Food - Debs B

Those of you who know me well will be surprised how long it’s taken me to start talking about food. Food is hugely important to me. Good food can turn a dismal day into something really special. “What I ate” has been the standard way for me to remember all great events in my life. The day I met Pete, I ate at a BBQ; the day we got married, I had an enormous cheeseburger and our first Tuesday night meal at Cranmer Hall was braised steak.

Our first real meal in America involved a lunchtime visit to Subway. We often frequent Subway in the UK and it seemed the least daunting of the available options. We coped with the ordering process pretty well until it got to the salad and the lady behind the counter was mystified by our pronunciation of tomatoes. But after several attempts and with the assistance of some vigorous pointing, we emerged victorious.

So far, our culinary experience in North Carolina has been really great. Most of the food is familiar with one or two notable exceptions. BBQ is not the same thing at all. No burgers or sausages but instead slow cooked shredded pork with spicy sauce and hush puppies, which are oblongs of deep fried corn batter. Not at all bad but very different to what we were expecting. As the weeks have gone on, we have become bolder and have tried some of the local delicacies including salmon cakes with poached eggs, cheesy grits with shrimp and at the State fair, deep fried pecan pie on a stick.

Nachos - from Chubby's Tacos on 9th Street

Duke has two campuses and over 34,000 people studying or working here so as you can imagine, there are many places to eat. The system is somewhat different to our experience at Durham, UK. There is no one place for Divinity students to eat; you are free to choose from one of 30 different places on campus and numerous places just off campus or to bring food from home. You pay for each meal as you go, although it is possible to load up money or food points on your Duke card and use that to pay, so eliminating the need to carry cash. With this scheme you can also get food delivered, from the local Dominos for example, without needing to have cash available. Bonus.

One of the campus eateries is located at the Divinity school and has been voted the best on campus each year for the last 5 years. Called ‘The Refectory’, it serves breakfast and lunch from 8am-3pm every day. We had a talk from the manager during orientation week and she impressed us both with her ethical work policies and her enthusiasm for her restaurant.

The Refectory uses locally grown, organic produce and where possible fairly traded produce. Industry standards for restaurant workers are notoriously bad in the States with low wages and unsocial hours but at the Refectory, the manager makes sure all the workers are paid a living wage so that they are able to just have one job and enjoy some free time. You can read an article on how the cafe was created with a large input from Divinity school students here;

http://divinity.duke.edu/publications/2006.05/features/refectory/refectory_print.htm


Whilst we are enjoying the food and the freedom to choose what and where we eat, I do miss the experience of coming out of a lecture and sitting with fellow students to eat and talk. Those times when an interesting point from a lecture, chimes in with what someone else has read and new ideas and opinions are formed. And of course friendships are often made and developed over meals together. We have found other places though, to meet that need and I will talk more about it in another blog as now it’s time for lunch :)

You know you're in America when...

(No. 5) Tea comes cold wet and in a bottle.