Food diary of a residential college student
If you're stepping into independent living for the first time and find cooking a bit daunting, don't worry – residential colleges have you covered. With three delicious, freshly prepared meals available every day of the semester, you can say goodbye to grocery runs and kitchen mishaps. Plus, eating together is the perfect way to unwind and build connections with other students.
For a closer look into the residential dining experience, we enlisted the help of International House (IH) resident Harlan Smith. As a Doctor of Medicine student, Harlan has little time for cooking and relies on provided meals to keep him going during long hours of study and clinical practice. Below he shares his typical food diary as a residential college student.
“My Sunday morning as an International House (IH) resident started out with a filling breakfast - some hash browns, bacon, scrambled eggs, noodles, baked beans and two waffles. It was difficult debating whether to add maple syrup, but I opted to not to thinking there would be some left-over waffles at the brunch styled lunch.
Image: My breakfast of waffles, hash browns, bacon, scramble eggs, baked beans, nooddle and berries yogurt.
By lunch, I wasn’t feeling like more waffles, so I asked for a large heaping of noodles and some beef. There was a slight difficulty in fitting the salad, but I did it!
Image: My lunch of beef noodle with salad and fruit
The day ended with an entrée of vegetable samosa, main of roast chicken, pumpkin, potato and broccoli, and some chocolate ice cream (which I ate too fast to photograph!). So, realistically I could’ve asked for less potato, but I didn’t, and it turns out that chicken is the most popular protein, so there’s a single delicious portion of chicken and a lot of potato. However, the potato was good, and sacrifices were always going to be necessary to fit in that chocolate ice cream!
Image: My dinner of roasted chicken and vegetable main and samosa entree
Fortunately since it was Sunday, I could eat all my meals at the Dining Hall with my IH friends. I usually can’t do this during the week because I spend most of my days at the hospital as a second-year Doctor of Medicine student.
Image: My friend and I at the IH Dining Hall
Thankfully the IH kitchen goes out of their way to pack me a full-on lunch for school the night before because I’m out earlier than the kitchen, five days a week. It’s decked out with juice, a piece of fruit, muesli bar and my favourite part, two random sandwiches which are probably my favourite dish at IH. There has been some funky ones which were definitely an experience (I’m looking at you jam mustard!), but the kitchen’s staff’s creativity always gives me tastes to look forward to.
Image: A typical packed lunch that the IH catering staff prepare for me
During the week, we also have community dinner on Wednesdays and formal dinner on Thursdays, where dinner is served at the table, which eliminates the randomness of staff swiftly handling out the portions.
Image: My Community dinner
l think IH has very good food, sometimes it reminds of home back in Queensland and other times it’s something entirely new. I didn’t specifically choose residential college for its food, but it’s a very nice luxury to have when I’m tired from studying, so let the glory of the packed lunch be known!”