As a freshman, the meal plans at Brown can be confusing. Like, really confusing. In the words of wisdom from my senior friend: “Get the Flex460 plan. I could explain it, but I won’t. Just do it.” Though I feel like I have come a long way since my pre-frosh days—I finally know how to stumble back to my dorm on Wednesday nights make it to my classes on time—I, for the life of me, cannot comprehend the multivariable calculus that is the meal plan system.

When I’m coming home in the wee hours of the morning (1 a.m.) and am looking for some pizza from the Gate, I can hardly tell the difference between left and right, let alone credit and points. After starving from studying all day in the Rock, how are you supposed to make a calculated decision about the best meal option? Screw it—say what comes to mind first, and hope for the best.

Once you overcome the first obstacle (or come to terms with never understanding the system), you will realize that you are just embarking on a journey full of choices. What type of food do you really want? You can go to the Ratty, V-Dub (can someone please confirm it’s going to start opening on weekends?!), the Gate, Jo’s, and many others. The possibilities truly are endless (like the lines in the Ratty). Be wary though, each location has different hours of operation and payment methods. Word of advice to fellow frosh: Check out the Brown Dining Services website, Brown Menu, or our sidebar (on left) for details. They’re a godsend.

But for those of you who are too lazy too busy to click on that extra link, fret not, for­­ I have compiled a list of my go to quick and easy ways to most effectively use your meal credits around campus: [Read more →]

It’s not often that dining forays off College Hill actually deepen my appreciation for the stuff available to us through good ol’ BuDS, but a recent jaunt did the near impossible. I wanted so badly for Blount Clam Shack, the quintessentially New England outpost of fried seafood and 1950s kitsch, to be great. Unfortunately, these expectations proved lofty. Blount’s not awful; it’s just not worth it.

You may recognize the name: Blount is, after all, the supplier of those soups they serve at Jo’s and The Gate. Each year the locally owned franchise goes through some 800,000 pounds of clams, harvested fresh from New England waters, which make for an abundance of hush puppy-esque clam cakes, old-school fried clam rolls and whole belly clam platters. In addition to creamy New England clam chowder and its red Manhattan counterpart, Blount makes a Rhode Island specialty called the clam bake, which tastes like a beachfront cookout poured into a giant stewpot: potatoes, corn, chorizo and clams in a clear, salty broth. Don’t be mistaken; there’s other seafood, too — haddock here and there, scallops and a guest appearance from the lobster roll. They’ve even got a burger section, which is incredibly bewildering since 1) you’re at a clam shack and 2) you’re across the street from Rick’s Roadhouse.

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In response to our and others’ criticisms of Brown Menu last fall, the site’s owners have implemented a complete revamp. It now looks sleeker and, more importantly, lets you to sign up to receive text and/or email notifications when BuDS is serving your favorite items. Just register for the site and start favorite-ing menu options by clicking the mouse-over heart icon that appears next to each item. The site also now has a tight favicon.

With God as my witness, I will never again miss another Gnocchi alla Sorentina dinner. In this blogger’s eyes, BrownMenu.com has officially moved up from FlogDailyHerald to (Campus)Lifehacker status.

Is the Ratty rolling out the big guns tonight in response to today’s presidential announcement? (Or is the opposite true?!) This all seems a little too coincidental.

In case you don’t know what canapés are.

When was the last time you took a gander at the Brown Dining Services webpage? Most likely it was early freshman year when some kind-hearted upperclassman revealed to you that your 3 meal per-day plan was far inferior to Flex 460… it sounded like something halfway between Trimspa and P90X, so naturally you referred to the website to make sure it was real. If you remember the site, it resembled a cross between a GeoCities page and one of those random science-for-kids websites you would visit in grade school. Fortunately, BuDS has given itself an extreme makeover (web edition), which has improved both its aesthetics and functionality. Three reasons why the new site is better after the jump.

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It’s that time of the year again — when the vast differences between the Flex 460 and 330 finally reveal themselves, and meal credit inequality seems almost as dire as income inequality. In past years, various students have attempted to create far-reaching end-of-semester meal credit co-ops, and we at BlogDH have decided that it’s our time to take up the gauntlet.

Check out the Facebook event to connect with other students looking to share a meal or score one. Post on the event’s wall with relevant details like where you live, which dining halls are your favorites and whether you prefer blondes or brunettes. JK, this isn’t a dating site (#butisit?).

Meet up with friends and strangers alike over a Spicy With (or an Ivy Room falafel, if you’re into yellow mush masquerading as a Middle Eastern staple…). Share the wealth — for during finals period, why not be socialists? (A’s for all!)

Pronunciation variations: neem-chow, nim-chow, neemeh-chow

You’re not that hungry, but you’re in the mood for something fresh and satisfying. You walk into the Blue Room and notice that the sandwich line is too long, you’ve had the sushi too many times, and the wait for General Tso’s Chicken just doesn’t seem worth it. You turn to leave, disappointed by your options, when something amidst the yogurts catches your eye. You walk over. Curious, you read the label: Nime Chow. “What’s Nime Chow?” you might ask yourself as you examine the two perfectly wrapped rolls of Cambodian goodness. Luckily for you, we’re here to give the Nime Chow nitty-gritty.  [Read more →]

OK. So we’re all customers sometimes. And we all suck at it occasionally, whether we know it or not. So when we Crotchety BuDS Workers inform you that you probably suck as a customer, don’t take it personally. Just hear us out, and maybe take some notes to help make our lives a little easier… and prevent your food from being contaminated with OUR SALIVA. Justkiddingwedon’tdothat. Without further ado, things customers do that make us rage:

The Manhattan Chili Co. is giving out free chili in the Blue Room starting at noon. Get it while it’s hot!

When will Brunonians end their strange obsession with parsing the unfailingly simple landscape of Brown Dining Services?  A new website descriptively titled “Brown Menu” has popped up on the U’s culinary cyber scene.  The site allows you to view the menus of the day for the Ratty and the V-Dub and the specials at the Blue Room all on the same page. Doesn’t sound that novel, right? Right. But you can also click on the specific items, thereby “favorite”-ing them. When your favorite items are served in the future, they’ll show up in big red letters on the site’s home page. But that doesn’t address one fundamental flaw: you still need to visit the website to find out that your favorite items are being served in the first place.

All we really want is some sort of notification system to be installed. Here’s a thought: why not implement a system where you receive a daily text telling you which “favorite”d items are being served and where?

But then again, we might be going overboard – we could stand to plan our lives less around food. Sup Chicken Finger Friday. Sup 11:00 science class that I regularly skipped to be first in line for the vegan nuggets…