The Mysteries of Mabee: February 2014

Thursday, February 27, 2014

The Bad, The Sad, The Ugly...The Unidentifiable!! The WORST of Mabee

How to Eat Well in Any Campus Dining Hall
If you are struggling to eat right at Mabee here are some tips that I hope will help you!

The Bad

Ewww

It was an ordinary day as I set out for another cuisine adventure in Mabee Dining Hall, or so I thought! After a somewhat adequate sandwich I decided to be healthy and go for the fruit line instead of the desserts. Good for me right?! WRONG! As I peeled open a banana I was pleasantly surprised. And this is why we freshmen gain the freshman 15 because our cafeterias serve us tainted bananas.

The Sad

Yellow Lettuce

Isn't lettuce supposed to be green?! Every time I get a salad this is what I'm left with- the least nutritious and most dirty looking "lettuce" pieces. Where I come from lettuce is green.

The Ugly

SOY SOY SOY!

On the rare occasions Mabee offers fish it is either battered fried or, in this other extreme case, SWIMMING in soy sauce! I'm sorry Mabee, but no matter how much sodium you drench your "fish" in, it will never taste good.

The Unidentifiable

???

I'll give someone $50 if they can correctly identify this UFO (Unidentifiable Food Item). I found this treasure in the sandwich line but I don't know if it was supposed to be there or not! My best guess to what it is: some oozing jelly substance with peanuts wrapped in wheat tortilla? I'm open to suggestions. But what puzzles me almost more than this UFO is the fact that there are only 3 left!! Who would eat this/that/it?

Banana by Elena Wilson is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Lettuce by Elena Wilson is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Soy by Elena Wilson is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

UFO by Elena Wilson is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Wednesday, February 19, 2014

The BEST of Mabee

Let's Look on the Bright Side
Okay, so I know everyone complains non-stop about Mabee Dining Hall, but I would like to take a moment to reflect on some of the (few but mighty) best things about Mabee. Although Mabee is entirely incapable of even coming close to making up for missed home-cooked meals, the dining hall isn't the worst either! Then again we are nowhere near the top... Below is my countdown of Mabee's best. I hope this reminds you to be thankful for Mabee, even in it's most terrible moments-which we'll unpack next week!

8. Ice Cream!!!
When the machine IS working, the soft-serve is always one of the favorites amongst students.

7. Chocolate Milk
I don't know what Air Mark puts in their chocolate milk (probably a lot of sugar and heavy cream...all low calorie of course!) but it's consistently rich goodness never fails to refresh.

6. Cereal
Okay so yes, it is really hard to mess particular food up, but we have to give Mabee some credit for providing a variety. But my parents banned Lucky Charms from the house so I go to town on the sweet cereals while I can here at Trinity!

5. Fried Food
No one...ever...in the history of Trinity students...complains about Mabee French fries... EVER! They plate is always full of hot, crispy deliciousness that students can't get enough off. Just don't ask the workers how many calories are in them.

4. Pasta Line
After a long day of hitting the books, nothing beats a good plate of pasta. The line provides a wide variety of pastas (even wheat for you health nuts!), veggies, meats, and sauces, so you can mix and match combos till your heart's content. I recommend getting creative and asking for a half scoop of marinara mixed with a half scoop of pesto.

3. Pizza
Since my first semester at Trinity I have yet to have a bad slice of pizza in Mabee. I love that they always have a variety... cheese, meat, veggie, combo- whatever you're in the mood for. They have also started to use wheat crust, which is awesome! Also, keep an eye out for their breakfast pizza. It is the BOMB.COM!

2. The Veggie Stir Fry Line
If you have made your laps around the dining hall and cannot find anything you like, the veggie line is the way to go. Plus, if you are looking to take back that freshman 15 gained last semester, this line is probably the healthiest spot in Mabee while still offering so many delicious choices that allow you to get crazy creative!

1. Chocolate Chip Cookies
This pretty much speaks for itself. Mabee chocolate chip cookies are, and always will be, Mabee's #1 redeeming quality. As soon as they pop out of the oven students flock to get in line...just don't get in their way!

Best of Mabee by Elena Wilson is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Thursday, February 13, 2014

Really Mabee?!...REALLY?!

INTRO
In this first blog post I would like to begin with this: my mother is a fabulous cook! Ever since I've come to Trinity I dream about her Mediterranean cuisine of goodness on a daily basis. I don't know what quite makes it so delicious, maybe it's the seasoning, the love she puts into it, the warm smells it emits, or even just the freshness of the ingredients? Whatever it is, I miss it! Unfortunately, however, thanks to Mabee Dinning Hall and all our Air mark pals, my "food"-sickness [forget about homesickness!] is reaching a dangerous level. Therefore, instead of allowing myself to be consumed by severe food-sickness, I have decided to share my thoughts with my fellow suffering peers in hopes of overcoming this sickness one mystery meal at a time.

Mabee Dining Hall-where the magic happens!

CHICKEN NUGGETS...REALLY?!

Since my four months at Trinity I quickly discovered one of Mabee's signature tactics: use "chicken" nuggets in EVERYTHING! Just the other day I counted two dishes at the same time containing chicken nuggets in one form or another. Don't get me wrong, everyone loves the concept of a chicken nugget. But that would imply that 1) the nugget actually contains chicken instead of a spongy gray substance, 2) they chicken to be at least warm- cold unidentified meat is never good, and/or 3) they are served with other appropriate foods of the same nugget status (see nugget pasta for example) there is no good way to dress up nuggets. Why can't Mabee except this? One last thing I would like to discuss while we're on the topic of nugget overuse: who said that three nuggets were the maximum amount one can consume in one period of time? If you haven't notices, Mabee always serves their nuggets in sets of three. All I have to say about this: three is not the magic number! They probably think they are so sneaky with such "variety" but oh no...we're on to you Mabee! Below are just a few select nugget dishes captioned with my best interpretation of what you are eating.