The Bowdoin Gourmet

Roast chicken carved on the spot, rich and chunky mashed potatoes, and sweet, crisp green peas:

The beautiful colors in this Asian noodle salad caught my eye as soon as I stepped in the dining hall.  The bright red tomatoes, the fresh broccoli florets, and the sprinkling of white and black sesame seeds made for a truly artful dish.  Best of all, it tasted as good as it looks.

I present my bacon, lettuce, turkey, and tomato sandwich:

Even the simplest meals can be very tasty.

The savory feta cheese and the sweet ‘craisins’ in this salad complement each other beautifully. Thorne seems to offer craisins pretty regularly at their salad bar, so consider making one of these yourself and giving it a try.

In all honesty, this grilled veggie sandwich tasted better than most beef burgers that I’ve eaten.  The combination of veggies gave it a deep, complex flavor that I really enjoyed.

I thought it would pretty hard to make a dish based on spaghetti and tofu taste good, but the Moulton cooks did it today.  The red peppers were nice, but I think that the key was the roasted sesame oil that flavored the whole dish.

So many ways
To mix sweet and savory;
Choose tastefully

The “spinach love salad”; a savory juxtaposition of rice, spinach, celery, onion, raisins, and little chow mien bits(!):

And the not-to-be-outdone “Armenian bulgar salad”; light, fresh, and honest to its simple ingredients:

You’ve heard a lot of my thoughts on Bowdoin’s food. Here are what some other students wrote on comment cards in Moulton:

“Espresso Bar = Awsome!!!”

“Please don’t put out so many good entrees on one night”

“Pork tacos…”

“Moulton Union dining hall hell yes!!!”

“I really like the Golden Cheese Soup! Mmmmm.”

“Could you put raspberries in the lemon-poppyseed muffins?”

Well there you have it – the students have spoken.

Bowdoin does a great job providing a variety of healthy vegetarian options. For example, yesterday at Thorne I had:

This was a veggie soft taco with a sauteed onion, black bean, and corn filling, topped with fresh lettuce and tomatoes, a sprinkling of cheese, some spicy salsa, and a rich, cooling dollop of guacamole. It definitely tasted as good as it looks.

I was honestly surprised by this “eggplant Parmesan” dish – I didn’t know that anyone, even Bowdoin, could make eggplant so delicious. It was even better than the chicken Parmesan that they often serve here, which just goes to show how accommodating the college’s food is of vegetarians.

Sardine sandwiches are one of those foods that you would never guess taste good.  But then you try one, and you change your mind.  At least I did.

Fish is one of my favorite foods, but between their expense, perishability, and difficulty to prepare, I don’t end up eating much of them here at school.  Sardines solve all three of these problems, and are healthy and delicious to boot.

For sardine sandwiches, I suggest using a creamy mustard spread and some pickled capers.  They both contrast with the rich flesh of the fish and, in combination with lettuce and tomatoes, balance out the flavors of the sandwich.  About 2/3 of a “demi-baguette” is a good size loaf for the sandwich – save the rest of the bread to snack on later.  Finally, only use the best canned sardines; I suggest sardines canned in spring water, though those canned in olive oil are also very tasty.

A classic combo – spicy shrimp, tuna, and salmon rolls.

All delicious as usual.

On McGee’s Menu
The description should just read:
Ode to feta cheese.

As much as I like the food from Bowdoin’s dining halls, sometimes I enjoy making a little something for myself.  I came up with these pita sandwiches last summer and have been making a lot ever since.

The sandwiches are simply halved pita breads stuffed with a tossed salad.  I made today’s salad with romaine lettuce, carrot, green onions, tomato, button mushrooms, and shaved roast beef, all tossed in a zesty Italian dressing.  I also like to make a similar sandwich in which I substitute salad shrimp for the roast beef and ginger-soy dressing for the Italian.

Making these sandwiches is as easy as making a tossed salad – which is to say very easy.  You can even make a complete meal out of them because they have bread, veggies, fruit, and meat.  The next time you’re looking to make an easy, healthy, and delicious meal, give these sandwiches a try.

I saw this beautiful salad in Moulton today and I had to try it. It tasted as good as it looks; I especially liked the substantial texture of the wheat berries, the crisp peas, and the accents provided by the green onions and red peppers.
While I liked that the salad was very light and honest to its ingredients, I’d also like to try it tossed with a more substantial dressing. If the rather disparate flavors of the salad got to mellow for a while in the oil and acid of a dressing, the salad would probably taste even better.

Apparently it can.

This first dish is a tofu and vegetable ravioli. This is the single best use of tofu that I have ever come across, beating even my much-loved miso soup. Who would have guessed, but the saltiness, texture, and flavor of tofu are all actually very similar to ricotta cheese, the main filling in traditional ravioli. In addition to the tofu filling, I really enjoyed all of the colorful vegetables that were included in the sauce.

Look at this “southwestern mesquite salad” – ow could that not taste good? The crunchiness of the celery and carrots, the sweetness of the corn and peppers, the richness of the olives, and the meatiness of the tofu, all tossed in a savory and spicy dressing. The tofu doesn’t substitute as well for chicken here as it did for ricotta in the ravioli dish, but it was nonetheless very tasty.

I continue to marvel at what a good job the Bowdoin chefs do with their homemade soups. Today I tasted two soup varieties that I’ve never had before, here or elsewhere, and as expected they were both delicious.

I love broccoli, but I’ve never been a fan of very rich foods. This “cream of broccoli” soup is heavy on the broccoli and light on the cream, giving it a delicious flavor without being to filling.

This “hamburger soup” was also a pleasant surprise. I tasted like a hamburger minus the bun – which is fine by me because I don’t really like the buns: they’re bland by comparison. I especially liked the giant pieces of hamburger meat; unlike typical caned soups, this Bowdoin soup doesn’t skimp on the beef. One idea: I would say that just as a burger isn’t complete without lettuce, this soup isn’t complete without some greens. Some wilted kale or Swiss chard or spinach would have freshened up both the appearance and taste of the soup.

Its the middle of winter up here in Maine, but you’d never guess it by looking inside Moulton dinning hall. The hall continues to offer an excellent array of fresh fruit, even when these foods are surely more difficult and expensive to procure.

One fruit that is conspicuously absent from Moulton is oranges. Of course, this is understandable given the recent disastrous frost in the West and associated skyrocketing of citrus prices.

I’m just finishing up the fall semester here at Bowdoin and getting ready for the winter break. To commemorate the end of the semester, I’ve put together a little collage of pictures from my favorite posts on The Bowdoin Gourmet.

Enjoy the holidays and I’ll see you next year!

The dish is essentially curried vegetables baked in flaky wrapping:

It tasted good – pastry dough tends to do that to a dish. I would have liked to see more vegetables in the filling; for example, peas would have given the turnover some contrasting color and fresher flavor.