Tribal school lunches - Montana

[peacetraveler22]

There's a certain childhood rite of passage I never experienced - eating cafeteria lunches. I attended a small, religious school from 5th - 12th grade, surrounded by the same faces until graduation. There were rarely new students who transferred to the school, no new boys to flirt with, or mysterious strangers who suddenly appeared at the desk beside me. In one word, I would describe my school experience as boring. The same can be said of my daily lunches, which my mom diligently packed every morning. Usually, the lunchbox consisted of a peanut butter or ham and cheese sandwich, some type of chips and a piece of fruit. I always envied kids who had the joy of entering the canteen each day to have old ladies with hairnets shovel different food onto their tray, sometimes completely inedible and sometimes a fun game to guess what the mystery meat or slop was. It all seemed very exotic and exciting for someone who was insanely bored being around the same kids and learning environment for so many years.

During my visit to the Native American reservation in Montana last week, I met with a teacher at the local tribal school and ate with the young kids in the cafeteria. The tribe would not let me photograph the students for privacy reasons, but you can see they are eating healthy and tasty lunches. Salad with tomatoes, two servings of fresh fruit, a roll and some type of spicy soup with black beans, corn and ground beef. Btw, last week someone scolded me for using the term Native American "reservation," implying that this is a derogatory term. Perhaps this is the case in Russian, but in English this word has no negative connotation. It is used to refer to the sovereign lands upon which Native American tribes now live in various parts of the U.S., and the Indians I met also referred to their home as "the reservation." Next week, I will write a big report about their lives.

What was your favorite meal? :) Do most Russian children bring packed lunches from home, or eat in the school canteen?

Comments

[ksiuniko.livejournal.com]

Burger is good but at specific cafe or restaurant not M-style. I love burgers so much))) but when tasted school burger I thought how could it be eatable?

[inescher.livejournal.com]

I'm not talking about the bad quality café. I'm trying to explain that a lot of people in Russia really think that burger is "кошмар-кошмар"/nightmare without respect to the place where it has been made. But they don't think the same about котлета.
The school food is another story. Personally, I prefer to give my kids food from home. Not just because school food is so bad but because it's our (kids and parents) choice. But when my daughter ask me to eat in cafeteria I don't see any problems. Anyway, she doesn't eat burgers every day anyway. :)

[qi-tronic.livejournal.com]

Sometimes I visit a place in Moscow which has very good burgers (Изя-гриль).
But even those burgers have much more fat than simple Russian котлета.
And a burger is complemented by ketchup and fried potatoes which is also not healthy at all.
It's very tasty to eat but later I feel how many calories I got, how my body is poisoned with salt and sauce and how blood pressure rises up.
This does not happen with standard Soviet diet.

[inescher.livejournal.com]

Who asked you to eat the burger with ketchup and french fries? Is somebody say it's mandatory? :) I don't know how burgers is cooked in Moscow but I know how it might be prepared in USA. Also I do it by myself as well as kotletyt. :)
And I do remember very traditional "kotleta s varennoj kartoshkoj". Very common food in Soviet Union. :) Do't say it's very healthy. :) Kotleta with kasha not so helthy too, sorry.
But it's tasty, of course.
Anyway, personal felling and personal choice (for example, I prefer turkey burgers with fresh vegetables) is not shown what is healthy, what not.