For the average Tufts student, Captain Crunch and the Quaker Oats Man drop by for breakfast whenever there’s time. Orville Redenbacher and Chef Boyardee make an appearance sometime throughout the day, and the party isn’t complete if the Pizza Days delivery guy (or maybe even a Budweiser Girl) isn’t attending. As busy scholars with limited budgets, there seems to be no other option than to rely on mundane, often pre-made meals. One group on campus, however, is working to convince you that your culinary lives don’t need to be based on the whims of that neighbor-who-sometimes-drives-you-to-the-market or even your time constraints with two papers and a project due this week. The Tufts Culinary Society is reaching out with its simple yet satisfying blog, Tasty Tufts.
Created by junior Gabriela Rodriguez, Tasty Tufts is truly a culinary goldmine. Its restaurant reviews will inspire you to brave the cold and discover new eateries in Medford/Somerville/Boston, and its guides will teach you everything from the intricacies of dining etiquette to the ins-and-outs of Cantonese pastries in Chinatown. If you’d like to know about the top ten superfoods on the Tufts Meal Plan or how to create the ultimate Dewick burger, this is the site for you.
Sophomore Jon Cheng currently runs the Tasty Tufts blog, and his mission is to “inform, educate, and inspire” the Tufts campus. Having grown up in Singapore, Jon admits that he prefers French food to that of his native country. He can’t forget one dish in particular that he had overseas, which was a “raw thinly-cut langoustine, topped with olive oil, lemon juice, and caviar.” This isn’t just a kid trying to fluff up his resumé, either; he’s serious about food and hopes to someday become a restaurant critic. He says that “it is not difficult to explore culinary options, it’s just difficult to explore good culinary options.” The Culinary Society blog acts as the middleman to cut out some of those less savory options for you.
Acting as the Iron Chef of the Tufts Culinary Society is Alix Boulud, the senior who cofounded the group with junior Manuel Guzman-Garrow to expand our palettes and spark a culinary conversation on campus. Their group has grown at a remarkable rate, and now boasts over a thousand people on its e-list, including current students, alumni, faculty, and members of the community. There will be a total of 20 events for the cuisine-inclined this year, and another 26 planned for next year. She seems especially excited for the proposed “Culture Crawl,” a multicultural dinner-style event in which members will travel from one culture house to the next, tasting dishes that represent each group. The Top Chef event also stands out as one of her favorites from this past year, as six groups composed of three members raced to create the perfect three-course meal on just a $20 budget.
Jon and Alix understand the difficulty involved in enjoying quality food as a Jumbo, but they do their best to take some of the strain off of the student. “It requires a lot of time and commitment,” says Jon, “and Tufts students never have enough time.” As the daughter of world-renowned French chef Daniel Boulud, Alix recognizes that she has had a unique and fortunate culinary upbringing: “I’ve seen what my father does through his work- he makes people happy and brings them together. I am blessed to have experienced so many types of cuisines whereas a lot of other kids don’t have that opportunity.”
The Tufts Culinary Society is a living, breathing, cooking entity on campus, and its blog is an addictive and worthwhile physical representation of all that the group has to offer. But before checking out Tasty Tufts, you might want to invest in a bib; this blog will have you drooling.
Check them out at http://tastytufts.wordpress.com/.