Stamina Pork!

This was one of those bizarre meals that was semi-overflowing with food.

You can't really tell by looking at the picture, but there are actually two pork cutlets on my plate.

Crazier yet, you could even get seconds, which many students did.

I guess the reason for the abundance of meat was that the main dish was called "Stamina Pork," whatever that means...

I have to admit, the pork was pretty good, but whether or not it's all I need to run a triathlon, as one of my teacher colleagues claims (in gest, of course), is doubtful.

I also wish it had been served minus the mushrooms, but you can't have it all.

As for the side dishes, well, they were just OK.

What the heck are those pieces of ham doing in my soup?

Why is there always cucumber in my salad?

Hmmm...

Total points: 6

Seeing Is Disbelieving

This is one of those meals that I simply dread.

I nibbled at the salad but couldn't bring myself to eat it, so I gave it away.

0-for-1.

I knew I wouldn't like the soup, so I gave that away without tasting it.

0-for-2.

I also gave away the main dish after nibbling at it for about 15 seconds.

0-for-3.

What that left me with was a bowl of rice.

Sometimes I think I'd rather have jail food.

Total points: 1

Not A Piece Of Cake

I wonder how Jody would have liked this meal, the ol' Hungry Meal.

This time, we were served a bowl of tofu chunks with some seaweed, sesame seeds, and bits of meat in it. I poured mine over my rice, which is basically what you are supposed to do, even though some kids didn't.

That little plate had some undesirables on it, so I gave it away to the first person who asked for it. The funny thing is, I didn't know that there was a sweetened chestnut wrapped in the aluminum foil. For whatever reason, when I peeked inside, I thought I saw a giant umeboshi (to go along with the normal-sized one) and wanted no part of it. By the time I realized my mistake, it was too late. Not a big deal, really.

Had that been a piece of cake, though, I would have been upset!

Total points: 4

Food On A Tray

This was the first meal I had in the dorm in a long time, since I was on a bike ride with my buddy Jody.

As you can see, there's not much to write home about regarding this "meal."

Just look at the wimpy soup, for instance, which was more like "Mushrooms in Water."

And check out the lame salad, which was more like "Kernels of Corn on a Plate, Plus Carrots and a Token Piece of Meat."

Even the piece of fish was boring and, if it had been a painting, could have been entitled, "Piece of Fish on a Plate, in Sauce."

What I especially dislike about the way this fish is served is all the bones that you have to watch out for. In fact, I'm pretty surprised no one has ever chocked on one.

Jody had the pleasure of eating his very first Gokase School Lunch with me.

He wasn't terribly impressed with the food, but he said it was about what he expected. Lucky for him, he picked a relatively safe meal.

Jody likes plain rice about as much as I do, so he used his "salad" as a topping for his rice.

Well done, Jody!

Total points: 4

(Note: Yesterday, Jody and I went to Kajika for lunch, so there was no post.)

Where's The Beef?

Remember the "Where's the beef?" commercials?

This meal is the reason someone came up with that ad.

Check out how big the bun is compared to the hamburger. Yeah.

And check out how disgusting that hamburger looks. If that's supposed to be beef, my name is Abraham Lincoln.

Which begs the question: Where's the beef?

Another thing I just don't get about this meal is why we were served two main dishes but no sides (unless the bread counts as a side).

Do you suppose the Lunch Lady considered the nasty "wiener" concoction (as opposed to a "winner" concoction, which it definitely wasn't) a soup? Whatever it was, I gave it away as fast as you can say "concoction."

The only really nice part of the whole meal was the dessert, which was a slice of frozen pineapple. I would prefer cake or ice cream, but fruit is always a good, healthy choice.

Total points: 4

(Note: I'm heading off on C2C starting tomorrow, so I won't be posting again for a couple of weeks. Please be patient and check back on or around September 27.)

Davy Croquette

This meal was a bit hard to figure out, because it was a true mix of good and bad.

On the one hand, the salad was pretty bad. Take out the beans and ham and it would have been OK, but as it was, I wanted no part of it.

Fail.


On the other hand, the "minestrone" was actually half-decent, since you can't go wrong with noodles and potatoes. I'm not sure what that ham was doing in there, however.

Pass.

The croquette's, too, were a combination of good and bad: Good because they tasted good, but bad because they were deep-fried.

As you can see, I also grabbed a bowl of rice, and I was even able to cover it (and my cabbage) with my beloved sesame dressing, so that was worth a few plus points.

I guess it could have been much worse, so overall I'd have to say this meal was OK.

Total points: 5

(Note: Even though we have school tomorrow and Sunday because of the annual Forestopia Festival, I won't be posting since we won't be having standard school lunches on those days.)

Back To Bad

I'm getting more and more upset with the meals here, to the point that I'm seriously considering eating out every day or perhaps making my own lunch.

I don't want to give up writing this blog, but I might just have to, for the sake of my health.


That might sound ridiculous to some of you, but I honestly feel that the food here is, for the most part, ruining my body.

Look at today's lunch, for instance.

The "salad" was fairly harmless but equally tasteless.

The soup, however, was a disaster. I nibbled at the bits that looked edible but that meant I hardly put a dent in the soup. Not good.

The main dish was pretty bad, too. For one, there was practically no meat on my plate. I'd rather have a lot of meat and a little cabbage, rather than the other way around. For two, the quality of the meat just wasn't up to par. I swear, it's like we are given the last few scraps, even after the dogs have eaten their share. For three, there wasn't even any good (sesame) sauce left by the time I got my food, so I didn't feel like eating the cabbage.

Overall, this meal was really bad.

Total points: 3

Oh What A Relief It Is

What a relief.

For the first time in a long time, I could pretty much eat all of my food.

I guess it helped that I was extremely hungry, but still, after yesterday's disastrous meal, I wasn't going to force myself to eat just anything.


The soup didn't look that great, but hey, it didn't have any miso in it, so I gave it a try. It didn't have much flavor, but it was easy on the stomach (minus the oily film on top), which was a plus.

The salad was fairly good, primarily because the almond slivers gave it some zing. (I was so hungry, I actually went to get seconds and thirds of salad!) The one thing I didn't like about the salad was, you guessed it, the ham. Yeah, so the salad wasn't perfect, but it was pretty darn good.

The main course, the fish, was also fairly tasty. After all, it was salmon, which is my favorite, and it was broiled, not deep-fried.

Two pluses make a right.

Good meal, at last.

Total points: 6

Sam I Am: Not!

Today's meal made me re-think ever eating in the school cafeteria again.

OK, well, sure, there have been other occasions when I've thought about never eating there again, but today's meal grossed me out so much, I just don't know if I can eat this food anymore.


The meal started off well enough, with a harmless cucumber, carrot, squid salad. Again, though, what's with the tiny portion?

I did, however, pass on the "soup," which was really just a bowl full of miso paste. No thanks!

(I have no idea what's going on here, but the soups have been incredibly bad lately.)

The main dish wasn't that much of an improvement over the rest of the meal, but I was happy that I at least chose a bowl that had a huge chunk of egg, which I figured would taste good, as opposed to tons of little deep-fried tofu cubes, which most of the bowls had in them.

Little did I know what I had coming.

I took a bite of the egg, chewed it, and swallowed it. So far, so good.

Just then, however, my eye caught sight of the remaining bit of egg chunk.

What did I see?

I saw green egg.

Yes, green egg.

As in G-R-E-E-N green.

Now, I'm no master chef, but as far as I know, eggs are supposed to be yellow, not green.

I mean, seriously! What the heck is going on here? Is this some kind of joke?

Does the Lunch Lady think she's Dr. Seuss?

How fitting would that have been had there only been some ham in that bowl!

The other scary thing is, I showed the kids who were sitting with me that I had green eggs in my bowl and they all acted as if that were no big deal.

"That happens sometimes."

"That's normal."

"It's from the sauce."

"It's OK, really."

No, it's not normal. No, it's not from the sauce. No, it's not OK.

Really.

Total points: 0

A New Kind Of Food: Potato Pumpkin

Here we go with yet another average meal.

I didn't even try the soup, since I knew the miso flavor would be overpowering.

The salad was pretty good, saved by the tuna fish, as usual. What I don't understand is, why is the portion so tiny?

Since when do Japanese people need to go on a diet?

The main dish was fairly yummy, too, but I had a hard time distinguishing between the pieces of potato and the pieces of pumpkin. For all I know, there wasn't even any potato in there, but that's not saying much for the pumpkin, huh?

After I finished the salad and the main dish, I was still pretty hungry, but I elected not to grab seconds, because the food just wasn't doing anything for me.

What else is new, right?

Total points: 5

(Note: We have Monday off, so the next post won't be until Tuesday.)

Murdock? He's Cool. Burdock? Not So Much.

Today's meal was actually one of the better ones, but that's still not saying all that much.

In any case, the salad was pretty good, primarily because there wasn't anything gross like ham or my other favorite, katsuobushi, mixed in.


The main dish, a rice mix, was also pretty good, since rice mixed with just about anything is better than plain rice, which we usually have.

One of the main ingredients of this particular rice mix was mackerel, which, though a bit salty, gave the rice some oomph.

Unfortunately, the rice also contained gobou (burdock), which did nothing but take away from the meal. Too bad for that.

The soup looked harmless enough, but I want chock-full-o'-flavor, not harmless. Pass.

The dessert was a kind of sweet potato pie, which is pretty popular around here, for whatever reason. I would have preferred something "normal" like chocolate cake.

Alas, I learned a long time ago that you just can't have everything.

Total points: 5