After four hours of lectures that inundate the brain with overwhelming amounts of information, which can cause everything inside the cranium to herniate down into the brainstem from the sheer amount of volume overload, or cause the neural system to enter prolonged periods of abscence seizures, we medical students have one thing to look forward to: lunch. Specifically, lunch at the temporary cafeteria at Vanderbilt University Hospital, where medical students can find solace for an hour before returning to the same routine they faced in the morning.
It wasn’t always the temporary cafeteria; there used to be a permanent cafeteria, which is now undergoing renovation, which also makes me wonder why the employees are already wearing “We survived the renovation” shirts when it seems like we’re months away from seeing an actual cafeteria. The food, however, is almost of the same caliber, except that a lot of the better parts of the old cafeteria–namely, the salad of the day and the panini press–are gone. All that we have left are a Southern food station, a potato bar, pizza, premade sandwiches, and premade sushi (which is probably on par with sushi I can at local sushi bars for triple the price). Oh yeah, there’s also a lunch truck outside that serves hotdogs and burgers. I usually check out the rotating menu at the Southern food station because I like eating foods that I can’t buy frozen or premade at the local Kroger or Harris Teeter.
I assume that getting a meal from the Southern food station is a good bet because it’s probably akin to getting Chinese food from China (I will refrain from getting into how they’ve made an abomination out of Chinese food here). On the whole, the Southern food here is satisfying and cheap. Today, they were serving fried catfish with some sort of creamed spinach I believe. For less than 5 dollars, all I can say is that it’s enough. Enough of what? I’m not quite sure. But that’s the only adjective that comes to mind when I think of it. The fish reminded me of unagi–for some reason, I kept thinking that there were small bones in the filet. The hush puppies were dry and not really worth eating, except with ketchup. The spinach was good, but stuff slathered in cream and butter usually is. Like I said, my brain only comes up with “enough” when I try to describe the food.
In medical school, there’s usually three options for lunch: 1. free lunches of boxed sandwiches or pizza, 2. bring your own lunch if you have time to make it and aren’t too lazy, and 3. buy lunch at the cafeteria. There’s a secret fourth option of going onto 21st and eating at a real restaurant, but we all know that medical students don’t have time for that. And since I’m too lazy to make my own lunch and don’t want to sit through lunch lectures for free lunch, and because I have a test coming up at the end of the month, you can expect more pictures of lunch from temporary cafeteria! Maybe even (gasp!) NEW PERMANENT CAFETERIA!!
Courtyard Cafe at Vanderbilt University Hospital Nashville, TN
