Loading ...It’s a form of entertainment that we admit we have taken for granted. From Kanye to The New York Times we really get a kick out of outsider’s interpretations of Berkeley.
Yesterday an Oakland Tribune writer published an in-depth feature article on the dining system of the UC Berkeley campus. Imagine Swift’s allegory of Gulliver, only instead of sailing to lands of huge people and tiny people, he sails into Crossroads. It’s hilarious:
Two weeks into the new semester at the residential dining commons known as Cafe 3, the chicken pho at Mai Pham’s Star Ginger food station was so good, it smothered any thought of budget ramen.
The dark broth was sweet and spicy, with a deliciously strong wallop of fish sauce. Its rice noodles and shreds of poached chicken were moist and toothsome, while slices of ginger and jalapeos (sic)gave the soup a hit of fierce that seemed decades removed from cafeteria-line chicken a la king.
Granted, the article isn’t really a food review. It focuses on the “the university’s public embrace of the local and sustainable food movement known as farm-to-college—a movement Cal has been mostly content to watch from the sidelines, its critics say, while other universities have charged ahead.”
The article starts out with an anecdote about an activity of Berkeley’s farm-to-college program: planting day at Clark Kerr where students help to plant a garden that will feed them. Yeah, we never heard about it either. Supposedly only two students even showed up.
Another project of Cal Dining includes partnering with semi-famous chefs, one of which will launch a new food station at Crossroads called “American Masala.”
It seems a little weird that a random Oakland Tribune writer has stuff to tell us about Cal Dining, and that what is news to people in obscure parts of the East Bay never gets to our ears. But on the other hand, maybe it does make sense…we’re too busy to read those DC fliers when we shovel down our Crossroads pizza. Plus, we are never as fascinated by the idiosyncrasies of Berkeley as those outsiders.
The article actually provides an additional answer to such a question:
Killer pho and meatloaf with an Indian accent is one thing, but the bulk of Cal’s chef co-branding initiative may have more to do with charming the parents of undergraduates — the ones who write the checks for meal plans — than with the dining-common regulars.
Image Source: Anna Callaghan, Daily Cal
Farm-to-college, Slow Food concepts very slow in arriving on UC Berkeley Campus [Oakland Tribune]
Chef Partners [Cal Dining]
Community [Cal Dining]
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