This is the kind of ridiculous bullshit that, if *I* was in charge of the kitchen, would cause me to just stop feeding them.

When they got hungry enough, they'd eat whatever they were given.

The problem with these children (and yes, they ARE children; spoiled, entitled children) is they have literally never heard the word no.

I loved Adam Kissel's retweet of this post: "All stomachs matter."

Students complaining about the food is a tradition at most boarding institutions. What IS new is it making national news.

I agree that the easiest to do would be stop feeding them. Stop all university food related efforts, let them fend for themselves. They want "real" General Tso's chicken? Go pay for it at the nearest authentic Chinese takeout.

And no, don't cut the cost per student. Tell them what used to be called "board" in room and board is now call "Social Justice empathy funds".

I'd call them jackasses, but that would be an insult to jackasses around the world.

One of the (many!) amusing aspects of this story is that General Tso's Chicken is not an "authentically Chinese" dish. If Wikipedia is correct, it was invented in New York: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Tso%27s_chicken

Talk about privilege! Those kids will be complaining about their servant problems next. I guess there must be an inverse relationship between self-absorption and self-awareness.

The problem with these children (and yes, they ARE children; spoiled, entitled children) is they have literally never heard the word no.

I'll buy that. How about, "Oh, we didn't make the sushi right? Your culture has been insulted? Okay, your new job is preparing the sushi for the entire Oberlin student body. Don't screw it up."

Love that about General Tso's chicken. I kind of suspected that but forgot to look it up when I was doing the post. (I was too busy reminiscing about my mother's, uh, cooking.)

In college, I survived basically on chocolate soft-serve. It's a wonder I still have teeth.

As someone whose brutal introduction to tofu was a college cafeteria dish deceptively named "Tofu Meatballs," these kids have nothing to complain about. In my day, we ate our "Hungarian Noodle-Bake" and we did not ask any questions.
-Jut

I may be entirely-wrong, but this story smells fishy to me. All leads on the Web come back to a single story in the Oberlin Review, which strongly suggests a parody. Fact-check, please. Maybe I'm mistaken and my parody-meter needs calibrated.

llater,

llamas

But isn't the whole thing cultural appropriation? To avoid theft of the heritage of other cultures, they should never serve anything but hamburgers and hot dogs.

I call wikipedia a liar Brad. General Tso's was invented in Tennessee! It is only in the last few years you could even buy General Tso's in China.

@ Cousin Dave, who wrote:

' . . . . they should never serve anything but hamburgers and hot dogs.'

You neo-colonialist appropriator! You mean Hamburgers, Frankfurters and Viennas!

;-)

See, once you start down this road, you can't stop. Everything is an 'appropriation'. The wee precious snowflakes at Oberlin are apparently too smart to grasp that. If it's even a true story.

I second Ben - in my last job, I hosted and dealt with Chinese partners many times, and they wouldn't go near American-style Chinese food - made them unwell. Especially 'Szechuan', for some reason. Fortunately, the Metro area has several 'authentic' Chinese eateries. They adored American chocolate, and hauled it back home by the suitcase-full.

There's a wonderful documentary on Netflix about the search for the 'original' General Tso's Chicken. Hint - it's nowhere near China.

I think the same is likely true of most 'ethnic' food sold in mass-market ways in the US. In that same job, I spent a deal of time in Del Rio, TX/Acuna, Mexico, and learned that real Tex-Mex and Mexican food is nothing like what's sold at Chili's and Chipotle. Not only different flavours, but a thousand times better.

The first time I drove from San Antonio to Del Rio, dinner time found us in Uvalde, TX. I was travelling with a TX-based co-worker, but he knew not from SW TX. And every eatery was 100% Mexican. I said 'where do you suppose is best?' and he said 'That One. See all the cop cars parked outside?' And he was right. We staggered out an hour later, stuffed to bursting with the most wonderful food, for about $10 each - and none of it even remotely like what passes for 'Mexican' food in the rest of the US.

llater,

llamas

Serve plain unsweetened gruel

I often wondered who General Tso was and why they were serving me his chicken. Always seemed...risky.

For llamas, I dug up this linkie from The Oberlin Review on this story. They also claim:

The Oberlin Review is the newspaper of record for Oberlin College and the city of Oberlin, Ohio. Established in 1874, it has published continuously for 140 years, making it one of the oldest college newspapers in the United States. The printed edition of the Review is published every Friday during the fall and spring semesters, except during holidays and examination periods, with a circulation of 2,000 issues. The web edition of the Review is published online continuously.

If it is a prank, it is a very good one. That said, this is Oberlin and I think their students are required to have their sense of humor surgically removed prior to enrollment.

There is one dish that is distinctly American: Brunswick Stew.

As I commented earlier (here? somewhere else?) go to Italy and order a pizza. What you get will not be anything like you'll get from Papa John. In fact, you'll probably be disappointed.

Well, unless you go to a Dominos, which apparently is trying to penetrate the Italian market.

The story does sound like something out of the Onion, but then so many stories these days do...
When I was in college in the 1970s at UGA, the closest cafeteria served only American food: hotdogs, hamburgers, grilled cheese, fries. It was greasy enough to put zits on a piece of wood. The nicer cafeterias a little farther were still American food, like green beans, mashed potatoes, broiled chicken. They don't appreciate the fact that their school is even trying to be diverse. And they expect "cuisine" at a school cafeteria?
The thing that strikes me is these students at various schools, likely running up huge debt, keep demanding things that are going to raise their tuition considerably. ??? owing $100k isn't enough debt?

The food at my school was disrespectful of every ethnicity represented.

The Chinese food was that godawful pre-Nixon-era mush, so bad that even the Chinese disdained ownership, calling it American food - an insult to Asian food.

The pizza was a concoction of leftover food served on a warmed over flat bread with a watery tomato sauce - an insult to Italian food.

The fried chicken was coated in an barely cooked flour and water mixture, leaving you eating rubber chicken covered in homemade paste - an insult to Southern food.

The hamburgers were shoe-sole patties that even ketchup could not make palatable - an insult to American food. I'm not sure they were even made from a traditional meat animal.

Thai food, Ethiopian food, etc. were not served because they were at that time unknown outside major urban areas like Los Angeles or New York.

Yep, the cafeteria ladies at my school were equal opportunity racists.

We ate their pitiful offerings because our only alternative was a bologna sandwich on white bread from home or risking a suspension by sneaking out to the nearest fast food place - featuring on its sign a grotesque caricature of a desert Arab chieftain and serving sandwiches like "the Camel Rider," a local favorite.

Because White People stomachs matter:

http://www.amazon.com/The-Wasp-Cookbook-Alexandra-Wentworth/dp/0446912107

"After a lifetime of addiction to Italian food, I had no idea you could do so much with mayonnaise."--Jay Leno.

"These elegant debutantes, in their Bergdorf white gowns and long white gloves, are presented by their fathers. After the brief ceremony, they are toasted as the paragons of fine breeding, good taste, and decorum. They then spend the rest of the evening getting drunk, smoking cigarettes, and giving new meaning to the term 'fine breeding.' "

For what it's worth, I somehow never heard of the food stereotypes regarding black people until I was well into adulthood. (So, as a teen, when I read a certain early 1970s Doonesbury strip featuring the black character Calvin and a disgruntled white server, I didn't get it at all.)

"You neo-colonialist appropriator! You mean Hamburgers, Frankfurters and Viennas!"

Mea culpa. I'll just eat grass from now on. Oh wait, what kind of grass is indigenous to my area?

I hope I won't offend our host or anyone else by throwing out a book recommendation, but I really enjoyed Jennifer 8. Lee's "The Fortune Cookie Chronicles", which covers such topics as "Where did General Tso's chicken come from?" and "Why is Chinese food so popular with Jews?".

one of the stupider ideas out there

Careful now! Calling anyone's ideas "stupid" is a microaggression, unless they're a white male.

IRA,

Try ordering spaghetti in Italy. You will definitely be disappointed.

Conan,

You didn't like the cracker pizza? It was the most edible thing my school cafeterias ever served. I forget what things were like in college. Except for the pudding.

We had theories there were pudding silos somewhere out in the Oklahoma badlands. Every day the cafeteria workers would open giant steel doors and go in with pick axes to carve out that day's ration of pudding. Someone actually put a fork in some pudding and then suspended the bowl over two cups. An hour later the fork still hadn't moved. The stuff was remarkably similar to half dried Elmer's glue.

Serve only Nutraloaf.

Then they will learn when it is worth complaining about the food.

And I am making the assumption that it is still true today as it was when I was on college, your freshman year you MUST belong to the meal plan and it was your main source of food for the year as few students could afford to eat out.

Lastly, llamas, I sort of think it is a hoax or a parody of some sort. But, on the other hand, as Craig points out, so much of what is real news today sounds like it was written for The Onion.

P.S. Do a Google image search for Nutraloaf to see how hideous and disgusting punish-the-prisoner food really is.

I just got a call from the US Civil War period. The message?

We would like to try this Nutraloaf. It can't be any worse than hardtack.

Try ordering spaghetti in Italy. You will definitely be disappointed.

I'm not surprised. Most of these dishes are inspired by the old country culinary arts, but due to the limitations (at least historically speaking) of the ingredients, and the taste of one's potential clients, one makes, shall we say? modifications to the recipe.

Besides, what is "Chinese" or "Mexican" food? there are at least 5 different styles of Mexican food, and at least that many Chinese styles.

"I second Ben - in my last job, I hosted and dealt with Chinese partners many times, and they wouldn't go near American-style Chinese food - made them unwell. Especially 'Szechuan', for some reason. Fortunately, the Metro area has several 'authentic' Chinese eateries. They adored American chocolate, and hauled it back home by the suitcase-full."

Two weeks ago, I was on a twelve hour flight from LA to Beijing. Was seated next to a 28 year old graduate student in computer science, returning home for the holidays.

We had a long conversation. His English was pretty darn good. The food in the region he came from was quite spicy.

He thought in general, the Chinese food in America was much better than he got in China. After all, those Chinese immigrants don't forget how to cook when they cross the Pacific. Neither did the Germans or the French when they crossed the Atlantic.
Access to better fresher produce, that would be out of season for several months a year in their home countries, is a great boon to gastronomy.

On a side note, I ate at an Italian restaurant in northern Japan yesterday. Just as good, if not better in many respects than what I had in Rome.

When I hear people from other countries complain about the food in the US, especially in the last ten years or so, I view most of the complaints as social posturing. Not much merit to them.

Especially if their main source of info about American food comes from a college cafeteria, or some of the more mediocre chain restaurants. (PF Changs is so dense they don't even understand the difference between a wonton for frying, and one for soup.) Worst wonton soup I have ever had was there. Best, at a small local Ramen shop in Misawa Japan.

We had theories there were pudding silos somewhere out in the Oklahoma badlands. Every day the cafeteria workers would open giant steel doors and go in with pick axes to carve out that day's ration of pudding. Someone actually put a fork in some pudding and then suspended the bowl over two cups. An hour later the fork still hadn't moved. The stuff was remarkably similar to half dried Elmer's glue. Posted by: ~ Ben at December 21, 2015 10:06 AM

We had the same pudding when I was in college. Left a spoon standing in it and it stood for hours as if set in cement.

Generally getting food off campus was pretty easy and in expensive, so meal plans were frowned upon as uncool. There was a burrito place that was a health hazard, until you tried their burritos. Then you swore by the place. A pizza by the slice place kept me fed for my freshman year with their $1.95 slice and a soda deals.

I'm with Conan. My campus was surrounded by dozens of good, cheap eating places, featuring Chinese, sushi, pizza, Thai, fish and chips, and burgers, not to mention the sandwich shops and bar & grills.

Maybe the complainers should lobby their city to allow a similar variety around their campus. Or just allow food trucks to come in and provide it.

I've had spaghetti in Italy. I was not disappointed. It was good.

?

I've had pizza in Italy loads of times. I was very happy with it as well.

??

I have to admit I love American takes on ethnic foods (I'm sure I'm showing my lack of culinary taste here!). I prefer American Chinese food to the authentic stuff, and I happily scarf down American pizza and spaghetti because when I was in Rome I found the "real" (Italian) versions of those foods to be disappointing and lackluster. I like American eggrolls and tacos, and love American nachos and burritos. That being said, I would never claim that my food preferences had anything to do with the authentic things, because I realize that what I prefer are clearly the American versions of these foods. Those students clearly have too much time on their hands if the authenticity of food is worth making a fuss about. Give 'em a buttload of homework! Better yet, assign some community service in an area where people have to worry about getting enough food to keep body and soul together. That might be a learning experience for some...