Emmet's Student Diary 伦敦学生博客第七周

Wednesday 11th November 2009 - Student Food

Ni chi fan le ma?

Student food in the UK is cheap, filling and as tasty as possible within financial constraints. The last thing most students want to be spending money on is food so more often than not quality goes out the window and we’ll take whatever affordable fare is on offer.

Burgers, sausages and frankfurters

Baked beans on toast

Here are some classic student culinary delights: baked beans on toast, cheese on toast, pasta with tuna and tomato sauce, frankfurters (German sausages) in a bread roll with lots of ketchup. Just about anything that comes out of a tin or anything that can be put on toast and costs less than the price of a pint.

I’m fortunate in that my student halls are catered so we get fed twice a day. The food actually isn’t too shabby as canteen food goes. The vegetarian or fish option on offer is usually the most appetising and healthy so I usually opt for something like vegetables wrapped in filo pastry with brown rice.

The student canteen

Pizza

The canteen however can become a bit dreary and repetitive so it’s nice to occasionally escape the bread line. Last Sunday, there was a decent football match on the giant TV screen in the downstairs bar of our student halls. A friend and I each ordered a twelve inch pepperoni pizza from the local takeaway. Good friends, football, pizza; I could get used to this student lifestyle.

Our tutor has been tempting the class by telling us how affordable good food is in Beijing. We’re all really looking forward to trying authentic Peking duck and other local delicacies. I’m getting hungry just thinking about it. I’d love to hear more in fact; what’s your town or city’s specialty dish? How does student food in China compare with beans on toast?

Take care,

Emmet

Question of the week

What’s your town or city’s specialty dish? What do students eat in China? How does student food in China compare with beans on toast?
Email me and you might see your answers at the bottom of this page.

Email Emmet at 按键 [e-mail]

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Your Replies

Note: We do not correct the English in comments posted.
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Hi, Emmet.

This is an interesting question. Since there are many overseas students studying at my university, I always wonder whether they could get used to our shabby canteen food. Reality is often far from imagination. Peking duck is not part of our student's daily life. Anyway I think it depends on which university you are in, and some do provide pretty good food. But some others such as my school, the food really sucks. That is the reason why so many students choose to eat outside campus. Well, at least the school does something to boost the economy.

And the city I live is Guangzhou, in south China near Hong Kong, a city which is quite famous for its Cantonese food. The speciality I should say, is the soup. Different types of materials are used and usually the soup is stewed on the stove for more than a day (but I doubt whether they really do that in restaurants). People like to add chinese medicine into the soup in order to enhance its nutrition. I didn't like it when I was a child, but as the years rolled on, and I gradually got used to it... now I should say I love to have a bowl of soup in theses dry winter days.

Take care.

Liuyang, China

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