UGA Dining Halls Go ALL Out
I got an email earlier in the week from UGA Food Services, the subject title read “Confection Connection Diner.” I recognized the email as part of UGA’s monthly special event for March. Every month the food services team plans and hosts a themed dinner in all four of the dining halls. Last month, for example, they held a Mardi Gras event including a DJ, stage lights, a crowded costume table where UGA students were making their own Mardi Gras masks and head-ware, and various food lines all with Mardi Gras themed foods, including home made French Eclairs.. boy were they good.
This month, however, the dining hall put on even more of a spectacular event. Personally, I think they outdid themselves, but then again, what do I know? I’ve only been a student here for two months and counting. Who knows what kind of events they have hosted!
Anyways, back to yesterday, The Confection Connection night was a “celebration of candy and sweets.” But don’t let this quote fool you, the dining halls had way more than just candy. The “real” food menu included, cinnamon spiced sweet potato bisque, three sweet pepper salad, mint sugar snap peas, and to top it off, (my favorite) pan seared filet mignon with caramel-brandy mushroom sauce.
Once you’ve tried your share of these entrees, you’d think you’d call it a night, right? Not at UGA. Try your way over to the candy station. Pick your sweet poison among gummy bears, king-sized laffy-taffies, UGA colored M&Ms, fruity Tootsie rolls, pixiestix, and other gummies that looked sour-patch like. Once you’ve got a cup or two of these, head over to the smoothy station and get a cup of the homemade peppermint chocolate chip smoothie. As you fill your tray up, walk over to the caramel apple station, and pick up a hand-dipped caramel apple, dipped right in front of you by the dining hall staff. But don’t forget, right past this, as you continue to walk towards your seat, are three different chocolate fountains, one fountain flowing with dark chocolate, the second with milk chocolate, and the third with white chocolate. Grab a toothpick or five and stab your favorite fruit, sliced fresh on endless platters surrounding the fountains - strawberries, cantelope, honeydew melon, pineapple, and (my favorite) kiwi. You can either slide these slices of fruit underneath the fountain, or just place them on your tray, whichever you like. I just took about four whole kiwis, “un-chocolatted”, back to my seat to enjoy their kiwi-juiciness. When you get to your seat, you’ll notice a center piece on the table holding gum balls and giant size lollipops, with four or five balloons holding it all together.
Once you have all these, it’s probably a good idea to head to your seat, because this tray is going to be quite the heavy one. Looking back on it, it’s probably best that you use more than one tray. But when you’ve finished devouring your confection themed entrees and sweets, don’t go just yet! Head over to all the excitement behind the candy apples and head to the pinata station! That’s right, college kids being spun around and blindfolded are then told to “swing away” and the dangling paper mache animals filled with even more sweets and candies.
This was just a description of one of the four dining halls that hosted the confection connection dinner last night. Major props to the UGA Food Services staff for going all out on these events, and continuing to provide excellence to UGA in their daily endeavors to feed and fuel UGA’s students and staff. It’s no wonder why the UGA Food Service is regarded as the top in the nation, year in and year out. Let the big dawg eat!
Shade and I ate our bellies away. We were so incredibly stuffed by the end of our two hour dining hall adventure. We proceeded to head back and nap for two hours as our bodies digested all that was UGA’s confection connection night. Man oh man, and Shade will totally agree with me on this, that food ROCKED!
