So as many know who are in the Wooster community that Lowery’s food is not of the highest quality. It’s not inedible… for the most part. There are not many options to choose from you have either the main lunch or dinner, the grill, noodles, vegetarian, international, and finally the hardly mentioned and barely touched salad bar. It has been described as the lettuce bar, the spinach bar, the brown lettuce bar, etc. People do not like it because there is hardly any other option to choose from than whatever variation of lettuce and spinach they put in the bar or what kind of fruit is being served that hour.

And I can honestly see how this can be disappointing to salad lovers. I myself do not eat salad very often but when I do I like some more options and choices when it comes to it. there seems to be very little variation in your salad unless you want to load them up with a whole bunch of stuff that ends up meshing together flavor-wise or you’ll have one of the veggies that have gone brown and don’t taste very good in the process.

However, the table by the omelet station does mesh well with the salad bar. I’m not sure if this was intentional or just an oversite when lowery was made. Regardless Lowery has very poor quality when it comes to their salad. I would prefer if they would at least make sure their lettuce is not old and brown because that’s not a very good look. I just wish in the future that the salad bars at lowery look something more like this. No spoiled or brown food and everything is one place.

One thing that I have heard from many people here at the College of Wooster is that there is a severe deficit of good fruit. Lowry, for example, sports damaged apples and canned fruit, with the only salvageable option being the pineapple, if they actually have it that day, or the hit or miss bananas. Knowlton, a very popular spot, also has fruit but it’s just apples individually wrapped in plastic. I guess this decision might have something to do with Covid, but I don’t understand why they wouldn’t wrap Lowry fruit in plastic if that was the case. Lastly, Old Main, where you can find all the same fruit that they have at Lowry, but this time it’s sitting on a sort of sculpture called the “fruit tree”. I thought to myself, after hearing from people about the “lack of good fruit”, that this makes no sense. There are so many options to get fruit on campus, so what is the problem? 

What people described was interesting. People made the argument that the fruit was never fresh, save for the bananas which the school always gets unripe. One of my friends talked about how integral fruit is to their diet. They explained, “I just always ate fruit at home and now I feel like trash every day, I think it’s because the fruit I’m eating isn’t up to par”. I thought this was really interesting, and felt similarly. As someone who used to work at a fresh produce store, fruit has also been a big part of my diet in the past. Not having good fresh fruit that isn’t canned or mushy is really important, not only to the physical health of the students on this campus, but to their mental wellbeing as well.

This week I wanted to focus on the meals that are served at the C Store on campus. As someone who gets most of their meals as microwavable snacks from the C Store, I am probably the best person to ask what to eat and what not to eat there. My favorite meal from our lovely C Store this year has been the very “mid” burritos that they have in the freezer. There were a couple weeks this year that these burritos were the only thing that I ate. For a while I didn’t realize why my bowels were acting up, seeing as I hadn’t eaten Lowry at all. I chalked it up to the copious amount of hot sauce one needs to add to this specific dish in order for it to be edible. After some intense investigation (just me asking others who also appreciated these burritos, no matter the cost) I found that it actually was the burritos themselves which were wreaking havoc on my body. For example, my friend Mariam came to me the next day, having not chosen to drown her burrito in hot sauce the night before, explaining the pain she felt in her stomach after eating the microwavable tortilla pockets. 

Now, you’re probably thinking, where are you going with this Alison. Well, I just feel like it is funny how no one can escape the body torture that this schools food is. No matter if you skip the school provided meals and just stick to the microwavables, you’re still in for it. In the light of the new changes coming to campus dining, I hope that this will change drastically for all who are continuing on at the College of Wooster. While there is a lot to be said about the organization taking over the food here, let’s hope that at least their meals prove to be better than what we have now.

As we near the end of the semester, I genuinely cannot wait to go back to my home in the Bay Area and experience all the different cuisines I love dearly. My favorite question my parents ask as they pick me up from the airport is “okay Mija, what food do you want to eat?” It’s truly a foodie’s dream come true. They ask me this because they know that after months in rural Ohio, I NEED a flavor burst on my taste buds.

In honor of the approach of this beautiful day, here are some of my favorite places to eat in the Bay:

1. Fentons

• 

Okay, now I know this is a basic answer, but listen: their ice cream hits so hard. Specifically, I love to get a mocha almond fudge milkshake in a glass cup. It’s creamy and very well-blended, leaving me with a brain freeze that is entirely worth the pain.

2. El Pollo Loco

• 

I was raised on this food. Coming from a low-income household of two extremely busy and tired parents, Pollo Loco was a lifesaver for my family. It was cheap, fast, and healthier than most drive-through food, a perfect combination for my family. As our family has gotten older, we go there less, but when we go, I almost always get a chicken avocado quesadilla. It fills me up while reminding me of my childhood. It’s a craving I’ll always have (even writing this now is making me hungry…)

3. In N Out

• 

Again, I know this is basic, but hear me out: you will never eat a better cheeseburger in your life after having this one. It is a California classic, and you simply can’t visit without trying it.