2008 Woodie Awards
You are what you eat
Issue date: 9/14/07 Section: Opinion
- Page 1 of 1
Google taco + San Antonio. You'll find "about" 1,570 results for local businesses popping up on your PC screen, which means that there are more tacos than even Google can handle.
In fact, the Food Network and Bon Appetit magazine just named Taco Taco Cafe (the one right in Trinity's backyard) as the best taco joint in the nation. Suddenly the lines are longer and there is a noticeable increase in the Coach purses and Mercedes keyrings carried by the clientele. In the new crowd, it feels good wearing your Trinity sweatshirt and being welcomed back by your favorite waitresses. That's the special feeling of local.
Tex Mex not your thing? You'll find Chinese, Thai, Hawaiin, Mongolian, and the best American cheeseburgers all within blocks of campus. Branching out is part of coming to college. By now, you've conquered some new classes and dance clubs. What thougjht have you given to the educational and social importance of cuisine?
You shouldn't wait until you study abroad to order something that's outside of your comfort zone. Other cultures recognize the unique opportunity that eating a meal gives you to relax, unwind and bond with other people. Often in the United States our grab-and-go dining attitude becomes the norm, sometimes to the detriment of our social skills and our stomachs.
In fact, thoughout the ages, eating has been shown to be one of the most communal experiences in human society and what better way to get to know each other than making dinner dates with new classmates? Keeping a conversation going across the table can be awkward at times, but you will hone your skills and find common ground in an environment slighty more formal than a cafeteria-style table that seats 30.
There is a responsibility and generosity that comes with picking up the tab for a friend. The innvaluable manners of the dining-out experience may be getting lost in the social norms of the day, but getting into the groove of treating (and being treated back) is actually a real pleasure and can be a good basis of faithful friendship.
Let's face it, when family weekend rolls around, treating your parents to an Aramark dinner in your dorm room won't make the most ingenuitive impression. When you get together, perhaps for the first time since parting ways in August, you will sit down face to face with all sorts of new aspects of your life to discuss. This is the beginning of many turly adult conversations you'll be sharing at this turning point in your life. Imagine the glory of beginning that conversation in a unique restaurant- with an actual tablecloth.
The weekly feautre "Dorm room dining" encourages students to get off campus, shop for fresh ingredients and throw them together into tasty snacks and meals. We hope that you do this. We hope that you find the crooked infrastructure of the Liberty Bar to be a wacky conversation starter, the grease of a Chris Madrid's burger to be a fun indulgence. San Antonio is a great place to be a local.
In fact, the Food Network and Bon Appetit magazine just named Taco Taco Cafe (the one right in Trinity's backyard) as the best taco joint in the nation. Suddenly the lines are longer and there is a noticeable increase in the Coach purses and Mercedes keyrings carried by the clientele. In the new crowd, it feels good wearing your Trinity sweatshirt and being welcomed back by your favorite waitresses. That's the special feeling of local.
Tex Mex not your thing? You'll find Chinese, Thai, Hawaiin, Mongolian, and the best American cheeseburgers all within blocks of campus. Branching out is part of coming to college. By now, you've conquered some new classes and dance clubs. What thougjht have you given to the educational and social importance of cuisine?
You shouldn't wait until you study abroad to order something that's outside of your comfort zone. Other cultures recognize the unique opportunity that eating a meal gives you to relax, unwind and bond with other people. Often in the United States our grab-and-go dining attitude becomes the norm, sometimes to the detriment of our social skills and our stomachs.
In fact, thoughout the ages, eating has been shown to be one of the most communal experiences in human society and what better way to get to know each other than making dinner dates with new classmates? Keeping a conversation going across the table can be awkward at times, but you will hone your skills and find common ground in an environment slighty more formal than a cafeteria-style table that seats 30.
There is a responsibility and generosity that comes with picking up the tab for a friend. The innvaluable manners of the dining-out experience may be getting lost in the social norms of the day, but getting into the groove of treating (and being treated back) is actually a real pleasure and can be a good basis of faithful friendship.
Let's face it, when family weekend rolls around, treating your parents to an Aramark dinner in your dorm room won't make the most ingenuitive impression. When you get together, perhaps for the first time since parting ways in August, you will sit down face to face with all sorts of new aspects of your life to discuss. This is the beginning of many turly adult conversations you'll be sharing at this turning point in your life. Imagine the glory of beginning that conversation in a unique restaurant- with an actual tablecloth.
The weekly feautre "Dorm room dining" encourages students to get off campus, shop for fresh ingredients and throw them together into tasty snacks and meals. We hope that you do this. We hope that you find the crooked infrastructure of the Liberty Bar to be a wacky conversation starter, the grease of a Chris Madrid's burger to be a fun indulgence. San Antonio is a great place to be a local.
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