School Dinners/Lunches

I dreamt I was back in school last night and it got me thinking of some of the delicious and also nasty school meals I experienced.
Over here you go to infants/first school after nursery ( kindergarten ) then onto junior/first school then Secondary school. You then either move on to college/Uni or get a job. There are various options within this progression but thats the norm generally.
Back to the food. Until I started Secondary school I'd always have Lunch at school, provided by the school, for a small cost.
My favourites on the savoury side were a sort of cheese and potato bake this usually came with Plum tomatoes and fries.
There was also a type of quiche similar to this. Sometimes their meat pie was quite nice and it always had crumbly pastry, which I like. On the down side their vegetables were always overcooked and vile. I have been permanently put off one or two vegetables by literally having them forced into my mouth when little.
On the sweet side of things their desserts were generally very good. It was thinking of their chocolate sponge with gooey chocolate base and mint custard that got me thinking of the dishes they used to serve. Chocolate rice crispie cakes, little rolls of ice cream, and the variety of different flavoured custards all of which were delicious were my favourites.
In Secondary school lunch was more like having a meal from a cafe crossed with McDonalds. Nothing wrong with that only some of my favourites were no longer available.
Did you enjoy your school meals? I'd be interested to see what variations were available throughout the world.

Hula.

Here's a review of the school system (provided by my friend at school BRPXQZME):

We all know what a cafeteria is, but how can you tell what the food is like? Here is a guideline.

There are four categories of cafeteria food:

Private School
The food is cooked from actual ingredients, which means that the food is usually eatable AND good for you. Unfortunately, it's hard to get into private school if you're not rich or you're in the majority religion.

Military, hospitals, and other Federally funded folks
The food is a little worse than at the private schools, but at least you can eat it.

Improving public school
As is the case of my school system. The menu is improving. Some are palatable, yet nutritious. Most are toxic, however.

Most public Schools
DCPS (DC Public Schools) is the best example. All foods taste bad. All foods are toxic. Ex: Broccoli is served with an ice-cream soup. The food pyramid has 2 food groups: (from bottom to top) Brown food...and Tan Food.

/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/eek.gif

Dan

The private school I went to (K-9) in La Jolla, CA didn't serve school lunches at all. The most they ever had was ice cream bars on fridays. And in high school (9-12), also in La Jolla, I remember going off campus for lunch. Apparently 7-11 offeres food with enough nutrition to survive.

-dlee

2 words, TATER TOTS. Everything else was garbagio...

I went to public school, but it was a very well off public school. The food was definitely edible (for the most part) But I still ate a lot of hot dogs and tater tots instead of the meal that the provided. i honestly don't remember too much detail.

College is clearer in my memory, they served a LOT of hamburgers. A ludicrious amount of thinly sliced "beef" in various sauces on rolls. (brown sauce, bbq sauce, au jous, etc...) I had a good friend who worked in food service and she sneaked us into the loading dock one day to see the crate that meat arrived in and stencled on the side is said "grade D but edible" LOL But by far the WORST thing that they server, and they served it at least once a week was cod nuggets. Who wants cod nuggets? I guess they couldn't afford "fish sticks" so we had cod nuggets. And no, it wasn't always on fridays.

I could go on for hours about school lunch. I'll give you the short version.

They serve us the same food in High School that they did in Elementary school, only better. The only cooking facilities in most the schools here is an oven, so all the food comes pre-made and they bake it. Hamburgers? Sure! They come out of a pot from the oven. In elementary it was 1 meal each day and you went through the line and got your fixed portion.

IN Jr High things change dramatically. Now there's 3 lines offering you a choice of Pizza every day or other items in the other 2 lines. There was still only an oven at my Jr.High but it was a better oven. Instead of fixed portions you get your main entree and proceed to a condiment and then salad bar. This alone improves things dramatically. If this isn't your cup of tea there's vending machines and Pizza Hut pizza for extra cost.

High school is a whole different story. About half the food is the same stuff, but my high school happenes to have an on-site kitchen so about half the food is actually prepped fresh! One of the largest benefits of an on site kitchen? Deep fat friers! Our fries are fried. The tater-tots are crisp. It's great other than the fact that if you ate all the fries that were pushed on you you'd probably gain 45 Lbs by the end of the year. One of my favorites here at the HS is the Taco Salad, they actually assemble it right there in front of your face Subway style, and it comes in a freshly fried tortia shell taco salad bowl.

The meal that gives me a chuckle (But it tastes good!) is the chicken courdon bleu. You gotta give the kitchen staff some credit, this is pretty creative. They take a chicken sandwich patty thing and stick a piece of Ham and a piece of unidentified white cheese on top.

The item to avoid, from Kindegarden right up through 11th grade now, is the Hamburgers. I believe a vegetarian could safely eat these--in order to increase the nutrition of them, and also to make them cheaper I suppose, the meat is ground with Soy, and not just a little soy either. They've actually got the nick name of "Soy burgers"

I remember in High School always mixing my hot lunches together, like if there was a meat, rice, and veggie, just scooping it all into one section. That was the only thing that gave it flavor. Also when I got a hamburger, I would put french fries on it to flavor it up.

The funniest thing I remember was in college. The week always started as fried chicken, then baked, then BBQ'd. We swore it was the same chicken that was fried, then they peeled the fried skin from the leftovers and added a marinade to call it baked then slapped on BBQ sauce to whatever was left and called it BBQ chicken. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon15.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/sick.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/faint.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/huh.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/jpshakehead.gif

EDIT: Saaby, we used to call them "Soy Burgers" too. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbsup.gif

BBQ...that reminded me...the one thing I avoid at all costs is anything BBQed, or rather, the BBQ sauce. I swear that they put some ketchup over rotten lettuce and call it BBQ sauce. It smells like rotten lettuce and has the consistency of, well, lets just say they're not quite onions although that's what they're supposed to be /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

Public school lunches when I was growing up was just plain nasty. The only thing that kept me from starving was that they had a salad bar. Once Highschool rolled around we could go off site and go to a fast food joint.

There was not one fond food memory for me while at public school. Oh yeah and where my little sister went to public school in CA, taco bell delivers to them...Grrrr :/

In elementary school, the lunches were not too good. I told the teachers that I would walk home for lunch. But I told my mother that I would eat lunch at school. That way, she still gave me a quarter (this was a loooong time ago) to pay for the school lunch.

When lunch time came, I took off to go to the dairy bar and would get a huge milkshake for that 25 cents. Great lunch!

Paul

In elementary school, the only thing you could get there were these little cartons of milk (8oz.) and paper straws. The milk always had that peculiar "school" taste to it that you'd not find in the milk at home. And you had to bring your own lunch, because there wasn't a store or fast food joint easily available to the students there.

In Jr. High and High school (adjacent to one another), we'd go to the Scarf & Barf (George's Juno Maid) about a block away. I wasn't aware of ANY food service in either school, so you had to either bring your own lunch, or go to the Scarf & Barf to buy burgers, french fries, candy, ice cream bars, and pop.

In the late 1970s, a "Quick-E-Mart" type place opened up across the street from Scarf & Barf, so you could go there to get "fast food" too. There was a deli there, so you could get sandwiches in addition to the garbage food typical of that kind of place.

In elementary school, like Craig mentioned, all you could get was the industrial grade 8 oz. milk cartons and a straw, which is why I carried my own lunch - including a thermos of milk - all through elementary.

In junior high there was a good, loud, fun cafeteria, that fixed hot meals that were usually pretty darn good (their mac and cheese was always looked forward to). It was wise to stay away from the 'mystery meat' meatloaf, though ... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/faint.gif

High school, for the one year I went full time, had an "OK" cafeteria, but it was regulated/regimented as if they were filming a prison scene. No joy there.

I ate at one of the fast-food places in the vacinity, or at least out of the cafeteria if I brough a lunch.

My junior and senior years were spent half day (3 hours) in HS and 6 hours at a tech school taking electronics and broadcasting.

HS had run out of subjects for me - I was just putting in time until they'd let me graduate. (My senior year there I had study hall, art 5+6, and was a library assistant ... )

Those years I ate at the tech school 'cause they had a bunch of food services courses and you'd get some pretty wild stuff for lunch. It was a trip. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

I can't remember WHAT the elementary and Jr. High school cafeteria food was like... I do remember the "school milk taste" that Craig mentioned though.

Went to an expensive Military School for High School and Jr. College. Three meals a day there, and usually they were quite good tasing and well balanced (especially if you were on one of the sports teams: at "training table" you could get steak and whatever else you wanted three times a day)... Quality control sometimes suffered though; I remember one time when the big, plump, raisins in the bread pudding WEREN'T RAISINS. I won't say what they were, but it turned out they had legs. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon15.gif

I remember that "school milk taste" too, I thought it was just me./ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon15.gif

Who remembers the squares of rubber jello with a thin layer of cool whip on top? MMMMMMMMMM Jelloooooo!

Scooter, you mean Jell-o isn't supposed to be chewy??? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/eek.gif

Why is it we remember the really good or the really bad school food?? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

The favorites when I was in public school were the hamburgers and fries (limit of 1 order of fries per student) and the pizza slices.

The worst foods were the hotdogs that shrank to 1/2 bun length and turned into nearly hard rubber, and the all too solid chocolate pudding (drop it on the floor and it will crack the concrete, with no harm to the pudding).

The rest of the stuff wasn't worth remembering.

[ QUOTE ]
James S said:
...the crate that meat arrived in and stencled on the side is said "grade D but edible"...

[/ QUOTE ]

One of my colleges had the same thing. I never ate the meat again /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif Did have a lot of cereal though...

Professor's lounge, staffed by the same food agency, got all the good food to include lobster and had waiters on staff for the professors convenience. I was once invited in and as hors-dourves (sp), had sugared bacon wrapped around a bite-sized piece of honeydew mellon. Doesn't sound all that great, but it was so good! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/drool.gif


-Jason

Either I don't have picky tastes or all my schools served pretty good food. I remember the first time I ever saw hash browns, I called them little french fries. The girl sitting next to me said ''No stupid those are hash browns''

I guess because my mom wasn't much of a cook, school food was delicious!

In high school, we had local vendors set up carts and we could buy things like Pizza hut pizzas and El Pollo Loco chicken burritos. The cafeteria served up some pretty good food too, 3 types of burritos, red, green, and bean and cheese. Nachos, burgers, Taco Snacks, and taquitos.

Wow, it seems like just yesterday I was in high school
( class of 99 ) Some of the best times of my life, until I turned 21 and hit up all the bars in Sunset, Hollywood!!

naw it wasnt you...just the mind controll drugs in the milk /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif
[ QUOTE ]
scooter said:
I remember that "school milk taste" too, I thought it was just me./ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon15.gif

Who remembers the squares of rubber jello with a thin layer of cool whip on top? MMMMMMMMMM Jelloooooo!

[/ QUOTE ]

snakebite, funny you would say that.

Background:Anybody seen the movie strange brew? In short, the beer company puts mind control drugs in the beer and is controlling the phyco people at the mental institution next door to the bottling plant through organ music.

I'm convinced, and you've just now reminded me, that they are doing the same thing in school. See, the milk has that funny taste and all through Jr.High and now High School, they insist on playing music very quietly in the hall. Hmmm...sounds suspicous doesn't it /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif