<p>how's the food at USNA? and are there problems with chavanistic men? i heard there' s issues in both of these categories at the coast guard academy so i was just curious.</p>
<p>The food is fine, and chauvanistic men are about as common as whining females who use their sex as a substitute for ability. In other words, there are a few, but not many. They are generally not taken too seriously by anyone.</p>
<p>Why do I smell a setup in this question? :rolleyes:</p>
<p>There are eight USDA grades of beef, with #1 being Prime. USNA prepares #5 Commercial. Draw your own conclusions.</p>
<p>Zaphod:
[quote]
Why do I smell a setup in this question?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>It's called bait.</p>
<p>You can find male chauvanistic pigs anywhere, especially if you are looking for them. They are not just at service academies.</p>
<p>If you like fresh, healthy food, USNA food service won't be to your liking. I've eaten in King Hall about a dozen times in as many years and I much prefer the food out in the fleet.</p>
<p>chinesemarty....may I seriously and respectfully say...if you are really serious in your question...that if this is one of the ways you may or may not be interested in the Naval Academy....that you are asking the wrong question about whether or not you want to really consider going there. If this issue weighs in your factors for application - you might as well pick a civilian college with a Marriott or other provider. That way you can predict your food needs/desires/wants better.</p>
<p>chinesemarty,</p>
<p>peskemom makes an excellent point. If you are looking for a school with excellent chow, you might want to consider Virginia Tech. They were ranked at the top for their food preparation.</p>
<p>You need to remember that USNA is serving 4300+ midshipmen in one sitting for each meal. You aren't going to be served gourmet food.</p>
<p>
[quote]
I've eaten in King Hall about a dozen times in as many years and I much prefer the food out in the fleet.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Sheesh! Things must have changed. When I was in we ate like kings in, well, King Hall. Fleet chow was OK, but not as good as at USNA.</p>
<p>Oh, and +1 to what Peskemom and GreatAmerican said about looking in the right place for the right thing.</p>
<p>In the food world, one of the big differences b/t a civilian school and an Academy is that, at the civilian school you can pretty much buy/cook your own food, especially after your first year. That's really not an option at an Academy, where the overwhelming majority of your meals will be in the dining facility/mess hall. Food is okay for institutional food served on a mass scale. Gourmet dining, it's not.</p>
<p>As for chauvinism, you'll probably find some wherever in life you go. While there might be slightly more at an Academy than at certain civilian schools, I believe that the opportunities for women in the military balance that out. Also, you will always get equal pay for equal work.</p>
<p>I've heard a lot of complaints about the food in recent years. I can honestly say I thought the food was very good when I was there 25 years ago. I think I heard the Naval Academy no longer has the dairy farm. If that's the case-- too bad. I thought the ice cream was excellent.</p>
<p>Well, chinesemarty, I can appreciate your question.</p>
<p>One of the most repeated questions the thorpedo asked the mids he saw walking around the yard (or any campus, for that matter, besides "can I play lacrosse" and "Can I have a car") was "hows the food?" .... and the comments covered the entire spectrum, from "great" to "s$&&S". He is not a terribly fussy eater, but the stuff has to look reasonably good and taste like something. </p>
<p>Obviously, none of his questions were deal breakers, and somehow he is coping. That he managed to get through plebe summer and gain 2lbs when he had been drinking every protein shake known to mankind before his arrival without shifting the scales in that direction is proof positive that there are things good enough to eat. We have heard to definately stay away from the eggs, and if you have a hankering for tex-mex food you will be in good shape.</p>
<p>If all else fails, there is always peanut butter and jelly on the tables- he has eaten his fair share of that too!</p>
<p>So while this should not be your first question (I doubt that it is), don't be afraid to ask.... just remember, it's better than the MRE's up on the Hudson and they seem to survive just fine too. ;)</p>
<p>Chauvinism: I like this defination: "fanatical devotion to one's country."<br>
It all depends on how you look at things!! ;)</p>
<p>Food is okay...doesn't compare to the fleet though. I'd eat in the mess decks or galleys any day!</p>
<p>There have been a lot of shortcomings in planning and service. For example, there isn't enough food on the table sometimes.</p>
<p>Someone needs to get on the horn with LT Food and tell them to get their Suppo a$$ in gear. I don't like hearing that the food at USNA isn't good. That's a serious morale issue, as anyone who has served can tell you.</p>
<p>There is a REASON why the best chow in the Navy is served aboard submarines.</p>
<p>It's great to see you posting again!</p>
<p>I don't know if they did this to make it seem better, but I thought the food at summer seminar was great when I was there. Hopefully it is like this all the time.</p>
<p>ahhh, we folk of a modern generation, with literally thousands of items in every grocery store we enter....where even from infancy a mother 'lets' her baby 'choose' what they want to eat....when a young child can refuse food he doesn't like...when a dad asks what size his kid's french fries should be at a fast food order....when a teenager insists on buying their own school lunches instead of taking a sack from home....</p>
<p>no wonder we have almost college teens asking about college food as a prerequisite for college</p>
<p>I asked my kidddo about USNA food and the reply was: "It's OK - I'm too busy trying to eat without anything else going on like rates to worry about how it tastes. It's fine and I have no complaints".</p>
<p>Maybe being from a large family where food choices were limited to you eat what's served and be greatful might be of some value after all!</p>
<p>Amen, Peskemom!</p>
<p>it's better than the MRE's up on the Hudson navy2010</p>
<p>I've heard that An army travels on its stomach, and from newspaper accounts, the troops in Iraq are getting great food in the Green Zone. Frankly though, some mids think the MREs are better than what is typically served in King Hall/Dahlgren (however, if theyre odorizing the MREs to make them more palatablemaybe they just smell better.) I wonder about the nutritional value of the food considering the physical demands put on the midshipmen. I assume everyone is taking daily multi-vitamins.</p>
<p>Okay.... This has now just gotten silly. :rolleyes:</p>
<p>Mids will complain about the food no matter what is served. We complained back when we were getting prime rib. We complained while out in the fleet no matter what came off the mess decks. It's part and parcel of being in uniform. It didn't keep us from clearing the table on most occaisions.</p>
<p>People who claim that MRE's are better than what is served in King Hall are either a) knowingly and greatly exagerating, or b) have never had to live on MRE's for very long. </p>
<p>The average daily diet of a Midshipman is 4,000 calories, and no one needs to take vitamins to survive on it. Walk around the Yard and you'll see fit and healthy Midshipmen, not starving skeletons begging for food from the tourists. For those lucky bastards who have trouble GAINING weight (alas, I was never one of them), there are supplements provided (Sustical, back in my day). The rest of the Brigade actually has to be careful what it eats or it will gain too much weight.</p>
<p>I think Peskemom is right in that what we have here is a case of too many spoiled folks thinking that King Hall should double for Che Luis or Club 21, or only serve organically-grown food and perfectly-balanced meals of tofu and bean sprouts. Well, if they served a cuisine fit for those with their noses up in the air, no one would eat it because the overwhelming majority of folks don't think or eat that way and it would be prohibitively expensive to do so in any case (and then we'd be treated to whines of fiscal irresponsibility by the military).</p>
<p>NEWSFLASH: It's a school cafeteria serving 4,500 meals at once, three times a day. It does a damned good job of that, and unless LT Food is completely asleep at the switch, King Hall is one of the better mess halls in the Navy. I'd stack it up against the cafeteria of any civilian college, too.</p>
<p>For the record, I never even considered the quality of the food when I applied. I had other things to worry about. When I got there, I was SURPRISED at how good it was (especially after a year eating at Ney Hall at NETC Newport). Sure, they blew it from time to time (Schalm Casserole, anyone?) and after a while it got repetitive (there's a shock - eat in the same 5-star restaurant three times a day, every day, for months on end and see if it doesn't get repetitive), but I never feared stepping into King Hall or going hungry.</p>
<p>Proportion, people. Sheesh. :rolleyes:</p>
<p>Is it true they got rid of the dairy farm? They had stopped making ice cream while I was there, just providing milk, juice, and drinks. The original ice cream (boring stuff served in open aluminum containers) was replaced by 1-gallon containers of Barraccini ice cream. Oh, the horror!</p>
<p>USNA81:
[quote]
I can honestly say I thought the food was very good when I was there 25 years ago. I think I heard the Naval Academy no longer has the dairy farm. If that's the case-- too bad. I thought the ice cream was excellent.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I agree with USNA81; the food was great back in the old days. We were served surf & turf and banana splits on I-day! The ice cream was excellent, even with the saltpeter additive! :D</p>
<p>Ditto on Zaphod's post above. 30 years ago the average daily diet was 5,500 calories per day. If you ate all the food served, you were guaranteed to end up on the fat-boy squad. Midshipmen do not need vitamin supplements. The academy has a nutritionist who makes sure that the midshipmen have balanced diets.</p>