By Molly Chang & Zander Sherry
Fountain Valley High School’s (FVHS) cafeteria offers one breakfast and one lunch meal to be given to all students, regardless of family income, meaning thousands of FVHS’s students take advantage of the state policy every day.
Because of this, the various meals offered in our cafeteria give students several choices on what to eat during their lunch period. Let’s take a look at some of the options that students get to choose from.
All photos by Zander Sherry.
Two soft tacos (beef and chicken)
It’s Taco Tuesday! The soft shell taco meal is only served once a week as either beef or chicken, with a bag of lettuce and hot sauce to make up the main entree. While they provide a good amount of food, the tacos don’t hold up as well as they could. It might be our region’s access to nearby authentic Mexican restaurants, or lack thereof, but the tacos always seem to be missing something. It could either be the absence of lime slices, or diced onions, as there could be more flavor in the tacos. Eating them, they taste fine, but that’s about it.
Pizza
You could ask any FVHS student, no doubt they would agree that the pizza slice is the most frequent and popular food you’ll see from the cafeteria. Coming to the cafeteria from frequent Pizza Hut deliveries in boxes of cheese, pepperoni and occasionally sausage, it is served warm. It’s just good. As simple as that, there is a reason the demand is high, and in the first days that it was available to the cafeteria, it would run out halfway through the lunch period.
Meat pasta bowl
The meat sauced pasta bowls of FVHS make an appearance in the cafeteria every now and then. On these special occasions, students rush to the lunch lines in hopes of grabbing one of these flavorful, delectable bowls before they run out. Served warm, the perfectly cooked pasta is topped with savory meatballs, melted mozzarella cheese, a pinch of cilantro and a meat sauce. Not only is the bowl incredibly flavorful, but the size is the right amount for a filling, yet, not too overwhelming of a serving.
Mashed potatoes with chicken nuggets
The mashed potato bowl is a standout menu item, and has only been served on one day since our return from winter break. When it’s on the menu, it blows away the “cafeteria food” connotation to give students a good meal. While the wait for this meal was long, it was most definitely worth it. As it is served warm, the lid of the bowl keeps in the moisture of the chicken nuggets, the mashed potatoes, and the gravy. Overall, this bowl is just the right amount of filling, as it is a perfectly balanced meal.
Cold turkey/ham sandwich
As another one of the most common lunch items, the cafeteria’s hopes are to provide sufficient nutrition to the thousands of students who rely on their lunches, and the sandwiches served everyday reach their expectations, without a doubt. Containing cold lettuce, mayo, slices of turkey or ham and—sometimes—a cheese slice, the sandwich gives consistency as an FVHS school lunch classic.
KBBQ chicken bowl
Another rare meal in our cafeteria is the Korean BBQ Chicken Bowl, which had a similar composition to that of the teriyaki chicken and rice bowl, just without the side vegetables, and with a different sauce. The sauce was surprisingly spicy, and was just the right amount, as the rice could be considered dry without it. Overall, the bowl was a good addition to our menu, and we hope to see it return, as it is the only food that comes with its own spice.
It is crucial to eat a sufficient meal every day, especially in the middle of a school day, so with the variety that FVHS’s cafeteria provides, take advantage of our free lunch policy, and get through the fast moving lines with the cafeteria team’s hard work in putting out thousands of meals everyday.
