Food

Food and drink has been a little bit of a challenge here in Zagreb. With the exception of not knowing yet how to get my deposit back on my bottles of water (the folks in the little grocery in the dorm are very unfriendly and threatening), things have fallen into place… finally. First of all, there’s no kitchen in the dorm. There is a place that is labeled “Kitchen”, but it has two hot plates and a sink as well as enough counter space to slaughter three cows. That would be fine except that I don’t have any way to keep things cool. I’ve periodically cooked with a friend of mine, but that’s been the extent of it. That means that I am reliant on the “Menza”… the cafeteria.

The great thing about the Menza is that the prices are already pretty cheap (filling meal for 4-5 bucks) and I get a 75% discount with my student card. It’s hard to beat paying a dollar a meal for soup, salad, meat, potato, bread, and sometimes a dessert or piece of fruit. There are, however, a few problems.

First: Figuring out what you want to eat/what you are, in fact, eating. There is almost always a line to get the food, but it is situated such that it is difficult to see what is on offer that meal or even more importantly, what is the special that day (which makes a big price difference). This information is displayed on a tiny piece of paper after the bread and before the dessert as you get in line. That means that you have about 5 seconds to read it as you are moving from grabbing the bread (just slices piled in a basket) and deciding whether you want dessert and soup (which for me depends a lot on whether it is already included in the price for the special). Of course it’s in Croatian and my food vocabulary isn’t all that great. My first trip to the Menza I had no idea what I was doing and picked up some calamari and French fries… which wasn’t the special. Only later did I have time to read the little piece of paper and figure out that the way the specials work. I’ve had some nasty surprises (like big chunks of liver and the nasty soy lasagna), but fortunately I can eat almost anything. It is also fortunate that the first problem is partially alleviated by the second:

Second: The food is basically always the same. The formula for a menza meal is meat+potatoes+bread+soup (mostly broth)+dessert/fruit+salad (mostly cabbage with oil and vinegar dressing). The meat might be chicken or wiener schnitzel or cordon bleau or mystery nuggets or liver or calamari. The potatoes are either French fries or mashed potatoes (mashed… no milk… more like boiled and crushed… sometimes with a little spinach). The bread is always the same. The soup is usually a meat broth with some unidentifiable bready things floating in it. There is some variety in dessert options, but not too much. Suffice to say, after a few days of the meat and potatoes thing, I’m dying for anything with a sauce (to be fair, they have had pasta… twice).

Third: There are just some weird things. The drink choices are usually boxed chocolate milk (ick… and kind of expensive), some kind of boxed juice drink (also ick and even more expensive) and drinkable yogurt (which is my usual choice. At least it isn’t loaded with sugar). They also have French fries every day and NO KETCHUP! It is my belief that French fries (especially mediocre ones) exist only to deliver ketchup from the plate to the mouth! I’d take my own ketchup, but that would require a refrigerator. So, I usually go for the crushed potatoes.

Fourth: Usually the greenest thing on my plate is the cabbage salad… which is white. I had hopes that eating in a cafeteria with a daily special would help me a bit to eat more healthily and control my portions. It has helped with portion control (I resist the urge to copy most people at the menza who eat two full meals and 4 or 5 boxed milk/juice drinks… all for only 3 dollars), but rarely is there something that really qualifies as a vegetable. Every time they have spinach I grab it, no matter what meat is on the plate with it.

On the plus side, if I’m careful, I can eat for a week for less than 20 dollars.