Suppp Ratty Lunch!

After our classes, Nora and I headed over to the Ratty for lunch! After our V-dub breakfast together, I had three straight hours of class. I was very much ready for a (hopefully delectable!) break. Lunch is something that I always look forward to, not just because of the food, but also because it’s a time to slow down, eat, and catch up with friends, while forgetting about my school work, even if just for an hour.

It’s worth noting that Nora and I are both vegetarians, and thus our dining hall routine could be somewhat different than the average patron. For instance, we pretty much universally head over to the “Roots and Shoots” line, which offers the most vegetarian/vegan options and is coincidentally the shortest. Despite our vegetarianism, the Ratty usually has a lot of options. Usually I enter without any idea of what I’m going to be consuming – grabbing this and that until I’m satisfied with how full my plate looks. This contrasts greatly with our local lunch, where we knew exactly what were eating, and where the items came from.

After scouring the lines, I ended up with rice, corn, tomato, zucchini, red onions, pinto beans, black beans, guacamole ([likely] comprised of avocado and most likely onion), sour cream, Monterey jack cheese, sweet potatoes, and clementines.

Nora chose Mac n Cheese ([likely] comprised of pasta, flour, butter, milk and cheddar cheese), quinoa, and rice.

Our lunches were both fine. Not fantastic, but filling, and reasonably nutritious. Neither Nora nor I completely finished our plates, unlike when we ate locally. This is probably partially due to the quality of the food – it definitely was not as delicious. It also likely had something to do with the attachment we had to the food. We physically obtained the local food, whether it was from a market share that we picked out ourselves, or from the farmer’s market. Then, we cooked it together. It makes a lot of sense that we were more attached to it than the Ratty food. Assuming this is common with most people, regardless of where your food comes from, buying it and preparing it yourself will probably decrease food waste.

It's also interesting to note the quantity of the ingredients on our plates. Compared to eating locally, we had a lot more variety, and just a much larger number of ingredients going on. It's definitely worth thinking about this regarding the meals you eat on a day to day basis -- how many different places did the food you eat come from? How do American agrosystems make this a possibility? Should this even be possible?

Whether or not lunch at the Ratty was perfect, it was most definitely sufficient in fueling me for an afternoon of studying (yay finals!).