College students are known for the mountains of food that they consume on daily basis, and even with a brand new multimillion-dollar rec center, staying in shape can involve a lot of self restraint. There’s simply too much great food available. For one, there are two residence halls that serve food daily for those with meal plans. Burge is on the east side of the river, (where all of the undergraduate classes, offices and all the coolest students are), and Hillcrest is on the west side (where they stick things like the graduate programs, athletic complex, lamer students and that burgeoning metropolis of a hospital that’s consuming the campus).

In the mornings at Burge there are tons of toasters, waffle irons and cold cereal for those who like to do things themselves as well as plenty of hot food, including everything from french toast sticks, to sausage links, to a personal omelet bar. They’ve also got tons of fruits, juices and a million toast and waffle toppings.

Go back in the afternoon or evening and you’ll find pizza, pasta, Asian food and all of the do-it-yourself options from the morning. There are also different items put out each day such as hamburgers, hot dogs chicken parmesan, steak, and a million kinds of soup.

Hillcrest is pretty similar except (in my opinion) 10 times better. Like I said, it’s all the way over on the (well, I’ll just stop at “west” this time) side of campus, but it’s worth the trek. I think the food is a little better, (completely different pizza recipe, soft-serve ice cream, CHOPSTICKS!) the view is much nicer, and the thing that really gets me is the plates. They’re ridiculous. The mexican food has fiesta-ware-style bowls, the italian has a black and white check around the outside of the plate (very Italian classy!) and I can’t even describe the asian plates and actually do them justice. Just trust me; they’re cool. Maybe I’m making too big of a deal out of this. (They are plastic after all.) But it’s the little things that count, and Hillcrest has got the little things down.

It doesn’t stop there. Right next to campus is the Old Capital Mall, complete with, I think, seven restaurants. Just to the east is the downtown, with way to many eating establishments to count, (though most of them are bars, which I can’t enter after 10pm thanks to some recent misguided legislation…but don’t get me started with that). There are also tons of street vendors on game nights serving everything from corn dogs to, well, it’s pretty much stuff like corn dogs…but it’s nice. I really think all of that needs another post, but there is one place in particular that I know I will be discussing in more detail sometime in the future. It’s called the Hamburger Inn No. 2. It seems to be a family-owned diner just east of campus. Can’t wait to write that post (hopefully with photos.) Till then, I’ll be living it up and expanding my waistline in Burge and Hillcrest.

-DN