I must say I have been quite entertained by the wide range of worldly items on the menu at the d-hall and u-club. If it’s not prok then its lasagan. We’ve tried the prok but I’m curious about the lasagan. What do you serve with lasagan?

The chicken tenders were excellent yesterday as was the mongolian grill. The gravy for the mashed potatoes seems a bit off.  I am disappointed that I’ve managed to miss the pumpkin cheesecake. I’ll never go back to pumpkin pie again.  

Horror? Yes, read on…

I watch the lady bring out a refill of the Orange Chicken dish, perfect timing I think. Perfect indeed. She sets the tray of chicken down on the counter, off the serving line. She starts looking around for something… maybe something to help put the chicken on top of the hot water? No, a nasty rag. She grabs the rag (no gloves on) and starts to clean the floor. Evidently she had spilled some orange chicken juice. Finished with the cleanup job she dispatches the rag. Now, picture it, she had just finished wiping a dirty floor with a dirty rag with her bare hands; without washing or sanitizing her hands, and without putting gloves on, she grabs the dish of chicken and puts it on the serving line! Next, with her still dirty hands, she grabs the utensil and puts it in the chicken dish for people use to get their food. To add to my already churning stomach, she walks back into the kitchen to prepare more food.

Penicillin, anyone?

I must say today was really good!  Looking at the menu I wasn’t sure if I should head over to Ukrops but I thought I’d save a couple of bucks and risk it… sure glad I did.

Unfortunately, I grabbed a grilled chicken sandwich before I even looked at the Tuscan Grilled Cheese.  It looked delicious but I didn’t want to waste the grilled chicken.

Although the grilled veggies looked over done they weren’t.  Man, those things were moo excellante (yes, this is coming from Capt. Corndog).   The mushrooms in the mix were fantastic.

I also tried the pasta salad, the one with the olives and cheese filled pasta.  This was also really darn good.  Whatever those red blobs are, they are tasty!

For desert I grabbed a Pinapple Upside Down cake, also good.

My favorites were the grilled veggies, though, please put them on the rotation!

Excellent cabbage and apples today…one of my favorites. I was tempted by the darkside (i.e. high fat foods) today, so went with the burger and fries. I try to keep monthly french fry intake to a minimum, today it just fell apart. There were several indicators that the cooks over there are ready our blog, so here’s a shout out! See the brightly colorful and texturally arranged food I had today:

Splendid.

Tender roast beef, thick gravy with carrots and celery, lunch was a pleasant digression for a Monday. The parsley potatoes were especially good. Unfortunately, I had a line behind me so I was unable to selectively pick out the crusty taters and had to grab what I could. Regardless, they were a perfect compliment to the roast beef. The zucchini was perfectly cooked, tender, and not mushy.

I hear the corn bread was excellent, but I was too full and chose the Jersey dirt instead which a wonderfully sweet ending to the meal.

Yesterday I went to the dining hall with a fear that “Beefaroni” would be some ghastly, inedible mix.   I think Chef Boyardee when I hear beefaroni.  But I’ve been in a comfort food mood these past weeks and was pleasantly surprised.  Nicely crusted and full of meat, tasty and edible.   It was more of a casserole than out-of-the-can ravioli.  The other nice surprise was Mexican cornbread, full of heat and goodness.  I didn’t even notice it on the menu but in checking now I see it was a Sunday treat.  Hey, how about a daily surprise entree or side dish?

Today’s comfort food was chicken broccoli casserole.  It needed a little salt and I supplemented it with a  grilled piece of chicken.  No complaints though.  I’ve found if you go over there around 12:25 or so you hit a lull, when the swarm of campers is hitting the tray conveyor belt on the way out but the Governor’s School crowd hasn’t fully shown up yet.  So the lines aren’t there, except at the sweet tea spot inconveniently located too close to the frozen yogurt (see kid swarms post.)  Come on guys, move the yogurt station to its own spot away from everything else.

Last plug is for the “lucious lemon raspberry bars” (spelling is the dining hall staff’s, not mine.)  Delicious!  And not a hint of  Splenda.  I had two.

Tomorrow is grilled prok day.  “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…”

the title says it all. i did manage to have a very brightly colored tray o’ food, with many red sauces. Jim’s tray was all muted browns. It would have been a good photo op. I did see little baseball players grabbing at each others’ food while they carried the trays (too big for them) into the dining room. I thought, that’s an accident waiting to happen, an overloaded tray full of pizza, coke, french fries and chicken fingers. At least they were putting their hands on each other’s food and not licking spigots.

What is it D-Hall people? do you see me coming and say “let’s get her”? Is it my bad-assed attitude or my frizzy hair? Come on, I just want a quick lunch that isn’t too fancy, to hang with my buddies and make fun of people at UR. It’s just like back in the day, when I was at VCU eating at Hibbs. Well, except maybe the food at Hibbs was mysterious and frightening. I lost a freshman 15, not the other way around.

Today’s meal was not bad. Roasted potatoes, turkey. It was all good. We are leaving, standing politely and quietly in line at the conveyer belt, when a woman employee whips the tray out of my hand, flinging what is left of my drink to the floor. When the glass hit the floor, the back splash went all over Jim and myself. She said nothing despite my quite loud “WTF” commentary. Did she not care? Was she in on the “let’s get Sarah” memo? Does she like to spray people with sweet tea? Is is just the July heat? Maybe they’d better start placing the nice cashiers at the exits so that their “honeys” and “baby’s” will soothe my wounded spirit.

Oh, and we also witnessed many small baseball players literally licking the spicket on the frozen yogurt machine. Licking the spicket is Jim’s term, not mine but it was so hilarious and the images it conveys so deadly funny, I had to write it. Now Jim, do you ever get a flavor swirl on the ice cream?

Well, it’s going to be tough. The D-Hall has run into some really bad karma. But Tuesday is mac n’ cheese and the baked meatloaf on Thursday. So I was off in my prediction by two weeks but I was correct in day of the week and that they have them both in the same week.

I’ve never had any complaints about the service during lunch. It seems to be after the lunch rush that it takes a serious nose dive… basically once the bosses have left for the day, everyone slacks off and their true colors come out. So my suggestion is go for breakfast and lunch and avoid it thereafter.

I’ll be placing a meeting request to the general crew for Tuseday and Thursday and we’ll see how things go. I’ll keep my fingers crossed. Hopefully we’ll have good things to report.

Ya know, I’m a patient person but this is ridiculous.

After working out at the rec center, my husband met me at the office at 5 o’clock to go to the dining hall for dinner. Fortunately, we were getting there before the big Governor’s School rush, so they weren’t busy yet.

We both decide on bunless burgers so we mosey on over the Spider Grill to the sign that reads “hamburgers”. The grill is lit and we look around at the grilled cheese, grilled chicken and chicken tenders. No one is around and we stand and wait and wait and wait. Several employees glance over and see us standing and waiting and continue on with their conversations with the other employees. Finally, someone from the Hemispheres station heads our way. “Ok, someone is finally coming over,” I say to my husband. As the man walks passed us, looking at us from the corner of his eye, I ask him “are you doing burgers today?” He fills his pitcher up with water at the sink and heads back the other way, still looking at us from the corner of his eye while deliberately ignoring us. He stops off at the fryer station to chat with two other employees.

My husband then asks loudly, “Are you guys doing burgers today?”

No response.

Once again he asks a bit louder, “Are you guys doing burgers today?”

No response.

My husband turns to me and says, “if one of these jerk offs doesn’t respond to us, I’m going tell them I know Chef and he’s going to hear about this. This is bull#@%*.”

A third time, YELLING, “HEY, ARE YOU GUYS DOING BURGERS TODAY?”

Finally, the same guy that had previously walked past, turns around, points, and grumbles, “Yeah, they’re right here.”

We walk down to other side, where there are no signs, to the tray of cold stale burgers. Gee, thanks.

My husband has been working in the restaurant business for over ten years. His response, “I should get a job here. I could easily move through the ranks because I’d actually do my job. These guys are pathetic.”

I agree. What a disappointment. And talk about rude… are they like this to the students? That must leave a wonderful impression.

Okay, so last week, I chipped a tooth on the baked apples, one of my favorite Dhall treats. This week, as I am dieting, I decided to go heavy on the salad bar, fixed a shining example of what a salad should be, dressed without cheese and with oil/vinegar. I get halfway through eating it, and notice something clinging to a leaf. That’s right, a nice juicy caterpillar. I just hope I didn’t eat any of his friends. Now, my Dad used to own a grocery store. It’s impossible to keep bugs off produce. I do know that. And this guy, well…he was super slimey, so probably clung strongly to his leaf up to his demise and after. So it’s not the fault of anyone at D-Hall (the salad is pre bagged, so I found out.) I just think I’m having some bad karma there, but as things happen in threes, what’s next? I will say, I reported the incident to a guy named Mike, who said to tell them to comp my next meal. He was helpful, and cute too, so not a bad transaction for the day. I’m always happy to give up dessert in return for eye candy. Hmmm, I’m feeling a little funky though, maybe I need to go home sick?

Ok. I think I’m close to breaking the code. Mac and cheese is served on Tuesdays while meatloaf is served on Thursday always in a consecutive manner and it’s been five weeks. Why five? Is this number somehow significant. We shall see…

I foresee that on July 26th, we will once again have meatloaf. Do you know what this could mean?! We may have broken the mystery of the menu!

Muahahahaha.