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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For the next several weeks — starting tonight — burritos will be the Monday special at Jo’s! Go get ‘em!

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Last-minute centerpiece?

Ah football, that most American of traditions. And what Easter is for Christians, what Yom Kippur is for Jews, what Festivus is for the rest of us, the Super Bowl is for America. On this high holiday of American athleticism (and capitalism at its best), it’s imperative that we be GIANTLY PATRIOTIC by insulting each other, throwing temper tantrums over missed field goals, betting irresponsible amounts of money, and glutting ourselves on Mexican food. (Makes sense, right?) And what could be more Amurrican than New York vs. Boston? A showdown between the two in the heartland (say, Indiana…in a stadium named after an oil company). We all know that New England clam chowder trumps its Manhattan (or, to be accurate, Jersey) counterpart, but that barely scratches the surface of classic Super Bowl food. Below, our ideas for snacks you can make — be it off meal plan or completely BuDS-sourced.

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Olga's at a meteorologically happier time

Of all meals, brunch is arguably the one most perfectly suited to college students. First of all, it’s eaten late, which means those of us who sleep in and miss the breakfast train can still revel in the best things breakfast has to offer. Second, later mealtime means lunch foods (and alcoholic beverages) get to come to the party: welcome back, ham and Bloody Mary, we’re so happy to have you. Third, considering you’re eating breakfast AND lunch, the full spread tends to be a pretty good deal.

Correspondingly, there is a plethora of brunch options on campus and beyond. Olga’s is one such place for those who prefer to start the day with a jaunt: it’s a 10-minute walk from Coffee Exchange, a straight journey that does involve changing street names and traversing bridges. When the weather’s nice, umbrella-covered tables are set up in Olga’s white cottage’s charmingly unkempt garden. For now, though, diners stay in the airy dining room inside. What to order, after the jump:

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Sure, the plate might be the same beige ceramic and the slice might not look like anything special, but today the pizza artists at the Sharpe Refectory (in a moment of gourmet splendor, it sheds its Ratty nickname) have truly outdone themselves. BBQ Chicken Pizza premiered to little fanfare (not even a mention on the BDS site?) beyond the grease pen on the sneeze guard, but what it lacked in promotion, it more than made up for in taste. In fact, the pizza was so surprisingly yummy that my dining companion exclaimed with unbounded joy: “This might be one of best things the Ratty has ever done.” Three major components distinguish this pizza from the Ratty’s previous offerings:

1. Doneness: this might be the most perfectly cooked pie ever to come out of a salamander — the crust is super crispy, with bits of deliciously burnt cheese on the upper crust and a nice, brown undercarriage. In the toppings department, the chicken, cheese (possibly a mix of cheddar and mozzarella) and sauce on the body of the slice remained pleasantly warm but not too hot or overdone.
2. The Sauce: while you can definitely taste the corn syrup, the barbeque sauce is tangy, slightly spicy, and, while definitely lacking that familiar molasses taste, not too much worse than the pizzeria equivalent. Moreover, the sauce gets distributed like normal pizza sauce rather than in a spiral, so you get the BBQ flavor in each bite.
3. The Chicken: what really sets this Ratty pie apart from even the most revered pizza joints is the chicken-to-slice ratio. Not only are there a few large chunks of white meat on almost every slice, but the chicken is not unpleasantly dry or chewy like its Thayer St. counterparts at Nice Slice and Antonio’s.

If the Ratty continues to roll out new pizzas like these, we might have to add The Pizza Principle to our comprehensive list of meal plan taos. As far as we know, this bad boy is available through dinner — so don’t let it slip by you!

And thus another semester calls out to you:  Eat free or dine trying.
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Welcome Back Social
11:30am-1pm
Memorial Lounge in Faunce, Room 229

Come ring in the new year with this absurdly-timed event featuring “light refreshments,” which is the University’s way of saying “leftover Ratty corn muffins.”

John Carter Brown Library Fellows Lunch
Noon-1pm
Hillel

Apparently these lunch chats between visiting researchers, scholars, and students will happen every Wednesday, allowing the JCB to suddenly become relevant to hungry CS concentrators.

“Why Literature Departments Should Speak in Ordinary Language,” Lecture by Professor Leela Gandhi, University of Chicago
5:30-7:30pm
Pembroke Hall, Room 305

Professor Gandhi’s talk will touch on postcolonial theory, ordinary language philosophy, and radical literary studies, culminating in the always ambiguous “light reception.”

Get it before it's gone!

Last night, masses of hungry students at the SciLi were fed at Pizza Nite, courtesy Campus Life and the University Library.

Tonight, the awesomeness repeats itself at the Rock at 9 pm. I was chatting with one of the librarians, and he mentioned that they order 90 pizzas for the SciLi’s Pizza Nite and 80 pizzas for the Rock’s. Last night, the pizza was almost all gone in a little over five minutes.

While everyone was waiting for the pizza, they were greeted with a surprise: a cappella caroling. Check out photos from last night after the jump. [Read more →]

What college student ever turns down free pizza?

Tonight at the SciLi and tomorrow at the Rock, the epic semesterly tradition know as “Pizza Nite” will take place at 9pm, according to Morning Mail. If you’ve never been, get ready.

Pizza Nite is probably one of the best free food events of the semester. First, there’s the anticipation. The crowds are waiting, growing larger and increasingly impatient. The pizza never arrives on time. Then, suddenly, the big moment arrives — library workers emerge with stacks of pizza boxes. The crowd goes nuts for the pizza, and you wonder if there will be any left when you get to the front of the line. Just then, 20 more boxes of pizza arrive, putting your fears to rest. As the pizza continues to disappear, another dozen boxes come along, then another dozen. In the end, something like a hundred pizzas are consumed in the span of a few minutes. (Then they bring out some cookies and fruit.) [Read more →]

The Blue Room dished up some awesome ice cream sundaes today after advertising for it all week via Twitter (we retweeted their Tuesday tweet!) and in this morning’s Morning Mail (yes, Morning Mail has useful things after all!).

Who knows what other finals surprises may pop up….

It’s reading period, which means caffeine is even more of a necessity than usual.  Luckily, the Blue Room just added flavored lattes to their repertoire, so now you can satisfy your sweet tooth simultaneously with your coffee fix.  The flavor shots cost an extra dollar, but they save you the annoyance of having to walk to Thayer from the Rock. It’s a quick way to act when the caramel latte craving strikes and your fear of being filmed in the bathroom reigns supreme.

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