A Home Away From Home

After many long weeks and numerous stomachaches, I FINALLY found my go to station at the DUC, the stir-fry station. Despite the long line that usually forms along side the pizza station for customized stir fries, I never mind the wait since I know that it is one of the only options in the DUC that both my stomach and taste buds can handle. By now the man operating the large skillets knows me by name and always greets me with a friendly smile and says, “will you be having the usual?” at which I respond with a smile and say, “of course.”

The stir-fry station is the perfect station for me since I am extremely picky about what I eat and since many foods tend to upset my stomach. Each night I march right up to the station and the man immediately knows what I want and the quantity of everything for the stir-fry. What I truly enjoy about this station and stir-fries in general is the ability to customize the dish to my liking rather than eat what is already prepared. I am given the ability to choose exactly which vegetables are added and I can monitor the amount of oil and sauce being added. My typical stir-fry at the DUC consists of: tofu, broccoli, red onions, squash (the days they have it), baby corn, and water chestnuts. I then ask if he can fry it up with no oil and no sauce in which he responds “like usual.” Once fried up for about a minute or so the man scoops the prepared stir-fry into my bowl and hands it to me, smiles, and says “see you tomorrow."

While still steaming and hot, I take my bowl of stir-fry and head towards the condiment station where I add a bit of soy sauce, drop sriracha (a type of thai hot sauce made of chili peppers, distilled vinegar, garlic, sugar and salt), and a pinch of salt. Although the dish is rather simple it fulfills both my health needs and taste needs. I get my protein from the tofu and the nutrients and vitamins from the vegetables. Although it is not the most intricate meal, I would rather this option as opposed to anything else that the DUC offers. Having my go to station insures that each time I walk into the DUC I know that I will never be disappointed.

 At home I prepare stir-fries on a normal basis, experimenting with all sorts of unique vegetables, sauces, different proteins, and occasionally adding a carbohydrate to the mix. Despite the fact that the DUC does not offer me what I am accustomed to preparing for my self, the stir-fry station is as close as I am going to get. The dish is adequate and tastes as if someone just poured soy sauce on to mask the blandness of the plain vegetables and tofu (which it basically is) but it is always filling and edible which is what matters after a long day of school. After discovering the stir-fry station I now feel as if I am discovering my “food home” here at Emory.

A Taste of Home

In our Health class we were assigned to break up into small groups and design projects revolving around four pillars of balance: physical, mental, spiritual, emotional/social. My group chose to combine both physical and social, and for our project we decided to go shopping at the farmers market on campus and then prepare dinner with the ingredients we bought.

Farmers markets have always been one of my favorite places because the vendors are usually extremely genuine and I can tell that they put their hearts and souls into selling their homemade products. Also, since I love food it elevates my experience by being able to taste test the food that I am buying and also makes it far more difficult to resist the temptation of buying even though I usually do not need anything. One girl from my group and I went to the farmers market on Cox bridge to purchase a variety of ingredients to use in the dinner we were preparing for our health project. As we walked down the market we were captivated by all of the delicious looking foods being sold and when we finally were forced to make up our minds so we could get to class on time, we opted on purchasing homemade ginger infused orzo, homemade arugula pecan pesto, and an assortment of locally grown vegetables.

Since we are freshman and are stuck on campus without access to a grocery store, we were forced to improvise when preparing our dinner. We decided to make an orzo vegetable stir-fry. We began by cooking the orzo for 12 minutes in boiling water. Once it was no longer tender, we transferred it onto a plate to cool. We sprayed the pan with some Pam and threw in some cut up red onions, red and green bell peppers, broccoli, and baby corn. We fried up the vegetables until the onions became transparent and the rest of the vegetables were slightly browned. Next, we mixed the orzo back in with the vegetables and tossed on the stove until it was mixed and hot. We then added a pinch of garlic salt, a few tablespoons of Annie Chung’s Pad Thai sauce, and some of the pesto that we purchased at the farmers market.

Despite our limited ingredients, our stir-fry dish actually turned out to be extremely flavorful and delicious (definitely a nice break from the DUC). The assortment of ingredients, which one might not assume would complement each other, surprisingly did. The pesto’s slightly overwhelming garlicky taste gave the predominately tangy Asian dish a nice boost with out taking away from it. There was also a nice balance between the amount of orzo and vegetables and the dish was not swimming in sauce, which is something I hate.

Preparing dinner with a group of friends and eating a freshly made meal was an experience that made me feel like I was at home. It was nice to be eating a homemade meal using local ingredients purchased at the farmers market. After clearing our plates, we kept saying over and over again how much we preferred preparing our own food to eating the DUC and even though we knew it was not realistic to do this nightly, we made a plan to start doing this about once every week or every other week since not only did we have a good time eating it, it was also nice to prepare our own meal and to know where our ingredients came from.