Name This Dish

This week I tried a new dish, but please don’t ask me what it was called. I rushed in to Pollock Dining Hall, my stomach was growling, my mouth was watering, and the first thing I saw was a pasta-looking Chinese dish, so I grabbed it. I glanced up at the labels of each food, but all I saw was “brown rice”, “white rice”, and “egg roll”, so I chose to call this dish “mystery pasta”. (It sounds better than mystery meat, right?)

The mystery pasta consisted of what I believe may be called rice noodles (correct me if I’m wrong please!), red peppers, and snap peas. The rice noodles were a surprise for me. I expected to taste what I would consider to be normal noodles, but these were thinner, and not as soft as most pasta dishes, although maybe that was an error in the preparation and not how they were actually supposed to taste. The snap peas also startled me because they weren’t crunchy, like you would expect when you eat them raw, but they also weren’t soft, as you would expect when they are cooked. Again, this may have been the chef’s fault. The red peppers, as usual, simply added a bit of color and texture to mix. I rarely find red peppers to have much flavor when cooked with other food.

I’ll admit, I was in somewhat of a rush today during dinner, so I did not get the chance to fully appreciate my newfound food. Overall, I’d give this dish an A-. It certainly expanded my horizons on Chinese food, and it was more than just my go-to egg roll or brown rice that I would usually get. And, it tasted pretty good too! No longer will I opt for the regular pasta with olive oil and cheese that I usually get at the dining hall. If I see this mystery pasta, I’ll be sure to try it again!