The Bowdoin Gourmet

Tonight in Thorne I enjoyed this brilliant dinner:

Salmon is one of my favorite foods, and it was particularly well done tonight. I liked how the spiciness of salsa contrasted with the rich flesh of the fish, as well as the brilliant red color that it lent to the dish. The sliced cucumber and minced parsley were both artful and delicious garnishes.

The vegetable side was also a standout; it defied the reputation of zucchinis as flavorless vegetables and demonstrated their full culinary potential. The key, I think, was that they were roasted just the right amount of time: long enough to make them tender-crisp and to bring out their savory flavor, but not so long as to destroy their integrity. That timing in combination with some superb seasoning made for a tasty side.

The pesto-tossed pasta with roasted vegetables, in the rear of the dish, was also excellent. I loved the earthy flavor of broccoli, carrots, mushrooms, and asparagus that dotted the pasta, as well as the bright, savory flavor of the fresh pesto. Its almost a metaphor for the Maine spring; at the same time having elements of both winter (the roasted vegetables) and summer (the basil pesto).

Altogether, I’d say that tonight’s great meal was one fitting with which to close the year. This dinner was a classic example of the delicious and healthful food that distinguishes Bowdoin’s foodservice.

I’ve had a great time writing the Bowdoin Gourmet, and your readership has made it a particularly special experience. Thanks for reading, for commenting, and for your interest in Bowdoin’s dining services and food at colleges in general. Campus dining is experiencing a sea change nationwide, and I’m thrilled to have been able to chronicle some of the leaders of that change right here at Bowdoin.

As I close out this blog’s last post, I’d like to offer a final thanks to the Bowdoin Dining Service employees. I’ve spent most of the space here this past year writing about the food, but my experience has taught me that its the employees in Thorne and Moulton that are ultimately responsible for Bowdoin’s great dining experience.

Bowdoin’s Dining Services is featured in the May issue of Restaurants and Institutions as a winner of the magazine’s 2007 “Ivy Awards” for excellence in foodservice. The award is widely considered to be one of the most prestigious in the industry. According to R&I Editor-in-Chief Patricia Dailey,

“It is truly a privilege to spotlight [the Ivy Award winners]. These operations set standards of excellence the entire restaurant and foodservice community recognize and respect.”

I’m thrilled for Bowdoin’s Dining Services and I believe that the recognition is very well-deserved. R&I’s profile of Bowdoin also perfectly captures why the college’s foodservice is so great; its managed and staffed by excellent people.

The profile highlights how conscious Dining Services is of students’ input, which I agree is one of the great qualities of the program. Consider, for example, the ubiquitous comment cards that are posted outside of every dining operation on campus. The staff reads, responds to, and publicly display every single comment that students write; the staff’s openness and responsiveness dramatically improves the dining experience for students and invests us in the success of the operation.

The profile also discusses how involved the Dining Services staff is with the greater foodservice community. Dining Services invites local chefs to offer lessons at the college and to prepare guest meals, hosts other college foodservice managers so that they can learn more about Bowdoin’s operation, and encourages the staff to pursue external professional training and certification. As students we don’t directly experience these activities, but the well-trained staff that they help develop are the ultimate reason that the food here is so good.

I think that we will really see the capabilities of the Bowdoin Dining Services staff highlighted in the next few weeks, as we approach the end of the spring semester. The staff will be preparing and serving food for a lot of special end-of-year events; hopefully I’ll be able to share some of those events on this blog.

Congratulations again to Bowdoin, to Dining Services, and to all of the full-time and student employees on the 2007 Ivy Award.

Tonight at Moulton I enjoyed a nice Easter dinner of leg of lamb with gravy, stuffing, fettucini with tomato and bail sauce, and steamed asparagus:

The lamb was surprisingly good; moist, tender, and flavorful. It did have a bit of a gammy edge, but from what I understand thats basically inevitable in anything but the youngest of lamb. I almost never eat lamb and therefore have not really acquired the taste, but tonight’s lamb was certainly good enough to make me glad that I had tried it.

I also think that the tomato sauce deserves special attention. The sauce was filed with big slices of tomato, giving it an authentic and substantial feel. It was also seasoned generously with basil and appropriately savory, not sweet. All of these aspects separate it from the liquidy, flat, excessively sweet sauce one so often finds commercially. I continue to be grateful that Bowdoin provides such a delicious alternative.

Finally, I should note that asparagus is my single favorite vegetable, and I’m excited both that Bowdoin served it tonight and that we will probably see more of it as we come into the spring season.

On the side, I had some deviled eggs:

These were quite tasty, though I had to scoop out some of the mayonnaise-and-mustard filling to tone down the richness. The paprika was a nice touch – it added some visual interest and provided a needed contrast to both the egg and filling. After eating these, I’ve had a thought for a refinement to the traditional deviled eggs recipe; include finely minced chives in the filling. I think that they would both add nice color and provide some freshness and sharpness to an otherwise very rich dish.

Now it would be a shame to end a post about such a great dinner with anything but a very positive comment, so I leave you with this exclamation from a fellow Bowdoin student about the meal:

“It’s even better than Thanksgiving!”

Today was Bowdoin’s annual ‘Thanksgiving Dinner’. Since most of the students are off campus during the real Thanksgiving day, dining services prepares a special meal before the break. The practice might initially seem a bit odd, but it makes sense given the pride that Bowdoin takes in offering special food. And hey, I’m cool with getting two Thanksgiving dinners.

There was lots of different food available, but I went with the classics; savory roast turkey, baked ham, green peas, and fluffy mashed potatoes. Everything was very tasty, but the “glazed, hand-carved baked ham with raisin sauce” really stole the show. It was tender, juicy, sweet, and generally delicious, with a depth of flavor that plain turkey breast just can’t match. Hopefully we’ll see more if this ham in the weeks leading up to the winter holidays.

Bowdoin makes an extra-special effort to offer great food when guests are on the campus, and tonight’s Parents Weekend dinner exemplified what the college offers in their dinning halls.

There were so much available for dinner tonight that I certainly couldn’t try everything, but I wasn’t going to miss my chance for some free sushi, made on the spot by the Moulton staff:

For the main dish, I got my customary steamed vegetables, some vibrant-looking Moroccan curried vegetable couscous, and a baked haddock filet with crisped seafood stuffing.  Just looking at the plate, I knew it would all be delicious:

They had all kinds of tempting choices for dessert including apple, blueberry, and pecan pies, but I was drawn to this pumpkin and chocolate chip cookie:

The savory pumpkin aspect of the flavor was really interesting, and along with the autumn spices in the cookie it perfectly complemented the sweet chocolate chips.  The cookie was fitting end to a day of special food at Bowdoin.

As I alluded to in my Friday Haiku yesterday, Bowdoin Dining Services offers some special food over Parents Weekend. Here’s what I picked up for brunch this morning:

The tasty ham was hand-carved right on the serving line, the spinach quiche was a savory delight, and the caramel French toast was absolutely delicious (in that way that only egg-infused, sugar encrusted, maple-syrup-topped bread can be). After adding some fresh kiwi, strawberries, and honeydew from the salad bar, I had quite the brunch put together.

I think that Bowdoin’s brunch this morning succeeded in impressing the visiting parents with the quality of our college’s food. As for myself, I’m already looking forward to the Parents Weekend dinner!

Soy glazed salmon and
Prime roast beef; only the best
for Parents Weekend

- part of the Friday Haiku Series

For tonight’s dinner, dinning services prepared some great food using ingredients from Maine farmers and the Bowdoin Organic Garden. They actually had so much special Maine themed offerings that I couldn’t try everything, but what I did try was really good.

For the main course, they had free-range, Maine-raised, herb-roasted chicken. The whole, glistening chickens were on a carving board at the serving line; you asked for some chicken and they cut up the chicken on the spot.

This was a tossed salad of vegetables from the Bowdoin Organic Garden, coated with a Maine maple dressing and topic with spicy pecans. I thought a maple-based dressing would taste weird, but it actually worked very well; it wasn’t to sweet and the maple syrup brought a lot of unique flavors to the salad.

This tart tasted great because the flavor of the Maine blueberries stood up to the richness of the cream cheese and the sweetness of the pastry shell. It was a truly special dessert and a fitting way to end an excellent meal.

The entire Bowdoin campus gathered on the athletic fields this afternoon for the highly anticipated Annual Lobster Bake. We enjoyed some great weather, caught up with friends returning to school, and savored some very special food.

As I walked to the lobster bake I was still coming down from the sushi high induced by the spicy tuna rolls I had for lunch. Yet I anticipated more seafood goodness to come; this was surely to be a memorable meal. In the moments before I arrived, I recalled the experience of having my first lobster at this same event last year.

As usual, dining services had the serving logistics figured out perfectly; we breezed through the line and quickly found a table. I ended up getting a good-sized lobster, a roasted potato, a very colorful garden salad, and some homemade fish chowder.

The lobster and vegetables were all as good as I had hoped and expected. Being such an amateur with respect to handling lobsters, it took me a while to get to the meat, but that only made it taste better in the end. I spent so long with the lobster that the chowder got cold, so I’ll have to try that some other day in the dinning hall.

All in all, the lobster bake truly lived up to its history and hype.

Today, as part of our orientation activities, we had brunch with community leaders from Brunswick, the town in which Bowdoin is located. To say the least, this was a special brunch.

Walking into the dinning room, I was surprised to see tables set with white tablecloths, polished silverware, stemmed glasses, folded cloth napkins, and china. One of the students next to me whispered, “Its looks like a nice hotel.”

The food itself made the students and guests even more excited. I personally opted for the bacon quiche and heaping portion of fresh fruit salad, while others went for the fresh-baked blueberry muffins or the rich French toast.

When I commented on the quality of the meal, one staff member simply replied, “…we like to treat our students right.”

Needless to say, I really regret not having brought my camera to this brunch. On the other hand, I bet we’ll have several other special events like this later in the year that I can photograph.

Our orientation leader said that dinner would be a very casual affair, which it was, but the food was still great.

I especially appreciated that my Kung Po Shrimp actually had lots of shrimp; in other establishments, including restaurants, the cook often skimps on the meat in dishes like this – not at Bowdoin.