The taste of CSULB

There is no argument in saying that the three dining halls at California State University, Long Beach provide an enormous abundance and variety of food for students each day, for every meal.  However, one theory created by students is that 'quality over quantity' is not at all a rule that the chefs abide by.

A sample of the variety of food available
in the dining halls on campus.
Photo by Ashleigh Mehmed.

There are five weekly meal cycles that vary between each dining hall and ensure that no two days contain the exact same menu.  Students are all given a residential dining booklet to allow them to know in advance which hall is serving what food, therefore giving them the choice of where they would like to eat.

The salad bar located in the Residential Dining
Hall, consisting of numerous types of
vegetables, cheeses and dressings.
Photo by Ashleigh Mehmed.

Parkside Dining Hall and Residence Dining Hall both contain a salad bar, dessert area, condiments, hot food section, sandwich bar, cereal area and rotating bar which varies depending on the day of the week.  However, the Residential Learning College, located off campus and reachable by shuttle, has its own pizza section and burger area in place of the rotating bar.

It's fair to say that everybody's taste buds are different, but most of the student body at CSULB tend to lean the same way with their opinions of dining hall food:
"It's poor, I don't like it," says 20-year-old marketing major, Matt Tsimos.  Plain and simple.  Tyler Konishi, 19-year-old international business major elaborates on this.  "I feel that it gets boring.  Some days it's very good and the food is prepared well but other days it's poorly prepared and I just leave the dining hall," he says.

Ashley Barrett gives the campus chefs a little more credit than the others.  The 20-year-old human development major says, "I feel like it's gotten better over the years.  Salmon night is the best night.  I hate it when they do Mexican night, unless it's a themed dinner."  She ends her opinion of Mexican night with vomiting noises.

A group of students socialising during lunch time at
the Residential Dining Hall.
Photo by Ashleigh Mehmed.

Happy eating!