Whitman celebrates College Night with suckling pigs

Whitman chef Stuart Slater said the regular entree was an attempt to “upscale the food” for students.

“[We] try to wow you every chance we get,” he said. “You can’t get better than roast suckling pig. It’s so tender. It’s like butter in your mouth.”

Some diners, however, said they think the attempt has fallen flat.

“It’s just disturbing,” Patricia Tsai ’11 said of the accessorized hogs.

“It reminds me of ‘Lord of the Flies,’ ” Samuel Chen ’11 noted.

“A lot of my vegetarian friends were very offended by it, especially people who are vegetarian for religious reasons,” Lisa Carmona ’11 said. “They don’t want to see that.”

Vegetarian Whitmanite Katie Rodriguez ’11 said she was “appalled” that the Whitman College Night dinners were “centered around an animal product.”

“They’re having these extravagant dinners, but they’re based on an dead animals,” she said. “Maybe they have side dishes ... but it seems like they could at least rotate the way Forbes does with these awesome vegetarian dishes.”

Vegetarian Niklas Peters ’11, however, said the pig did not upset him. “The first time I saw it, I wasn’t shocked like I thought it was offensive. I was shocked like I thought, ‘That dead pig has glasses on,’ ” he explained. “It was a very surprising thing.”

Sankalp Gosain ’11, who is not a vegetarian, said he thought serving a roast suckling pig was no different than serving meat in any other form at a dining hall. “As far as actually putting an apple in its mouth or sunglasses on its face, I don’t see how it’s any more tasteless than just garnishing a piece of meat,” he added.

The new approach to the menus of Whitman College Nights has not resulted in any “direct complaints,” Director of Dining Services Stu Orefice said.

“Our chefs and dining team members take pride in serving a balance of food items that include a variety of creative culinary techniques,” he said in an e-mail. “In addition, the dining team in each college will provide decor to match the theme of the selected meal to create a festive atmosphere.”

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Gosain noted that most students have no right to be upset by the pigs’ presence. “I think people are reminded of what they’re actually eating,” Gosain added. “If you can’t actually stomach what you’re eating, you probably shouldn’t be eating it in the first place.”

Princeton Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) treasurer Sam Fox Krauss ’10, who is vegan, voiced a sentiment similar to Gosain’s, despite the students’ different eating habits. “Frankly, I think it’s better people see where meat comes from,” Krauss said.

“I mean, if people don’t like seeing where their meat comes from, maybe they should think a little harder about where their meat comes from,” he added. “What does it matter whether the pig from which their dinner comes is whole within the dining hall or chopped up in the factory?”

PAWS member Maya Goodwin ’12, however, said she was not amused by the dining staff’s decision to accessorize the pigs.

“I just don’t think that’s funny. I don’t know who thinks it’s funny. Do you think it’s funny?” she said of the pig sporting sunglasses.

Peters, though, said he thought the display was somewhat amusing. “Maybe it was inappropriate, but it was mildly humorous as well,” he said, noting that animal rights activists might find the display offensive “because they’re making a joke out of the dead animal by putting human apparel on it.”

“I think we can still use animals for meat and food, but it should be appropriately done,” he added.

Krauss said he did not think the accessories were especially relevant.

“I don’t think the pig really cares what it’s wearing once it’s dead,” he explained. “I guess one might say it’s being disrespectful to the pig, but once you’ve already killed it for food, I don’t see why anyone would care about putting an earring on it.”

Roast suckling pig was already a familiar dish for Mark Lock ’11. “I’m Chinese, so that’s not something that’s foreign to me,” he said of the pig at Whitman. “I think it was cool.”

Though Lock said he enjoyed the entree, he was skeptical about its reception among the student body. “Can Westerners actually handle this?” he asked.