Eating at Rutgers Camden, or any college, is different than eating at home. Mom isn't there making you your favorites, and you have a budget. I've only recently adjusted to being happy with college food.
First, let me show you our dining hall:
You never know who you'll fine there until you start memorizing everyone's schedules. Recently, Rutgers redid the dining hall and now it looks pretty swanky, as you can see. Here's a taste of the dining hall. I tried to capture most of where food is purchased, without getting anyone's face in the video. WARNING: Motion sickness may occur.
When eating in the dining hall, I follow these guidelines:
1. Check the board outside of the hall to see the daily specials. The most appealing to me have been the taco bar and Indian themed days.
2. No specials you like? The "regulars" are fine too. Pizza, deli sandwiches, the salad bar, sushi, cereal, grilled chicken, hamburgers, veggie burgers and my beloved seaweed are a few of the items you will pretty much always be able to find in the cafeteria.
3. Don't see anything you like? Want to save money? My theory is there is always an on campus event with free food. Above is today's NJPIRG's Voter Tailgate Party. There was cheese steak, hot dogs, meat ball sandwiches, pretzels, chips, salad, sodas and wings. Below is a catered campus event, hosted by the Jewish Student Union. Go to events in the Raptor's Roost. They seem to have the good food! Of course, most events have pizza, and most people love that stuff. The Careers Center provides pizza pretty consistently, so go to one of their seminars, listen, and chow down. Do respect the food provider. Please don't take food and run!
4. When you feel like the cafeteria's too expensive, remember how much money you save by going to a state school.
5. When you feel visit a private school and fall in love with their food, remember how many extra grand it will cost you.
6. Some upperclassmen on campus live in the Rutgers apartments. They have kitchens.Befriend them if they can cook, or if you just want to use their kitchen, or if they're nice, I guess.
7. You can keep food in your dorm, but you need to keep bugs out of your dorm. Keep your food carefully stored.
8. Sometimes on Saturdays there are shuttles to Cherry Hill near the Wegmans, a grocery store. They also have some of the best prepared food around.
9. Friends Cafe is located just a 2 minute walk or so from the dorms. I haven't eaten there yet, but they cater events and the kids here love them.
10. Chip in with your friends to get take out. I went out last night, but my suite mates got Chinese. It was nice to come home to the smell of General Tso's. That's it for now. I am so busy and exhausted. I cannot wait to sleep this weekend. Midsemester is tough.
* Also, I have stomach problems and recently started talking out my dining options with the Rutgers Dining Faculty. If you have nutritional problems, Rutgers will try to accommodate you.
EDIT: I didn't get to take a picture of my lunch the day of this post because I was too excited to try yams, but here's today's lunch.
The good news? It was delicious. The bad? It was $22.25. Salads are way too expensive. Here's a shot of the fireplace I ate by.
I think this post is finally done. Questions, comments, etc. are welcomed. Enjoy your weekend!
Location: SinglePost