Creative concoctions and PUDS

Sometimes, it's necessary to state the obvious in order to fully appreciate its truth. So here goes: Princeton is a bastion of overachievers. Whether onstage, in the classroom or on the field, we all overachieved in some way to get here and apparently have found a number of creative outlets for that drive on campus. For some, the need to do one-better takes them down the path of competitive internships and networking to a corner office; for others, it leads them down Prospect Avenue to a bed in McCosh (and heck, for many, it does both!). But for the few die-hard "will-not-settle-ers" among us, the path to extra credit runs through the great Halls of this University — Wilcox, Wu, Rockefeller-Mathey, and Forbes.

Nothing inspires creativity better than dining hall food, which — while edible — quickly loses its novelty. So how, then, does one turn residential dining into an unnecessarily complex but infinitely more satisfying experience?

Rule number one: use the microwave.

"I'm a fan of things usually involving cheese," said Lindsey Locks, a sophomore in Forbes, "like taking broccoli and cheese from the salad bar and microwaving them, or making mini pizzas. Tuna melts are also good. Not too creative, but I'm a fan and they make me feel smart."

Better yet, "intelligent," nutritious comfort food is not the only type of cuisine that can be produced at the press of a button.

"It requires a lot of factors to be aligned," sophomore Woodney Haverstick said, "but tortilla chips, M&M's and cheese: put them in the microwave, and you satisfy your chocolate, salty and greasy cravings all at the same time." M&M's usually don't make an appearance until Sunday brunch, however, so Butler sophomore Morgan Rogers recommends an alternative post-Prospect breakfast. "Sounds weird, but try pancakes with chocolate ice cream and syrup on top. True, if you overload on this treat you'll wind up looking like a sumo wrestler, but hey, you'll feel like a million bucks."

With breakfast under control, follow rule number two when lunchtime rolls around: Take advantage of the salad bar, but don't let it limit you.

"I never eat the prepared food," said Laurel Angelica, a Rocky sophomore. "I always make my own. For lunch I take a combination of spinach and romaine topped with sliced sandwich tomatoes available at lunch on the sandwich bar. I find they compliment the style of salad eating much more than the cherry tomatoes, which can be rather frustrating."

And with all of the potential for embarrassment in the dining hall — dropped trays, misidentified entrees, ketchup that inevitably finds its way to a sleeve — it's nice to eliminate the danger of shooting cherry tomatoes across the table.

After fleshing out her salad with "a few red onions and a helping of turkey on the side," Angelica creates her own blend of dressing by mixing either Dijon mustard and balsamic vinaigrette or Dijon, red wine vinegar, lemon juice packets, salt and pepper. Rogers suggests an improvised version of her favorite dressing, in which she mixes oil, vinegar and some of the garlic soy sauce available at the grill on "Fire Bowl" days.

The grill can also be a great resource for those who are not satiated by salad alone.

"Get extra chicken from the grill master . . . and you can make yourself some seriously good chicken dishes," Steve Eaton '07 said. In fact, ask around and you'll hear dozens of suggestions for how to piece together everything from chicken parmigiano to a basic club sandwich.

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More than the food, however, residential dining is about the experience. Early-bird hours, awkward seating arrangements, ambiguously-named frozen yogurt (as in "Southern Strawberry," perhaps the tastier cousin of the Midwestern variety?), these are just some of the surprises that await dining hall patrons.

But "the best thing about the dining hall," sophomore Katy Bacon said, "is the wonderful people who work there." So whether or not you treat the dining hall like a kitchen full of possibilities, there is something to be gained by giving it a try. Besides, to brave the most infamous walk on campus — the Rocky dining hall "gauntlet," obviously — builds more character than any internship we overachievers could find.