Let me start out by saying that cooking for 30 people is difficult. Correction: very difficult. I have no idea what the chefs in the residence hall cafeterias go through with cooking for thousands, but I definitely appreciate their work all the more.
For instance, for yesterday's dinner of sloppy joes (which no one in Australia has heard of, by the way), we cooked seven pounds of beef. SEVEN POUNDS! In addition to that, we had to make vegetarian burgers for our vegetarians and half a pound of turkey for those who can't eat dark meat. We also had to mix sloppy joe sauce from scratch without our measuring cups; they were forgotten in the semi trailer at Prince Alfred College. We've made sure to throw those in the car for the next meal, though.
On top of the pure volume of food that we're making for lunch and dinner, the food here is pretty bland. So far we've taken note that the cheeses, pancakes, and vegetarian burgers here aren't as flavorful as those in the U.S. Some food also goes by slightly different names (i.e. Kraft Macaroni Cheese instead of Macaroni and Cheese), and we've had to learn that biscuits refer to cookies and "tasty" cheese is American cheese. Through our many trips to the grocery store we've seen that pop is expensive, they have a wider variety of juice flavors (apple blackcurrant was a hit), and regular customers don't really appreciate when you continuously buy out the bread and bun section.
All in all, we've been doing rather well menu-wise; we've had sandwiches, macaroni and cheese, chicken tacos, sloppy joes, spaghetti... It takes a bit longer than simple PB&J and pasta every day, but it's worth the effort. And thankfully tonight we'll get a break from cooking since Roscoe---a long-time friend and sponsor of the Team---is throwing us a barbecue.
--Deanna O'Clair
