<p>Being a spoiled kid whose food was always on the table when home, I want to know how MIT students usually eat. I'm in EC so I'm pretty far from all the dining places @ dorms (including preferred dining membership). Does that mean on a typical day I'll have to buy food from the restaurants nearby (expensive) or make food myself (time-consuming)? Do many people in East Campus / Senior House go to McCormick, Baker, Next or Simmons to eat there? It seems like house dining would be cheap and convenient, but in my case a little far.</p>
<p>I believe there's a dining hall right next door. Generally, EC kids like to cook together.</p>
<p>I'll let the EC kids say what they do or don't do, but you know, making food for yourself doesn't have to be time-consuming. :) </p>
<p>You could make --
1. Spaghetti (or any other kind of pasta -- ravioli!).
2. Stir-fry with vegetables and chicken.
3. Fajitas.
4. Macaroni and cheese.
5. Frozen pizza (or one of those quick crusts).
6. Grilled chicken/steak on a Foreman grill.</p>
<p>I used to make a big lasagna or casserole on Sunday night and eat it all week.</p>
<p>Or you could ask my kid (also in EC) for a copy of "Mom's Greatest Hits" cookbook I put together before he left last year. Filled with easy and filling family favorites, made easy-to-cook for starving and brain-dead college students. (Have him make you a loaf of Grandma Storch's Banana Nut Bread, it's his specialty.) The crockpot dishes are especially to be noted (wake up 10 min. early and dump it all in the crockpot so it'll be cooked by the time you come back at night).</p>
<p>From what I hear from him, neither he nor anyone he knows on hall eats at any of the eateries in the other dorms, at least not on any kind of regular basis. (jessiehl will be the expert on this one...) I do know that free food is in high demand and will sometimes dictate one's schedule, if some is discovered to be available at some particular place and time...</p>
<p>The food selection that MIT provides is probably the worst I have seen from a college. LaVerde's is pretty expensive. The Lobdell food court is only open 4 hours a day last time I checked. I haven't seen the dorm meal plans, so maybe they are alright. But I don't think East Campus has a dining hall.</p>
<p>I stayed at Next and Baker during CPW, and I can't say I had a real problem with the dining hall food (by which I mean I lived on free food, pudding, coffee and bubble tea for 3 days). They had a pretty good selection to pick from, although the girls I was with were shocked that it was open for breakfast (apparently that's not always the case?).</p>