8 February 2006, 5:00pm
I’ve finally become sick enough of the stench from the fridge, and the shelves full of food that was purchased when Khrushchev was still in power, that I am organizing a purge and cleanup of the Library Court kitchen. Hopefully, I will not be the only one who shows up and people will pay heed to my signs requesting that they remove any food they don’t want discarded for those few hours. I shall have to buy some bleach. A haiku, for the occasion:
Bad prokaryotes
Multiply in the kitchen
Kill them all, with bleach
The plan is to empty the fridge, discard all the random, smelly, moldy food that has been in there all year, and then wipe it down with bleach and hot water. Also, I plan to clear the shelves of the dust and dead insects that have been accumulating there, as well as taking a chisel (as Nora suggested) to the more tenacious bits of dirt on the stove and counters.
Anyone from Library Court or Staircase 19 who wants a more sanitary kitchen is very much encouraged to come help. If someone has access to bleach, that would save me the small annoyance of having to go buy some.
Just goes to show: Oxford or not, a student kitchen is a student kitchen. Gross.
The Wadham food situation is simply terrible. I am convinced that people who eat in hall are getting seriously malnourished. The vegetables are basically always boiled, and thus stripped of vitamin content, and the fat and sodium levels in the served food and meat are just obscene.
People in Library Court are lucky to have ready access to a kitchen, so you’d better get the place up to snuff for actual cooking.
Every person in Wadham who I’ve spoken to about it is convinced that we have the worst food of any college they have visited. Not counting the formal hall at New College I attended (it would be unfair to compare a special event with normal meals), I can certainly say that the ordinary food at St. Antony’s and, in particular, St. Cross is much better than what’s on offer here.
As for people being malnourished, I think that highly likely. Whenever I encounter people in our kitchen, the foodstuff generally being prepared is a microwaveable meal from Sainsbury’s or perhaps Marks and Spencer. Aside from some of the Indian cooking Tanu does, my bean, tofu, and potato combinations are about the most elaborate cooking being done.
It is nice to see you off your high-horse for a change.
@V.A.K.
I give him a break on Sundays – and at 3:00am on Monday mornings, when I can’t sleep.
It’s good to know that you’re still there, Milan.