School Lunch Cuisine

They don't serve those any more but I only ordered it once and got sick.

You would think a cafeteria staffed by people who very well could've emigrated to this country from Mexico maybe 10 - 15 years prior would've done burritos right. Well, the best thing I can say about their burritos was that they were prepared in sanitary conditions. (The cafeteria in my HS, which is the cafeteria I'm talking about, consistently received health department scores of 94 - 98.) Of course, I'd rather have the culinary disaster that was the HS burrito (which did motivate me to start bringing in my own lunch, FYI) than to chow down quite happily on biscuits that tasted really good and then two hours later end up spending some time getting acquainted with porcelain and tile because the cafeteria was in horrid shape and really shouldn't have been operational.

Turkey gravy!

Chunks of turkey in a gravy, over mashed potatoes.

Turkey chow mein!

Just like turkey gravy, except served over rice, celery added to sauce, plus those crunchy noodles for the top.

Hamburger gravy!

Mince in gravy, over mashed potatoes.

Pronto Pups!

So that's where all the corn dogs went when the Minnesota State Fair was over.

(Dee, our burritos were disgusting and probably bore less relation to the real thing than the ones at your school)

What we did get in my middle school was pretty standard mash/sausage/stew stuff, with occasional and somewhat foolhardy "experiments" in curry (very weak and stodgy). They did have a very nice meal every so often which was turkeyburger (turkey mince in breadcrumbs) with chips and plum tomato. I really loved that.

In my high school we finally got what we always wanted - junk, and nothing but. Looking back it was actually quite shocking the lack of variety there was - menu was chips, pizza, baked beans, sausage roll, and that was about it (maybe a burger every so often).

we had the turkey chunks in gravy over potatoes too. they called it fricasee. in high school we discovered that if you got the potatoes in a small styrofoam bowl, waited about five minutes and turned the bowl upside-down in the air for however long you wanted, the potatoes wouldn't move

I've also managed to pretty much repress the awful vegetables: grey over-cooked 'green' beans, niblet corn, and those pea/diced carrot freezer-bag veg medleys.

No, we just had a vending machine for our "alternative nutrition" if we didn't feel like eating cafeteria food or whatever we brought in from home. And the vending machine was stocked with mostly the cheap Toms "brand" stuff, along with a few name brand candy bar type things. The beverage vending machine was a bit more awesome because it stocked Delaware Punch, but I think I would've enjoyed it a bit more had it actually stocked some real sodas along with the watered-down fruit syrup in a can stuff they served.

Suzy, I think your campus and my campus must've gotten the same supplier to deliver their burritos. At least, that's what I'm hoping. It tasted like it was reheated from some frozen bag o' stuff. Ugh. (I made up for this time in college, FYI. Hurrah for being less than a mile away from Subway, McDonald's, Whataburger, Bill Miller's, and Pizza Hut!)

My school had a lockdown. No leaving campus until final bell or it was a piece of your ass!

More:
corn dogs
tater tots
grilled ham and cheese sandwich
grilled cheese+tomato sandwich
Italian torpedo sandwich
chicken pot pie
turkey pot pie
beef pot pie
chicken-turkey pot pit
smothered chicken
chicken hawaiin
southern fried chicken
southern baked chicken
chicken a la king
chicken fried steak
minit-steak (sic)
swiss steak
meat loaf
hamburger loaf (don't really know if there was a difference between the two)
ham steak
yankee pot roast
potatoes Elliott
(never got to meet Elliott)
Cheese fishwich
spaghetti with red sauce and 2 (actually 1 1/2) meatballs
boiled new potatoes
baked new potatoes
seasoned new potatoes

...for lunch?

NB. this was before the invention of the McNugget. I just went to my old school's website to see if they had vending machines now. I couldn't tell if they did but I really hope not. Vending machines and coke/soda/pop machines = HELLO MORBID OBESITY.

When I went to Catholic school corporal punishment was the governing rule of order. Rulers across the knuckles, hours of kneeling and an occasional swat on the ass with a paddle.

We had French fries too. Pizza buns and French fries were the most popular food, or at any rate the only stuff I can really rememebr, other than the hamburgers which were made of god only knows what.

In primary school our tuckshop provided meat pies and sausage rolls and things sure, but had to (by law, I suspect) also provide a percentage of healthier sanwiches and snacks.

In high school Im sure it was more hot chips and hotdogs and crap of course, but I never ate at the high school tuckshop as I lived right behind my school - so I went home for cheese and tomato Breville toasties and 2 minute ramen noodles.

OK so maybe I ate shit anyway.

a lot is two words.

x-post, I think I remember apple sauce too. It's all coming back, bleah. I used to escape the cafeteria as soon as I was finished eating, if possible, and hang out in the art room with the kids who were into art and the burn-outs (two categories that overlapped considerably). I wasn't pursuing art and I wasn't a burn-out, but I was a burn-out sympathizer.

not in my universe

But you did go to school. You had to to eat that cafiteria food.

school didn't learn me nuttin' good.

I'm still in school. I'm only in Junior High.

I never ate one from that deli.

Congratulations!

From what I remember, junior school did try and give us a semblance of a healthy dinner (ie meat and two veg style) but once off to secondary school it all degenerated into canteen style madness - I remember soup and chips being very popular in first and second years, then later on, after 5th year when we were allowed off site at lunchtime everyone was off to the sandwich shop (Henstocks). For me it was for salami and coleslaw cobs - num num

exception: milkshakes! They always had them and always made too many and if you were at the right place at the right time the door of the kitchen was opened and a kindly dinner lady gave them away free! yay!

And then I had chips and gravy.

At one point I had butter AND a spreadable alternative in my fridge - it was fannydangle olive oil though as I am gullible and have bought into the fable that it is a healthy option when I scoff nine zillion slices of toast of a weekend.

With RED SAUCE.

What are you feelings on the butter left out of the fridge in butter dish debate? How REALLY is this different to just leaving it out unwrapped? I quite fancy one of those french urn things full of water but you know, we DO have a fridge.

unlike those fwogs harharhahrr groo

If you have one of these your butter can stay out.

At secondary school, they made hot rolls in time for break time each morning. Everyone ate them the same way, picking off the bottom, then scooping out the inside as the steam rose. They were well worth 15p. In the third year I started lying to my Mum about the cost of the school bus, saying it was 25p when it was actually 20p. I saved up 5x5p to get 25p to buy a cream and jam donut at the end of each week.

Mum made me sandwiches (always wholemeal bread) and put them in an old bread bag to take to school, together with a bottle of squash that she always made up too weak and a piece of fruit which would jostle around with my books all morning and be too bruised to eat by lunchtime. My friends complained of the stink when I had humous in my sandwiches.

Actually, that's not true, when I went to the international school in New Delhi, the high school kids had their own little cafeteria where we could order grilled cheese, buffalo burgers, hot dogs, etc., and we used to eat our french fries with mustard because the Indian ketchup tasted too sweet.

Known quite affectionately in many circles as SOS (SH*T ON A SHINGLE). I actually had some the other day in a hospital cafeteria. It was as bad as I remembered it to be from my childhood.

the mexican pizza (which was actually good)
the burritos (good as well)

Peach crisp = retch, hurl, puke etc.