Dining Hall Hacks: Graphic by Elizabeth Wong.
There are always those days in the dining halls where the homestyle food options just don’t sound that appetizing or look very appealing. We can all agree that we can’t always find something that we want to eat that fulfills our cravings. I want to feel full and satisfied whenever I leave the dining hall and the prepared food doesn’t always do that for me. I have asked some fellow URI dining hall frequent goers if they have any hacks that they use whenever they can’t find anything to eat, and I even came up with one myself. Keep reading if you want to learn these tricks and try to enhance your dining hall experience.
One of the hacks someone told me when asking around really stood out to me. Jason Smith, a freshman, shared with me what his go to is when he can’t find anything to eat at Mainfare Dining Hall. He starts by filling his plate with rice at the fusion station. He then heads over to Astro’s and grabs a burger patty and puts that on top of the rice. Lastly, he goes to the condiment station and puts on a generous amount of buffalo sauce. Once he gets to his table, he cuts up with burger and mixes all the ingredients together.
“It can sound gross at first but for something so basic, it actually has a lot of flavor and is very filling,” Smith said.
I actually tried this concoction and what he said about it is definitely true. When I initially put it all on my plate, it didn’t look too great, but once I mixed it up and tried it, it tasted really good and definitely left me stuffed.
This next one is strictly a Butterfield hack; sorry Mainfare lovers. Freshman Sophie Benjamin shared with me what she likes to get for dessert, and I think this one is going to be a fan favorite. She creates a do-it-yourself ice cream sandwich by taking two cookies and then heading over to the ice cream machines and putting the ice cream in between them. This can be tricky sometimes since the ice cream machines are down a lot. However, if they are up and running, I definitely suggest trying this sweet treat!
Another hack that an anonymous source shared with me is one for all the cereal lovers out there. This source told me that they put chocolate milk in their cereal instead of regular milk when they want something a little sweeter and richer.
“I tried it once and was a little skeptical at first, but now I can never go back,” the source said.
Pro tip: I personally have tried this too, since I am a chocolate milk fanatic. It especially tastes good with Lucky Charms. Just throwing that out there!
Lastly, I came up with a hack of my own that I usually do at Butterfield when I can’t find anything to eat. Basically what it is is a buffalo chicken quesadilla. All you have to do is go over to the omelette/quesadilla station and ask for a quesadilla with cheese and chicken. You can add other things in it if you’d like, but this is normally what I stick to. Once that’s done, I go over to the condiments and grab a cup of buffalo sauce and just dip my quesadilla into there. You could even do this with other condiments such as barbeque sauce or honey mustard. It’s really simple but is something that I figure a lot of people don’t think of doing, but should since it is so filling and always leaves me satisfied!
I hope these tips and tricks helped. That next time you go to the dining hall and can’t find anything to eat, you’ll try one of these!