I have become incredibly… inventive when it comes to meals at Lowry. The options they serve are simply unsatisfying, especially after the impact the COVID-19 pandemic had on dining services. In light of that, I have started to create meals that are much more up to par with what I want to consume. With that in mind, I want to share one of my favorite meals that I recently started making using the food served in Lowry.
For some background, I am from Oakland, CA, and grew up in a predominantly Latinx area called the Fruitvale District. I went to a Catholic elementary, and every Sunday there were large religious services and ceremonies. It was common for street vendors, some affiliated with the church and some not, to serve a variety of foods to churchgoers after each service. Most infamously, an older woman made Mexican street-style hot dogs, wrapped in bacon and served in jumbo buns with jalapenos, bell peppers, onions, mustard, ketchup, and mayonnaise. The smell of the ingredients sizzling on the oiled flame was always the most alluring scent to me.
One day during my junior year while I was pondering what to eat in Lowry, I was thinking about how good it would be to get my hands on one of those hot dogs so beautifully crafted by that older woman. Then it dawned on me: Lowry has all of the ingredients for this dish at my disposal! So, moving from each station to the next, I gathered all of the items needed, and let me tell you — it was hands down the greatest thing I invented that day. Biting into my own, Midwest-style version of a meal I loved so dearly as a child, I felt just a little bit closer to home.