Being from suburban-rural Minnesota, my options for food were fairly limited.

Despite having a fair amount of restaurants and stores in a local urban area, I often found myself frequenting the same restaurants or buying ingredients for the same meals with my family. While this setup makes for good nostalgia, I truly did not know what I was missing.

When I came to the University of Minnesota, my culinary world exploded with a variety of new flavors.

Curry, hushpuppies, kimchi, edamame dumplings — these are just a few of the many dishes I have tried for the first time and loved after just two semesters of eating in the dining halls. 

And I am far from the only student who has experienced this culinary revolution.

Pritha Singh, a first-year student at the University, said she believes the dining halls provide students with a good range of food options.

“For the range, there’s quite a lot,” Singh said. “I would say that it depends on the dining hall, but Middlebrook offers a good variety of food.”

Singh said she witnessed the wide spectrum of food items offered in the dining halls when she came to the University as an international student.

“There’s just a whole different cuisine at home that I’m used to, and when I came here, it was just very different,” Singh said.

Amy Hommes, the campus dietitian for M Food Co., the organization that runs the University’s dining halls, said using a variety of ingredients and dishes from different cultures not only gives students more food options, but also helps people with dietary restrictions.

“Sometimes, looking at that from a global perspective can be really helpful because western eating patterns tend to be a little bit more focused on animal proteins or milk and eggs,” Hommes said. “Whereas other cultures might avoid milk and eggs more often, so vegan or allergen-friendly options are a lot of times inspired by other cultures.”

Chuck Gibbons, senior executive chef for M Food Co., said student feedback is crucial to their work and demand for cuisines like Mexican or Korean caused them to include more international foods in dining halls.

“We actually created a station called ‘Global Entrees’ which are menus from around the world,” Gibbons said.

Max Altena, a first-year student, said while he would like some more variation on things like protein options, he enjoys trying foods that he hadn’t before.

“I tried bolognese, and that was great,” Altena said. “Usually I just do spaghetti, but I tried just the sauce and the meat, and that was great, you can’t really go wrong with that.”

Altena said his tastes did not fully change because of dining hall food, but the experience of occasionally trying new things supported his existing tastes.

“Just like the random freaking seasonings that they put on it, some of them are great, some of them aren’t so great, and you know what, that’s okay,” Altena said. “I know what flavors I like and which ones I don’t like as much.”

Dining hall diversity even goes beyond having stations of rotating meal options. M Food Co. also has a variety of programs meant to bring unique, restaurant-quality meals to students.

Hommes said the dining halls partner with a company called Foodworks to bring dishes catered by different restaurants into multiple dining halls across campus.

“I believe Foodworks does select the restaurants for that,” Hommes said. “But we have a whole rotation of local restaurants that’ll come in and host a little pop-up.”

Singh said she enjoyed the different meal options brought to the dining halls by this program.

“On Mondays, there’s this thing where they outsource food,” Singh said. “So, there’s gonna be a restaurant that comes in and then they have food there, and those are pretty good.”

Students even have somewhat of a say of what ends up in their dining halls.

Gibbons said he and his team pay close attention to student surveys and other factors in order to guarantee a wide variety of food that students will enjoy.

“When planning menus, we follow student surveys,” Gibbons said. “We also offset our menus across campus to assure not all halls are serving the same meals each day.”

I’m not saying all dining hall food is going to be perfect meals with exactly what you want every day. Every once in a while, I will have a day where I struggle to find something I like in a particular dining hall.

Singh said the quality of the food on campus can depend on the day, the dining hall and what exactly they are serving.

“It has its days,” Singh said. “Sometimes it’s pretty good, but sometimes I’d say that they could do way better.”

However, the access to a wide range of ready-made meals from a variety of different cultures provided by dining halls should not be undervalued. It may be fun to joke about dining hall food, but when the alternative is having to buy and cook your own meals, a banquet of effortless dishes is nothing short of a luxury.

Hommes encourages college students to try new foods in the dining halls, as college is a low-stakes environment to try new things and develop your tastes.

“It’s okay to try something and not like it,” Hommes said. “Your tastes will change throughout your life, so even if you’ve lived your whole life thinking that you hate broccoli, you might find one day that you like broccoli, so it’s good to keep an open mind.”

Gibbons said while there may be some issues along the way, he is proud of how he and his team run the University’s dining halls.

“I think we serve great food overall,” Gibbons said. “We have our challenges, but I am proud of the program we run on our campuses.”

So, if you get the chance before you leave campus, why not stop by the dining halls a few more times? You might find something new to try!