Complaints About the Food at Oberlin College

[Zinhead]

This was Onion-worthy, especially since General Tso’s chicken is largely a Chino-American invention.

http://nypost.com/2015/12/18/pc-students-at-lena-dunhams-college-offended-by-lack-of-fried-chicken/

Gastronomically correct students at an ultra-liberal Ohio college are in an uproar because the cafeteria food isn’t ethnically accurate enough. Students at Oberlin College are so angered by the “insensitive” and “culturally appropriative” offerings at their Dascomb Dining Hall that they are filling screeds of protest in the school newspaper and even demanded a meeting with Campus Dining Service officials and the college president.

At issue are foods such as General Tso’s chicken being served with steamed chicken instead of fried — which is not authentically Chinese, and simply “weird,” one student bellyached.

Others were up in arms over Banh Mi Vietnamese sandwiches served with coleslaw instead of pickled vegetables on ciabatta bread — rather than traditional French baguette. “It was ridiculous,” Diep Nguyen, a freshman who is a Vietnam native, told The Oberlin Review, the school newspaper. “How could they just throw out something completely different and label it as another country’s traditional food?”

Not only that, but the sushi rice was undercooked in a way that was, according to one Japanese student, “disrespectful” of her culture.That student, Tomoyo Joshi, a junior from Japan, was very offended by this flagrant violation of her rice. “When you’re cooking a country’s dish for other people, including ones who have never tried the original dish before, you’re also representing the meaning of the dish as well as its culture,” Joshi told the Review.

“So if people not from that heritage take food, modify it and serve it as ‘authentic,’ it is appropriative,” she said.

Oberlin’s black student union joined in the food fray this month by staging a protest and petition against the grub being offered at Afrikan Heritage House, an on-campus dorm. The dorm’s cafeteria wasn’t serving enough vegan and vegetarian options, and had failed to make fried chicken a permanent feature on the Sunday night menu, the school newspaper reported.

[4kidsdad]

Inexcusable!

At issue are foods such as General Tso’s chicken being served with steamed chicken instead of fried — which is not authentically Chinese, and simply “weird,” one student bellyached.

[JHS]

What culture is being misappropriated when General Tso’s Chicken is altered? I thought General Tso’s Chicken was the chop suey of the 21st Century: a vaguely Cantonese-style dish developed in the United States for American tastes.

[Erin_s_Dad]

But the actual “information” has been Post-ed. The original info from Oberlin’s newspaper:
http://oberlinreview.org/9055/news/cds-appropriates-asian-dishes-students-say/

Instead of deep-fried chicken with ginger-garlic soy sauce, the chicken was steamed with a substitute sauce, which Hiu-Ying described as “so weird that I didn’t even try.”

[anxiousenior1]

“The petition also recommends the reduction of cream used in dishes, because “Black American food doesn’t have much cream in it,” according to the Review.”

I laughed so hard at this.

[Zinhead]

What culture is being misappropriated when General Tso’s Chicken is altered? I thought General Tso’s Chicken was the chop suey of the 21st Century: a vaguely Cantonese-style dish developed in the United States for American tastes.

All of your General Tso’s questions are answered here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7z0hmBIR8BE

http://www.thesearchforgeneraltso.com/

It is(was) on Neflix, and is actually a very good documentary.

[SlackerMomMD]

It sounds like poor cooking resulting in bad food which is always offensive. Undercooked rice is just plain inedible and that sandwich they served just isn’t Banh Mi, no matter what the kitchen says.

So the kitchen decides that streamed chicken with a random sauce is General Tso’s chicken? It doesn’t matter whose culture is being misappropriated, it’s not General Tso’s chicken. It also sounds disgusting.

[Waiting2exhale]

I didn’t see anything hilarious about the cream mention. If the food issues the students raised were something that was going to affect a change in the offerings, and the mention of the cream were limited to the offerings at the strangely named Afrikan house, its mention would be valid as far as my experience goes.

On the whole, though, how many colleges are famed for their food? Maybe naming what is served in the cafeterias “food” should be re-examined.

[CCDD14]

Black Student Union should have demanded Palm Drink from Ghana. It is actually quite good.

[TomSrOfBoston]

They should go back to the days of mac and cheese, cheeseburgers and a mystery meat special of the day.

[ucbalumnus]

Perhaps everything should be called “fusion surprise”.

But how is the quality of food in general at Oberlin’s dining halls?

[californiaaa]

Love it. Hooray, students!

[CCDD14]

This is an amazing opportunity for certain poster not to rely on his cousins for information but he is nowhere to be found…

[BrownParent]

This reminds me of what my sister experienced many years ago overseas when homesick for American food (ok, Italian American) and ordered pizza in Hungary, got dough smeared with catsup and dotted with carrots and peas. I doubt we would be proud to have Hungarians think that is what passes for good food in American, so that is what I hear the students were saying about their culture being represented that way.

[romanigypsyeyes]

I wouldn’t compare the Onion to the Post.
At least the Onion is generally truthful

@brownparent I had a similar experience in Costa Rica with pizza. They called it pizza but it wasn’t. But it was darn good anyway so I had zero complaints

[Gator88NE]

But how is the quality of food in general at Oberlin’s dining halls?

With meal plans costing up to $3,660 a semester, I would hope it’s first-class!

[sorghum]

Oberlin’s black student union joined in the food fray this month by staging a protest and petition against the grub being offered at Afrikan Heritage House, an on-campus dorm. The dorm’s cafeteria wasn’t serving enough vegan and vegetarian options

Because vegetarianism is a big thing in “Afrika”.

[Pizzagirl]

No one can politely request anything, anymore. It’s got to be a protest or petition. Adversarial from the get-go.

[circuitrider]

@Pizzagirl

No one can politely request anything, anymore. It’s got to be a protest or petition. Adversarial from the get-go.

I’m starting to agree with you. I think we’re teaching our young people to overreact to everything.

[ucbalumnus]

@circuitrider

I think we’re teaching our young people to overreact to everything.

Learning from their elders’ examples?