For all of us, there was a certain coming of age in the lunch world. For many, college was a time to break free of parental control and live your life on your own for the first time ever. It was also the first time a lot of people had to take control of their own lunching destiny. While my Mom cut me off from her packed-lunch deal at a tender age of 11 (causing immeasurable trauma but also forcing me into lunch real-world), I had friends, who up until showing up at school that first day, had never once asked themselves “What’s for lunch?” Momma was sending them off to school with a lunch bag packed with yummy goodies right up until high school graduation day. A seemingly sweet prospect, but soon that Dylan song where he sings about “having to scrounge your next meeeaaalllll……” takes on new meaning.
Things change when you’re on your own. Of course there were cafeterias and the freshman 15, but at some point the gravy train ran out and people had to start making their own lunch choices. Suddenly, people had to think about what to consume. There was a plethora of college grub on the cheap, ranging from ginormous subs to the old standby, pizza. But unless you were a trust-fund baby, chances are you couldn’t afford a restaurant lunch everyday and had to improvise.
So regale us with your stories of the lunches you came up with, your low points, your specialties, and your hookups with that dude at Taco Hell (as in hooked up with extra taco sauce).
I know Ramen will be a consistent theme here, but feel free to go beyond that and also discuss the side effects. For example, Mrs. Watchdog ate grade E style Ramen noodles in college for several months until her hair literally began falling out, and then she had to find new alternatives.
Beyond Ramen, here are a couple college lunches I remember:
A roommate who grated up a block of cheddar cheese into a bowl, and proceeded to eat the whole block of shredded cheese bite by bite. (yes, he ate a whole block of cheese)
Another (even grosser) roommate who was so low-budget that he would go to a bar and finish the parts of buffalo wings that people hadn’t finished (ugh!).
My own: microwaved tortilla shell, dipped in ranch dressing.
So tell us how you first made it on your own, what are you proud of? What shames you to this day? What creative or low-budget ways did your friends and roommates indulge? And of course, oh the so much wiser and more mature luncher, WFL?
72 comments:
I got a job at a mexican restruant. El Indio. Lunch was often a creative mix of the fine ingrediants available to me. For example, I would make a soft taco and go double decker on it, you know use beans to cement the outer tortilla to the inner one. Then I would put it in the fryer to crispy the hell out of it, Then I'd drown it in Ranchers sauce and dang that shit was good. Had I sold some of my creations at the price that menu items went for, I am sure there were some $15 creations.
Lunch today is in the hands of this blog. I'll go where any reasonable suggestion takes me.
I think taco bell stole your idea sunshine.
The difference is that El Indio used meat fit for human consumption, and Taco Bell doesn't have such high standards.
I think I was kind of lucky - lived on campus all 4 years & had food points. If you ran out of food points, you just went down to the card office & put more on & they'd send the bill to your parents. Awesome! So lucky for me, I never had to do the whole scrounging thing. But I *did* have a friend who didn't realize you could do that & thought you needed cash. He bought a box of mac & cheese with his last $1.50 & ate off it for a whole week (as well as roaming the halls of freshman dorm sniffing out the tell-tale signs of pizza - oh, you could also order pizza on food points - how am I not 300 pounds?!?) until someone informed him that the bill would be sent to his parents. Poor guy! He has a pretty high metabolism, so he really needed the food.
As for me, I'll have to think about it for a bit . . . I did eat Cup O' Noodles every day for lunch one semester. Totally got into a rut.
Great post dawg.
I was also a campus dweller for the bulk of my years in college. For lunch it was almost always a "make your own" deli sandwich of some sort from the dining hall. During Summer school I would often use my meal allowance (literally "meal tickets") to order food from the student union, filled to the brim calzones or special order cheeseburgers made by 19 yr olds, and as many Arizona Iced Teas as they could carry. Then the poor kid would show up and I'd tip them with tickets. My mother would always send ramen or "cup o noodles" in with my luggage when she'd send me off to school, but I think I only used them for late night snacks. And I was never shy about using Dad's "emergency credit card" for lavish dinner purchases from Take Out Taxi. No poor man's concotions for me. Life was pretty sweet back then.
No idea about lunch yet, maybe a return trip to Marvelous Market.
Have any of you ever been to "Just Fresh"? I walked in the other day and got order panic and left. Seems very complicated.
White toast with sliced tomatoes and melty american cheese...YUM...still love that stuff!!
Was I the only one that fell prey to Intro to Credit Cards 101 their freshmen year of college??? You could buy ANY food you wanted with those things...plus you got a free frisbee.
I think I just finished paying off my Freshman $500 credit card a few years ago..how is that even possible?
Those vultures.
$3.99 Hungry Howies large pizza with one topping and flavored crust. walk in special. All you needed was a buck and 3 friends and food could be had.
I have also noted in the past about the Hari Krishna lunch on the plaza of the americas. That was lunch for a donation. options like that kept my lunch creativity low in school.
I wasn't poor in college either, but I did eat weird shit for other, uh, reasons, and I was too hi... er, "lazy"... to leave the room.
A big favorite was those Lipton noodles, Romanoff or Stroganoff flavor (they don't make the former anymore - bastards) with additional sour cream and then swiss cheese. If I didn't have the noodles, then I'd just eat the sour cream and cheese. Or, I'd use Kraft Mac and Cheese.
I also ate dry fruit loop "sandwiches" with spray cheese in the middle. When we lived on campus and had food cards, we would use all of the "grocery" points to buy Robitussin and Ben and Jerry's.
Now, when I lived in Hungary, that was another story. But we weren't really creative. We'd just eat potatoes and apples and eggs. You can live on those for a long time.
I have no idea what's for lunch today. I brought food (rare roast beef, peppered turkey, provolone cheese, some other kind of cheese that looked interesting) but I'm starvin' like Marvin and really want an egg sandwich. I should've gone to Potbelly this morning. Maybe I'll go for lunch instead...
I also wasn't afraid to stock up from our dining hall. They always had great bagels. So if I was really strapped for cash I'd take a few bagels or a bowl of cereal back to my dorm. Which was really convenient because my dorm was attached to the dining hall.
I had a pretty sweet office job in town. I could go whenever I wanted to. They always knew when I was getting extra broke because I'd skip classes and go to work instead.
Ah, that reminds me of care packages. That was always the best part of exam week (b/c the rest of it was so awesome?) - my mom would usually make a batch of cookies & send them in a tin along with a bunch of other stuff. Which was great, b/c I was too far from home to do the whole pantry raiding thing. Before winter exams once my grandma sent me a care package and she had included the weirdest thing I have ever seen - it was some kind of pineapple or coconut spread. It looked about 10 kinds of funky. It really freaked me out - where did she find this? Why did she think I would like it? Who would eat this freaky crap? It finally got tossed after much debate & discussion between my hallmates & also after sitting on my shelf for the rest of the year.
Little did I know that the OWFL bloggers were among the glitterati of America. Or at the least more loved than I was. Care packages? I never once got something like that.
I guess I shouldn't complain cuz I packed 50 pounds onto my previously skinny frame during college, so obviously I wasn't going hungry.
HT, that froot loop and cheese sandwich was exactly what I was looking for. I mean, who EATS that shit? college kids, that's who
My parents lived so close to campus, that their house was actually closer to some of my classes than my dorm was. Yes, my parents lived in EL and I still lived in the dorms. It was more fun that way. I often went home to eat, several times a week at least. I also liked to take baths there and my mom still did all my laundry. If I didn't want dorm food or home food, I would go into work early and the cooks would make me mini pesto pizzas or olive burgers or I would hit the salad bar. Sometimes I miss working in a restaurant.
Short-time lurker. First-time poster. Howdy.
I remember not having a whole lot of cash, but I think my signature creation had more to do with being too lazy to leave my room. There was a stretch of a year and a half or so where I would come back from a 1000AM class to catch the 1100AM rerun of Law & Order on A&E (as opposed to the 300PM, 700PM, 1100PM, or 200AM rerun - I was in the Central Time Zone back then.), and I would warm up a can of Campbell's soup (or the non-union generic equivalent) in the microwave. Then, to make me feel like I was eating something, I would stir in a healthy dose of dried potato flakes. If I was real lucky, I had a few American singles in my mini-fridge. Then, I'd watch some Law & Order until someone made a passing suggestion that I ditch class for the rest of the day to get drunk.
As for lunch today, I'm thinking Chick-Fil-A. Thinking hard.
I've got a pizza party at work to attend. More of a pizza meeting, but I miss the grade school excitement generated by the prospect of a pizza party. ABout the coolest thing to happen in school
Welcome, Earthquake! I won't ask who you are because that makes Jo testy and I think I am already on the outs with him.
Welcome earthquake!
Welcome Earthquake! You know, I had John "Earthquake" Tenta in my death pool last year, and I think that dude's still hanging on. Bastard. But dude, potato flakes IN soup - wow. I thought my fruit loop sandwiches were sketch.
Lunch is a combo of the above described lunchmeats and cheeses, eaten in the form of the Single Person Sandwich. I'm so freakin' hungry. I never eat this early.
And Jade, if you'd just come back to the fold and stop cheating on the Czar and his blog, all would be forgiven.
I was lucky to have a great roomie. Her parents were awesome...they always kept us stocked with ramen and mac and cheese. Her grandmother would also make us a dozen or so homemade chicken, broccoli and cheese pockets to bring back to school whenever we came home...the thought of them bring a bit of drool to the corner of my mouth.
Still don't know what to do for lunch today.
Jade - Jo HATES being referred to as "testy"...he assumes you're making fun of his balls.
Welcome EQ. Hm, that name's a little close to E-que. Interesting.
I am realizing I was the most boring college eater ever. I rarely combined things. I would just eat whatever I had, cup o noodles, loaf of bread (oooh, with Nutella), tuna fish snakpack. I guess that's what happens when you a) don't have a kitchen & b) don't have to worry about food money. Even when I'd go to the campus buffet, I would just eat whatever there was straight. Hm, I really need to think harder about this.
College and Days of Our Lives...I'm feeling another TV post coming on. And it may be nearing time for volume 2 of pet lunch blogging.
And I hate my newly reconfigured computer.
And I have it on good authority that when Unicorn was in school she majored in having testes on her chin.
zing!
Peep - you've obviously never been to HH@BB - we talk about balls all the damn time.
Balls here, Balls there. Balls, Balls everywhere. Balls!
I love this. I have a not so secret fascination with the testicles!
It's balls at BB and then burgers, pool and spunk at Angles.
Speaking of...Thursday HH @ BB tomorrow.
I was just going back over the comments, and I failed to mention earlier that Peep's bad moment(s) and the ginko biloba made me bust a gut laughing. Part of it though is that I always say Ginko BALBOA, as if he is Rocky's long lost brother.
Please not another lunch/TV thread, especially if it is about fucking Days of Our Lives again. That will drive me to infidelity.
Welcome Earthquake. When I first read your recepie for tomato soup, my brain substituted Corn for potato. I thought you were putting corn flakes in there.
Lunch today was a large saki, creatures from the sea and barnyard animals, served japanese style. Aww, yeah.
I wanna dip my balls in it....
great line from a great skit on a great show
I like the way people at work are always talking about "just put it in my box" or "drop it in my slot"
Like Miu, I find that shit humouros.
So does an itchy box show poor hygene, or sexual desire?
Wasn't that from the State?
welcome jackknife!!
are you the vegan?
Miu - where did she get the potty mouth?
As for balls I'd have the say they are over rated ... especially having big ones ... they always stick to your leg.
Regardless, today is taco day at the boot camp again so I am here eating M&Ms and drinking diet soda.
This wasn't in college but during one of my better moments I was so poor that I could afford rent or food. So I chose rent. Therefore over a term of 3 weeks during X-mas break I was confined to my new cold-ass apartment, estranged for all family and friends, and eating mashed potatoes. Only mashed potatoes.
During school was basically just subway subway subway. I wouldn't eat in the regular food court because I despised it. I still hate cafeteria food and most fast food.
oh and welcome all lurkers!
Sunshine, it was the State.
I periodically dip my balls in things to pay homage to that show.
P.S. don't dip your balls in jalepeno juice...
Ham & Chicken club in a pita from Best Sandwich Place on K Street. I added hot & sweet peppers and extra mayo. Freakin' delicious.
What's a lurker?
I'm picturing that guy waiting around to finish off other people's wings.
That roomate used to borrow my USED underwear. He was a disturbed human being on many levels. I suspect he may be a serial killer/rapist these days...
At my first stop for HH last Friday we got into a conversation about chimpanzees who rape humans.
We laughed and laughed...
I've never been good at "thinking outside the box", why would I want to be outside of the box, don't make no sense
Favorite term for an afficianado of "box lunches" = Cunnilinguist
Jackknife, a vegan???
If you read through the special order post, you may see me ranting about how much I dislike vegans and how I got secret revenge on them when I worked at a restruant.
Just ignore all that. I respect everybody's lifestyle decisions.
Im no gynecologist, but I don't think you can recycle old boxes. They are covered more by the 'reduce' and 'reuse' part of earth friendly philosophy.
On that day, Jack, I believe I'll locusts.
Mmmmm...locusts.
jackknife, does that mean you only get to eat meat and meat by-products in Hell?
So Heaven and tofu in the one hand and Hell and ribeyes in the other...
Are there deeds that will guarantee you eternal damnation?
Only the obvious Jo:
hotdogs
I loved Louie & the State. Sigh. Fucking MTV, cancelling the only good show they had on . . . .
Jo, isn't it a cunning linguist, you're talking about, not a cunnilinguist? Shocking, a guy having to be told about these things, really.
Yeah, that whole box discussion is cracking me up - in college, this one girl had 'Box' on her dry erase board on her door, like it was her name or something & my closeted gay friend in college would do this thing with hands while saying 'B-O-X', like he was showing you all 6 sides of the box. Eh, it was funny. Trust me. This same guy could do this thing where he pulled his mouth apart by holding his lips in the middle & pulling up & down & juuuust sticking his tongue out - he also had a goatee so it really looked a lot like a box. Sometimes he would dip his tongue in ranch dressing. Wow, he was disturbing. But so fucking funny.
Sunshine, your comment about people at work, reminds me of a current dilemma I'm having. We're ordering new software here called DonorPerfect, which is all-too-often abbreviated to DP by staff. I get emails all day long about DP Meetings.
I'm wondering how long until we have meetings about DADV...
Oh, and Welcome Everyone! We're so inclusive here. I love us.
E-que I can't do our proposed lunch tomorrow but I CAN buy you several drinks at BB@HH. It will be an early b-day edition for our non-blogger friend who was once known as "awreck" but is normally known as reno.
Be there DC WFLers.
God, I f'ing hate my office sometimes. Or rather, this one person who I've bitched about here before. Today takes the cake, though. Some problem occurs, which, granted, sounded like a real bitch of a problem that wiped out a month & a half of work. I will concede that that really really really sucks. However, just because it sucks for you, doesn't give you the right to start screaming on the phone about it to the idiot party (b/c it was someone else's fault) & then go & yell about it at someone else, thereby disrupting everyone in the cube farm. I went to the kitchen with someone else to get a coffee & just get the F away & this person came in & started in again on the problem, despite the fact that I had heard the story at least 3 times by then, so I said "yeah, I know, we heard" & turned to leave and this person goes "Oh, tee hee! I'm sorry I was so yelly, but I wanted everyone to hear my troubles with {department name}!" And that, my friends, is a true, colossal, and phenomenal lack of self-awareness. Did I mention that if anyone's making any noise at all, this person will jump down your throat?
Fuck!
Wow, e-que. Those pictures on that site are like burger porn.
SERENITY NOW!
Hi all! Now that earthquake has broken the lurk/post barrier, here it goes:
I lived on campus pretty much all four years, so all my college lunch adventures happened when I was working/interning.
Like the year I spent working at a school for the blind where my lunch kept getting stolen from the fridge. At first I thought my blind co-workers were just confused . . . until I realized that all their lunch containers were labeled in Braille.
There was also the time that I was interning (for free!) at a TV station. I ate half a sandwich (it was on a baguette-like roll)), put it back in the take-out container, labeled it, and put it in the fridge for the next day (unpaid internship, can't waste food). Lunchtime the next day, open the fridge, open my styrofoam sandwhich box, and find about one inch of my sandwich left! Someone had started eating my sandwhich from the opposite side of where I had bitten into it not stopping until about an inch from my bitemarks. Who does that?
Welcome Molly!!
And welcome to "A Hamburger Today" who after a quick czarlike viewing has jumped onto our links list.
Oh my god, Molly, that is really disturbing! Somebody in my office a few years ago used to bring in their own half & half or flavoured CoffeeMate (cream, not powder) & other people would use it, which I guess, I don't know, I could see how you might think it was communal. So he would put on it a sticky note saying 'this is my personal creamer, please don't use' & someone still was using it, so we told him he should spit it & put that on the sticky note.
Welcome, Molly!
Today is a great day here at OWFL, with all the new folk.
I'm hungry. I was starving this morning, and then I ate at noon, and now I'm starving again. I'm thinking of running down to ABP for a snack. But, I'm afraid that will lead to the consumption of cookies, or cheese fleurs. What to do... what to do...
Stop the stinkin thinkin & get to drinkin!
Molly, jackknife, earthquake make sure you stick around with us!!!
LizTurtle is up tomorrow!
What's in the water today, everyone has drinkin' on the brain. I just want food. No drinkin' today. Well, maybe some, later, after the gym. Still haven't gone for the abp snack.
I want to eat a vegan.
I've heard that vegans think we meat eaters taste funny. True? I have no idea. Like I'd ever let a vegan taste me.
I have been infected with TAFKALC Syndrome. I just ate a second lunch! Well, I realize it's 6pm, so that's kind of dinner, but I don't usually eat that until I come home from the gym, after 9 or 10. ABP wrap - wheat lavash, lto, mayo, roast beef, roasted red peppers. Yummers!!
I love vegans. They're delicious.
I saw a bumper sticker the other day that said 'I love children, they're delicious.' WTF??? Psycho!
Um, I think I've heard that, too, HT, but it was in reference to men. Did you ever seee that Sex & The City? "I'm dating a guy with the
I love vegans. They're delicious.
I saw a bumper sticker the other day that said 'I love children, they're delicious.' WTF??? Psycho!
Um, I think I've heard that, too, HT, but it was in reference to men. Did you ever seee that Sex & The City? "I'm dating a guy with the
Ok, I don't know what's going on with blogger. That was me apparently posting anonymously & more than once. And it cut off the end of my post! But fans of the show will know what I'm talking about.
ugh work sucked me into a vortex of annoyance today.
in college, i ate well. i had a rice cooker in my dorm room (illegal) but it was awesome b/c i could eat some korean snacks, like dried seaweed and rice. i never brought in kimchi though b/c i figured my roomie wouldn't enjoy that so much.
today, coworker had to get me lunch from abp b/c i couldn't leave my desk to get anything. i'm going to definitely need a drink.
and welcome newbie lurkers!
just discovered my half eaten egg salad sandwich from yesterday from breadline...HAAZAHHH!!!!!!!!!!!
Ted Lerner for President!!!
Let's
get
100!
Stop drinking, weirdo.
Post a Comment