it is even better.

The idea of this blog is simple.

Dine, and I ate at The Commons (The UC).
Dash, and I ate somewhere else.

Of course I will not limit myself to reflecting only about the food. Service, availability, lines, cost, serving size or anything else that pertains to eating at PLU may find itself onto these walls. In the end I will have a good idea of how much money I used, wasted, or lost to Dining Services. Only time will tell.

Should I dine or should I dash?

Let the year begin!