A Weekend of Yale Dining
It’s a very common saying that dining halls are the window to the soul. The awkward shuffling, chairs scraping, and the occasional tinkle of “yes, we should definitely meet up again!” (they don’t) is an angel’s song of how the meal will go. I’ve eaten my fair share of very terrible dining hall food and suffered my fair share of consequences from eating said meals. But this landmark experience, of poking at suspicious lumps in food and losing your appetite midway through a meal, is something that every college student experiences.
Italian Night with a bean salad
I was wrong.
After an arduous journey, consisting of several buses and train rides (shoutout to public transportation!), I arrived to have that quintessential dining hall experience at Yale. I was also there to see a dear, close friend of mine, but that’s besides the point.
I had a mission, and that was to eat at Yale Dining. I was skeptical of the posts from that one Yale food TikToker- we all know the one- and felt that my ultimate opinion should be the final say. So I doll myself up, bump around the tunnels to avoid the wind, and arrive at Franklin Hall, one of Yale’s 15 (or 16? maybe 17??) dining halls. I was greeted by the angels that are Yale Dining staff and began my perusal of the options they were offering me today.
Y’all.
I was humbled, shocked, dismayed, sad, in awe, and very hungry. The weekend brunch I attended was deemed “mid” and “not their best” offering, and I whole-heartedly disagreed behind mouthfuls of fluffy bao buns, crispy bacon, and an addicting thyme and cherry bar. Fresh fruit lined the stations, and I picked up a cup without having to sleuth through mysterious stains. This was luxury in the purest form: edible dining hall food.
Not to toot my uni’s horn, but my dining hall is known for breaking several health code violations and regular food poisoning is not an urban legend or dramatic myth.
I still support the bonding experience that is terrible uni dining hall food. I am proudly a proponent of building and testing your immune system at regular intervals. But now, I have begun my new goal of trying edible dining hall food. Stay tuned as I traverse the globe and continue learning about the world of good dining hall food.
Wish I’d eaten the last piece of broccoli.
Next stop: Duke!
