How's the Food?

Food at Brown is a little bit better than I thought it would be. But it's not like it's incredible or anything. I'll tell a bit about my experience with it so far.

So at first, the only place that I knew about to eat is "The Ratty." It's real name is The Sharpe Refectory, but apparently some kids found rats in it around the 1960s or 1970s and it's been called The Ratty every since. A girl named Trish in a dorm room just across the hall went to school with kids from the Sharpe family, and apparently they are not very happy about that name at all. One time, almost out of politeness to them, I referred to it as "The Sharpe," and people got mad at me for not calling it The Ratty. Oh well.

On a somewhat related note, the largest library here is the John D. Rockafeller library. People have called it "The Rock" for decades, but then apparently someone from the Rockefeller family got upset about it and contacted the Brown administration to have them ask students to stop. The students agreed and started referring to it very publicly as "The John." The Rockefellers called back and retracted their request.

Well anyway, as I said, the Ratty is the only place I knew about to eat for a while. Which is no problem - it's maybe a 10 minute walk, but only like a 3 minute bike ride, and it's right near the Barus & Holley Building (The BH), which is where 80% of my classes are. You have to understand that this building is enormous. It has to put out something along the lines of 11,000 meals per day, and it does it with some rockin' efficiency. If you look at it from the street - specifically, from George St., you can look through the basement windows and see row after row of kitchen, freezer, cooker, worker, etc. And to get an idea for the dimensions, it's probably about 400 x 400 feet, which is, as I said, enormous. It could swallow like half of Garnet Valley. Plus it's got three or four stories [although you only eat on one, sometimes two].

So inside. Most things are shades of yellow or brown. When you walk in, someone swipes you're card, and right about then you're in the "front left" corner of the building. The perimeter of the building is where everyone sits, as the center itself is for employees at work only, and just outside of that is where you get your food. So every sits in a big ring around the food lines. There are also a couple nicely decorated rooms attached to the perimeter that you can sit in sometimes, and then even NICER ones that are reserved for VIPs or whatever. I've never seen anyone in them.

In any case, in the center, there are four main "food lines" where people prepare food for you. The one that's closest to the "front left" corner has.... I don't really know, it's stuff I never eat. At the end of the line are the desserts, though, which include brownies and ice cream just about every day. I usually don't feel like ice cream, BUT I ALWAYS FEEL LIKE A CAKE CONE. HOW'S THAT FEEL, TEAM SKANKNASTY???? Unfortunately that's all I can tell you. The "back left" corner [if you walk further straight once you come in] has pasta and pizza and that sort of thing. I don't usually go to this line either. Just outside of this line is the cereal bar, which has like every kind of cereal I've ever eaten - Cheerios, Life, Lucky Charms, Frosted Flakes, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Frosted Mini Wheats, Smart Start, and some others that I can't remember right now. But it's a great cereal bar. But the bowls are a little shallow and the spoons are huge. I usually get some in the morning... and sometimes in the afternoon or night, but usually only if there's nothing else that I like. And there's usually something I like.

If you turn right at the corner, and start walking to the "back right," you come across one of the two drink stands and fruit baskets. I "steal" apples from here when I can remember. I usually just get chocolate milk, skim milk, or water to drink, but they also have coffee and decaf and expresso and cappuccino and lots of soda. Oh, I also sometimes have orange juice, 'cuz there's like four types of juice that they have. One time I tried to get a friend a cappuccino, but I put it in this "Greenware" plastic cup and it melted in my hand and hurt a lot.

Anyway, if you go past the drink stand and turn the corner again, you're at the "back right" line, which is my favorite - the grill. They always have hot dogs, hamburgers, grilled chicken, and french fries. Usually I just grab a bun and have some grilled chicken or hot dog for lunch/dinner, and it's very plain and warm and it's pretty much all I could ask for.... hehe. So that's the line I usually go to. If you kept walking, the line in the "front right" is the vegetarian "Roots and Shoots" line. This is where all the vegetarians go. ...duh.

Oh, right, I forgot to add: The Ratty serves pancakes for breakfast EVERY DAY. The first week, I had a pancake breakfast every single day. Then I sort of was just like.... hm.... this is going to make me really fat. So I decided to just go back to breakfast as I knew it - bowl of cereal, maybe some bread, and something to drink - even though it feels like I'm wasting a meal credit. Ah well. Sometimes I have one pancake. The pancakes themselves are usually good - although sometimes too crispy - but the really scandalously awful part is the SYRUP. OH GOD, THE SYRUP. I wish I could describe it to you, but it's like... it's like Plastic Syrup. You can tell it sucks even more because on weekends, they give you real Maple Syrup from a bottle. But during weekdays, you have to scoop the syrup out of a vat with a ladle, and as you do, you can like... see it scrunch up and get "broken" and "frozen together" and oh... oh god. It like... latches on to your pancakes and your mouth.

I'd like to describe more, but I have to go to MATH0180 with Sergei Treil now. Sergei! His website is WEIRD. But Sergei is awesome. More later. I'll tell you about...

The V-Dub.

Peace out!