Coming into my first year of university, the Global Scholars Program sent our roughly 1000-student cohort to the Oakland and London campuses as opposed to the main Boston campus. Among other culture shocks, we had to adapt to the differences in dining options.
Oakland
The main dining hall, “Founders”, and the Tea Shop were the big dining options on the Mills campus during my first semester, apart from Cafe Suzie’s, which was grab-and-go fare. Getting to Founders required walking up a relatively steep hill but was more often than not my preferred dining choice on campus, especially considering it was buffet style – who doesn’t love that! I also found it funny that I would see the vast majority of the students on campus each time I ate at Founders, but I enjoyed this almost comforting experience, enjoying meals with mostly the same people. Food quality was up and down as we experienced food that was sometimes raw, sometimes good, and sometimes dry. We did have one special indigenous night with bison, salmon and this quite scrumptious juice, and also a live performance. As for the Tea Shop, most would order for pickup via Grubhub and eat elsewhere considering there was not much seating inside. Despite the existence of kitchens, at least in my hall Orchard Meadow, I still did not cook at all due to the prevalence of dining halls and wanting a break from cooking meals growing up, unless you consider microwaving restaurant leftovers as cooking.
A favorite from the Tea Shop:
Adding on to the dining options, food trucks would be invited onto campus every few weeks, which students would get incredibly excited about. The food truck food was handed to you for free as long as you presented a Husky card, and we would find out when they came via the @nudiningoakland Instagram stories.
London
Unlike Oakland, we did not have a central dining hall, besides a cafe that technically was not managed by Northeastern by rather Devon House, the building that housed three floors of Northeastern University academic space. There was occasional free food in our campus student hub, and even (not free) alcohol served in the lobby. Going to restaurants was a rare occurrence for me since I knew London was a big city and food would be pricey, but I was introduced to the app “TooGoodToGo” which allows users to place pickup orders for surplus food from restaurants that would otherwise be thrown away. In London, and generally anywhere else in Europe, there would normally be a wide array of options, either multiple from one store or multiple locations. Food ranging from freshly carved lamb shawarma, classic British pasties, a full famous British Sunday roast or unpurchased grocery store food, kept me excited to try new foods around the city while saving money and cooking energy. My close friends and I would often be too lazy to cook even with fair Tesco prices. Thus, we would turn to this service to take home a meal that hopefully would satisfy our taste buds and leave a smaller dent in our wallets. I recall numerous occasions where I’d be sitting in Devon House tired of schoolwork and subconsciously start browsing the app for food, or I would be too tired to cook after I would come back from trips so I’d browse the vendors on the app while on the train or bus home. It simultaneously allowed me to explore London and the places I would travel, where I would get to meet new people and see parts of cities I normally wouldn’t venture off to. That is one of the major advantages of Europe that I will miss. Although I have seen some cities in the USA have TooGoodToGo vendors, there still are not nearly as many as London.
On the note of Tesco, I would often buy enough food to stock our mini fridge and freezer, cook one whole package of meat, portion out the meat and some vegetables into plastic containers, and eat from those containers throughout the week. I most loved buying half a duck and serving with mini pancakes, similar to Beijing’s duck serving style.
Restaurants we tried included Nando’s, Brick Lane, and others here and there. We weren’t the biggest fans of Nando’s – even the spiciest options were too bland for us. But Brick Lane provided amazing Indian, Pakistani, and Bangladeshi food at reasonable prices.
Boston
Now that I am studying on the Boston campus, I can say with full confidence that this semester I have been exposed to the most food options on campus, on top of all the great restaurants the city offers, and even familiar grocery stores I grew up with.
Large dining halls have finally been introduced to me in the form of International Village and Stetson East. With about two months of eating at these locations, my heart lies with IV’s United Kitchen more than The Eatery at Stetson East because the taller and wider dining area promotes an eating experience that feels less stuffy. At IV, there is decent sushi, better pizza and scrumptious Indian food. However, I will say Steast has had delicious options such as a bulgogi sandwich, and bbq pulled pork with sweet potato. Checking the menu before meals every day has become a habit, but I often resort to IV.
We can spend our dining dollars at restaurants near campus, of which “Boston Halal” is my favorite. $11.77 for a bowl with lamb (or chicken/beef) over rice, rich sauce, hummus, tomatoes, cucumbers, beans, and corn, especially in THIS economy, is amazing!
Overall, the average restaurant would be more expensive and time consuming than the dining hall or a spot closer to or on campus, so I don’t eat out much. When I only want some yogurt or fruit, I will stop by Whole Foods on my walk on the way from campus to my dorm, or Trader Joe’s any other time.
All in all, I appreciate this unique opportunity to expand my budgeting, cooking, and decision-making skills and experience dining options across different states and countries.