Terrace's eggs ain't real

After the remodeling of Terrace Court last year, students have commented on how much better the food is or how much better the cafeteria looks. It's true, the food is better and the atmosphere seems to be nicer - at least much better than public high school standards. Yet, improvements can be made - most students will agree with me on that.

Let's take, for instance, the moment I walk in through the doors. I cannot get through the doors around prime lunch and dinner time (watch out guys, these times tend to be 12 p.m. or 6:30 p.m.) and have to wait in line for 15 minutes.

Once inside, I pick up my tray and see before me five options: sandwiches, international cuisine, the grill, classic cooking and vegetarian. I find that some of the best things about Terrace are the variety of food and the all-you-can-eat deal. Every day, I find at least one good thing to eat. If not, there's always salad, right?

Speaking of salad, I find that the quality of the fruits and vegetables tends to be fickle. For example, sometimes I find the instant salad kind, where someone dumps varieties of lettuce from the pre-packaged bag into the big glass bowl. Not only does this look less appealing, since the lettuce tends to be brown, but the salad does not taste as good as it could.

Then, there are those days when I find freshly cut romaine lettuce in the big glass bowl. When I see that, I feel like cheering because the lettuce looks like it would actually crunchonce I start eating it.

Actually, now that I think about it, the freshness quality varies with every single food department in Terrace. The rice can be too hard and not taste fresh, or sometimes, I find the dinner from the night before discretely placed in some other food department, like the pasta that is drenched with sauce in vegetarian.

I never questioned if I was eating real food or not in Terrace until a few weeks ago. During my previous cafeteria experiences, I have always eaten powdered or frozen this and that. I never questioned the reality of food at Terrace since the broccoli was never the frozen/dethawed kind. Besides the fact that I pay $3000 to go on this meal plan, I should expect real and normal food, right? But, what about food substitutes?

On omelet Sunday, I happened to notice the server refilling the egg batter with a quart labeled "Liquid Egg Product." I couldn't help feeling disappointed. The omelets are good, don't get me wrong, but I just thought the eggs were real. It was a sad moment.

Terrace serves good food most of the time, but I wish that the food was prepared more personally for me, or at least I wish they were all prepared in the same way. For instance, I like meat that is well-done, but some people like it medium. I sometimes find pork or hamburger meat cooked medium, which irritates me since (quoting Forrest Gump) "you never know what you're going to get."

So try Terrace sometime. Even with all the flaws, the food is better than most cafeterias in the U.S. and tastes decent most of the time. For those who are stressed with Hopkins, try Cola floats. They'll definitely brighten up your day.