rant

Late Night Cravings

Thursday, March 24, 2016

As much as food is the purpose of life, it is the bane of my existence at UCSF. We who live to eat cannot survive on the same boring foods every day.

How does one bring themselves to eat another Banh Mi sandwich when every “Lunch-and-Learn” literally cannot find either the creativity or the funds for anything different? How can one even think of cutting those half-foot sandwiches in half again to “feed” more people when we are all left perpetually starving?

The issue goes from “Don’t bite off more than you can chew,” to “Take small bites so that you can chew more.” Sigh, the struggles of free food, I guess.

But more importantly, it’s not the free food that gets to us. It’s the lack of options after eating like this all day when you’re still studying on campus and still hungry.

Every formidable university has its go-to after-hours. Those late night nachos filled with loads of guacamole and sour cream. The unspeakable succulence of the carne asada fries that are literally making my mouth water as I write this. That aromatic pho place with crunchy crispy egg rolls (hear the crunch right now). The cheesiest cheesesteaks with the hot juices soaking up the bread. Fried chicken.

How can UCSF not have a single late night food place open past 11 pm? We are all clearly awake.

It doesn’t even matter if it’s vegan, healthy and doesn’t satisfy my requirement for nasty guilty food pleasures. We’re not even given the chance to eat. Just please, let me even dream about eating something at that time of night.

But on the brighter side...

We have a solution. It should have been done since the opening of this school but let me put it to you this way:

Do hospitals have closing hours? Is Moffitt Hospital ever closed?

I think not.

Then how on earth can a 24/7 hospital have a cafeteria that closes at 8 pm, with only meager sandwich and vending machine options until 12am? Where are people supposed to eat?!

One of my greatest disappointments since coming to UCSF has been that the hospital does not provide food to us past a certain time. Many a times students have fallen to their knees, crying as they were walking down the long hallway to Moffitt, as they see no opening in the metal gates to the food haven behind it.

Please. Just try it once. Open it…