Jeovany Tzilin Gomez
Staff Writer
During my first two years of college, I was lucky to have had the privilege of a meal plan. However, this year is different, since I no longer live in university housing. I now must learn how to survive. In other words, I have to learn how to cook for myself for the very first time.
I had little to no cooking experience prior to living in an apartment in Isla Vista.
But, upon this new transition, I was surprised to find out that I’ve really taken a liking to cooking for myself. I’m experimenting with adding different seasonings to my food to explore various flavors.
Enough of talking about my progress with cooking, we’re here to compare the two ways of gaining nourishment, something that most of us take for granted before attending college.
Let’s start with the meal plan. With a meal plan, we have access to a variety of dishes, appetizers, beverages, fruits, vegetables, and desserts to choose from. There’s no end to what you can eat; if you want to grab two or more chicken stir fry bowls from the grill section, you are free to do so. A meal plan comes with dishes representing different cultures, regardless of whether their preparations did justice to the original recipes or not. They also offer vegetarian and vegan options as well as accommodations for other dietary restrictions.
So, it looks like the dining commons are trying to provide the best dining experience in a scholastic setting, but what about the cons? The obvious one is that there is no takeout with the exception of the Ortega Dining Commons because when someone has somewhere to be and they need food to eat on the way, there are scarce options because the dining halls won’t allow people to take food or otherwise limit them to a couple items like desserts or fruit. Another con is that there would be times where there are options that I don’t like. Unless you’re privileged enough to not eat at a dining commons, there won’t be options that you will like every day — you’re limited to eating what they’re offering.
Speaking of limitations, there are exclusive features in each dining commons like fresh fried eggs at Carrillo, ice cream at De La Guerra, and sushi at Portola. So, it would be inconvenient for someone to have to go to a specific dining hall if they have a specific craving.
What I’m saying is that the dining commons is putting minimum effort into making the dining experience effective for the general student body, but I found out that that’s not for me when I discovered cooking. There are more things that I don’t have to worry about when I’m cooking for myself, like which food I want to eat and when I want to eat it, because the dining commons would have closing periods to prepare for the next mealtime.
Cooking is fun, intuitive, and tends to be experimental once you get familiar with flavors and textures. They call it “culinary arts” for a reason. I may not be artistic when it comes to cooking, but I can sure make delicious food that will fulfill a craving. There are so many recipes that are online, in newspapers, and most importantly, cookbooks!
I can fairly say that cooking for yourself is time consuming, so it requires you to either plan ahead for your cooking time or meal prep. But cooking is a survival skill, and it teaches us a valuable lesson on how to be an adult, even if you’re not a legal adult yet. There are recipes that take at most 30 minutes that are filling and tasty. The possibilities are somewhat endless, but you get the idea.
However, when times get desperate, you can rely on the dining commons experience, though that would be the only thing you can be grateful about. Overall, I think cooking is an experience that can take you to places, whether it’s cooking at home, impressing your crush with their favorite dish, or just trying to treat yourself with a luxurious dish that is homemade.