Food Tours, part 1

With a greatly relaxed schedule throughout study week and finals, a few friends and I have been taking the opportunity to eat at some of the cafés and other dining establishments scattered around campus. Cornell has ten dining halls and around twenty other places to buy food, not even counting the vending machines, which means you could eat somewhere different every day for a month. I’m pretty sure that’s more dining options than in my entire hometown. Then again, my hometown’s population is around (less than?) Cornell’s undergrad enrollment. . . .

In just two semesters, I've managed to eat at a fair number of different places. I've gone to almost all of the dining halls (one of the 161 Things every Cornellian should do). What’s good about the dining halls is the variety (usually) of food and that if I feel like eating watermelon with my roast pork followed by yogurt, nothing’s going to stop me, assuming they made roast pork. If, on the other hand, I go to an a la cart place, they will most likely not be selling any dishes consisting of watermelon and pork. Probably because I might be the only person to buy it. Ever.

But I’m actually going to talk about some of the options at the a la cart places I've visited so far. First up, Ivy Room. Ivy Room is on central campus and is pretty much directly across from Olin Hall. If you happen to be spending long hours in Olin, your options usually come down to Ivy Room or the vending machines in the basement. Anyway, I have to confess that I almost always get sandwiches since I don’t eat a lot at a time. (I eat every two hours or so instead.) The Ivy Room’s grilled cheese sandwiches are pretty good, and some of my friends would recommend the salads and noodle bowls. I wouldn't know; I've never ordered them. . . .

Moving on . . . Probably the most interesting thing I've eaten that’s an actual dish and not meat-with-fruit (aka dinner at the dining halls) is chicken on a waffle at Hughes, way down by the law school and Collegetown. I would definitely recommend that everyone tries this at least once, because how often do you get fried chicken on top of a waffle? (I also recently ate a waffle with yogurt and peanut butter. In case you haven’t noticed, I have little to no qualms about mixing food groups.) Plus, they use paper for their tablecloths and provide crayons for you to color.

If you’re looking for something more normal, they make sandwiches and wraps over at Goldie’s in the Physical Science Building (PSB). I've had the chicken panini. The chicken can be a little dry, but the spinach and tomatoes usually make up for that. Fun facts: PSB was built right next to Baker; the two buildings share a wall and there’s a lamppost inside. Also, we watched a lab safety video in General Chemistry last semester. They did a shot where they panned across the outside of Baker and PSB wasn't there. That’s right; the video was made before PSB was even built. To be fair, PSB was completed in 2010, but this video was very obviously filmed around the 80s. No mouth pipetting, guys. Just, no.

Tune in next time/week/in awhile for more enthralling commentary on Cornell Food and Life in General. I know, you’re thinking I should have my own food network show. Cornflakes with pudding and yogurt, anyone?