Tasty Enough for 6000

There is general agreement that fast food type items are designed to taste the same no matter how large a scale of production. A hamburger is a hamburger is a hamburger, ad nauseum for 6000 students.

Crispitos are like hamburgers in this regard. "They don't tend to be soggy and starchy," says Julia H. Flanders '87, a self-proclaimed expert on food. "They are better as mass-produced food than some other things."

While, there is no system for gauging a particular food's appeal to students, these fast food facsimiles seem to do very well.

"Depending on what they are running against, they tend to hold their own," says Kevin M. O'Loughlin, manager of Quincy House Dining Hall. "They're usually up against a sub and sandwich bar, and they do okay."

"They've been pretty well received for the most part, especially the cinnamon-apple crispitos," says David M. Lentini, assistant manager of Dunster and Mather dining halls.

On average the crispitos and skincredibles are served twice in a dining hall's six week cycle, with breakfast crispitos served more often.

The decision to add crispitos and skincredibles was not made in a vacuum. Richard J. Montville, operations manager of the College dining halls, says they are part of an ongoing development in the dining hall system. "We have been changing the menus gradually," he says. "A lot of it is in response to student input."

Make a Suggestion

Indeed, later this spring, the Undergraduate Council's Residential Committee will propose a structural change to the meal plan which would allow students to use "missed meal" creates at a late night snack bar either in the Science Center's Green House cafe or the Lehman Hall cafeteria.

And for the student who has a family recipe for lasagna, Richart S. Eisert, chairman of the Undergraduate Council's Residential Committee recommends: "Anyone can go and make a suggestion or give them a recipe."

"They're trying to be responsive to what students want," Eisert says. "That's for sure."

Eisert's committee oversees student complaints and suggestions for dining. "We also say things like 'Get rid of pig and fish night.' We are the reviewers of the new items."

"Potato skins are very popular, but some people have expressed the view that they do not suffice as a main course," Eisert notes. "People enjoy it, but some have said they would rather have chicken with a potato skin on the side or something like that."

"People can also supplement their main course with items from the salad bar," Eisert says. "And Dale (Hennssey) seems to think they're pretty nutritionally sound."