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 Food and Thoughts
No one would disagree that it's hard to be a student in so many ways. It's particularly hard when you live away from your family, in an apartment building or a dorm, and therefore have to do your own chores. And, well, it's even harder when you are like me: a female specimen of the student species who, for some eighteen years, has refused to develop any culinary skills on grounds of feminism. It did take me some time to see that feminism doesn't emerge when you are unable to cook some simple tasty pasta or even peel a cucumber properly: this is called incapability, not women's rights.
So I satisfy my mild gluttony in several ways: eating out, buying semi-prepared food, and surfing food recipe and history pages online. It's like admiring and envying what I will never reach. The historical part is especially fascinating. History is never only composed of kings, wars and treaties - culture and lifestyles are a part of it as well. So it's a surprising and amusing bit of history when you learn that over 1200 tons of lamb was consumed in Topkapý Palace every year, or that onions were so valuable in the Middle Ages that they were used to pay rents.
But of course, the financial trivia of the past is not adequate enough to explain why, at Bilkent University, the amount one pays for a vegetable dish or a bowl of pasta salad is so far out of line compared with some other schools. Now, let me clarify: This is a private institution and so it is only normal that some prices are higher. Well, acceptable, but open to debate. But then, it is a non-profit organization, since if the vice versa occurred, it would be abiding the laws of the Turkish government. And as a non-profit organization, the school does not earn money off the students... thus, neither should it let the agents offering services make unjust profits. Regarding this, the cafetaria's administration is directly responsible in ensuring that the various cafeterias around the school serve affordable, tasty and, alternately, nutritious food - all happening at the same place, not at different places.
The adjectives "affordable" and "tasty" are, of course, very subjective. The Table d'Hôte restaurant serves three courses for a relatively low price, but the taste of their food is frequently discussed. Other restaurants have more options, but I get funny feelings when I sometimes think about what's going on. I'll illustrate: Speed Restaurant, during the day, serves spinach for 4.5 YTL. The same dish, in the evenings, can be purchased for 5 YTL... accompanied by soup, salad and French fries. Keep in mind that the restaurant owners still make money out of this. Similar feelings arise when I buy a mixed bowl of cold pasta and salad greens (cheap ingredients indeed) and pay twice as much as the Table d'Hote menu price.
I am not one of these people who won't have anything at Starbucks because they can make coffee for less money at home, since I know that ambiance, service and quality should all be included in the price of food; and I've had meals at other universities, and they were very cheap, but similarly tasteless. Therefore, what I am asking for is not 1 YTL lunches, but a balanced relationship between the prices and the quality of the food, since I think I have proven that restaurant managers are very unlikely to lose money at Bilkent University.
Damla Okay(AMER/IV)
d_okay@ug.bilkent.edu.tr
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