We just had the second Carnival in the OR in the past 3 years. And, it was awesome!! We reserved the Court yard for the day and decorated it as if you walked into the “Annual County Fair” up the street. The OR dished up an authentic carnival menu consisting of homemade pretzels, funnel cakes, bratwurst, vegetarian nachos, XL chili cheese fries, watermelon, BBQ meatballs, and mac n’ cheese bites to name a few. We had 6 games that were played for prizes: Ring coke toss, bowling, corn hole, flip a frog, milk can toss and tip the can. The DJ spun all the latest jams while the students waited their turn for the infamous photo booth. The polaroid-esque booth had props to snap different poses with and goofy wigs, sunglasses and masks to hide their identities. The cotton candy and popcorn machine were such a hit we purchased them for future events!

Finals are finally here! We are running reduced hours of operation May 6-13.

ORLEANS ROOM

Mon. 5/6 – Thurs. 5/9 | Regular
Fri. 5/10 | Breakfast & Lunch
Sat. 5/11 – Sun. 5/12 | Closed

THE MARKET

Fri. 5/3 | 7:30am-12am
Sat. 5/4 – Sun. 5/5 | 10am-12am
Mon. 5/6 – Fri. 5/10 | 7:30am-12am
Sat. 5/11 – Mon. 5/13 | 8am-3pm

FLAMBEAUX’S

Mon. 5/6 – Thurs. 5/9 | 11am-2am
Fri. 5/10 | 11am-6pm
Sat. 5/11-Mon. 5/13 | Closed

SMOOTHIE KING

Fri. 5/3 | 8am-2pm
Mon. 5/6 – Fri. 5/10 | 9am-2pm
Sat. 5/11 – Mon. 5/13 | Closed

SATCHMO’S

Fri. 5/3 | 11am-2pm
Mon. 5/6 – Fri. 5/10 | 11am-2pm
Sat. 5/11 – Mon. 5/13 | Closed

JAZZMAN’S

Mon. 5/6 – Tues. 5/7 | 7am-6pm
Wed. 5/8 – Thurs. 5/9 | 8am-2pm
Fri. 5/10 – Mon. 5/13 | Closed

LA DIVINA

Fri. 5/3 | 9am-10pm
Sat. 5/4 – Sun. 5/5 | 12pm-10pm
Mon. 5/6 – Fri. 5/10 | 9am-10pm
Sat. 5/11 – Mon. 5/13 | 12pm-8pm

CC’s

Mon. 5/6- Thurs. 5/9 | 7am-10pm
Fri. 5/10 | 7am-6pm
Sat. 5/11 – Sun. 5/12 | 9am-6pm
Mon. 5/13 | 7am-4pm

“Finals Favorites” in the Orleans Room starts Monday 5/6:

Monday 5/6: Dinner: Nacho Bar

Tuesday 5/7:
Lunch: Baked Salmon
Dinner: Chicken Nugget Bar

Wednesday 5/8:
Lunch: Blackened Chicken Salad
Dinner: Bananas Foster

Thursday 5/9:
Lunch: BBQ Chicken, Mac&Cheese with Green Beans and French Onions
Dinner: Hotdog, Corndog, and Chili Bar

Friday 5/10:
Fried Fish Friday

Breakfast Specials: Almonds, Smoke Salmon Mousse on Bagel Chips, Blueberries, and Trail Mix

Lunch Specials: Watermelon, Local Strawberries, and Avocados

Also, stop by The Market to fuel up for finals. We have energy drinks and power bars that will get you through those long nights. We are also running a combo special: 1 large bag of chips, dip, and a 2 liter soda or Red Bull for $8.99 (regular price before tax: $12.99). We are also doing $2.99 smoothies at Smoothie King from 8am-10pm every day.

Good luck on exams!!

The first day of Spring is finally here! It is beautiful outside and everyone on campus is ready for a mid-semester breather. We want to remind you The Orleans Room will be closed during Spring Break. Loyola meal swipes will resume acceptance at Bruff Commons on Monday, 4/1 at 5:00pm. Wolfbucks, cash, and credit will be accepted at all open Uptown Campus Dining locations during break.

For a complete Uptown Campus Dining Spring Break Hours of Operation visit our website Loyno.edu/Dining or Facebook.com/UptownCampusDining

Hello everyone! You asked and we listened. Finals Favorites have officially arrived in the Orleans Room. We came up with a menu filled with your suggestions during finals.

Sunday night was our traditional Mass and Pancakes night, but tonight (Monday) is Chicken Blowout night with wings and chicken strips. Then, we will have Taco Tuesday with tacos and burritos for dinner. Wednesday night we will be having carnival goodies. Be on the look out for corn dogs, hot dogs, chicken nuggets, and the always popular smiley fries. Thursday night is our final night to serve everyone, so we decided to have a Mexican night with nachos and quesadillas.

That is our Finals Favorites dinner menu, but for breakfast and lunch we will be serving several “brain food” items to help everyone survive finals. Some of the featured items are: an almond, walnut and dark chocolate mix; fresh blueberries, strawberries and kiwis; sliced avocado at the deli station; and smoked salmon on whole wheat toast with capers, egg and red onions.

Everyone here in Dining Services and myself wish everyone good luck on exams and hope that you enjoy our Finals Favorites and Brain Food for the next week.

It’s that time again! The time when everyone is packing and getting ready for summer. That must also mean it is finals time which of course leads to the traditional closing semester favorite, Mass and Pancakes. With this year being our Centennial celebration all over campus, Residential Life and Loyola Dining Services have made this semester’s theme Centennial Mass and Pancakes. The picture you have been seeing on all of the flyers is actually a picture from a flour brand called Centennial. So, take a break from studying and writing papers by joining us this Sunday, May 6^th in the Audubon Room at 9pm for Mass then head over to the Orleans Room afterwards for some pan perdu. Last semester we had a wonderful time serving up some delicious pan perdu and we are excited to do it again. We hope to see you there!

Have you ever wondered where all the parts of the fruits and vegetables at the Salad station and Vegan/Gluten-Free station that we do not consume go? This year the Orleans Room received some special bins from a group called Nola Green Roots. They approached Dining Services and asked us to use their bins to put our raw waste loyof excess fruit and vegetables in. Once we give the compost to Nola Green Roots, they use it for their community gardens that teach youth, low-income residents, and senior citizens how to grow a garden so that they may have access to produce at a lower cost. Through these gardens, Nola Green Roots brings a sense of community and helps keep people connected with the environment. If you are looking to help out, check out their website at http://nolagreenroots.com/ for more information. You can volunteer and also get some FREE fruits and veggies from them!

Loyola Dining Services is always happy to help the environment and our local communities. We are proud to say that we contributed over three tons of compost to Nola Green Roots! If you have a suggestion to help us Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle, give us a tweet @UptownCamDining or message us on Facebook at Uptown Campus Dining.

Here is  the Orleans Room’s  main composting man, Chuck, with one of the Nola Green Roots bins.

Coming Soon….

The other day I was in the Dining Services offices and we got started talking about some new options coming soon. Ever since then I have been thinking . . . green. No, not the color, but being green! Nowadays people are all about preserving the environment, recycling and bettering Planet Earth for the future and everyone here in Dining has been thinking the exact same thing. With that being said, I am pleased to announce that The Market will soon have two new brands of products available for purchase: Kiss My Face and Preserve.

Thirty years ago in New York on a 200-acre farm, two young men, Bob Macleod and Steve Byckiewicz, came up with the an idea that now has over 200 products sold in 19 countries worldwide! These guys came up with the idea of using nature’s own organic and natural materials to make products for: hair, face, mouth, body, soaps and so much more. I looked at their website (http://www.kissmyface.com/) and I must say that I am pretty impressed and excited for their products to be coming to Loyola University! While I do wish that we could hold all their products, we will only have toothpaste, lip balm and shave creams to try first. However, you can order deodorant, face care products and all their other products online!

Do you remember that yogurt cup you threw away the other day? Well, our next new vendor has this saying: “Nothing wasted. Everything gained.” Preserve uses plastics made from oil or natural gas, like that yogurt cup you threw out, to make personal care, tableware and even kitchenware out of these plastics that we are constantly throwing away. It’s recycling to the next level.  It was in 1996 that the president and founder, Eric Hudson thought about how recyclables were not necessarily being recycled into new products. With that concern and some willpower Hudson came up with the idea for Preserve, but with a few dentists, scientists and engineers, Hudson was able to create the first Preserve product: The toothbrush. From there came many more ideas, like razorblades, food storage containers, cutting boards, plates and so on. Now we won’t be selling tableware or kitchenware, but we will be selling toothbrushes and razorblades from their personal care line. As always, you can order their products online at http://www.preserveproducts.com/

It’s going to be exciting getting some new, but I guess you could also say renewed, items that will help the environment and ultimately Planet Earth! Be on the lookout for these new items appearing  in The Market.

Have you ever wondered where the Peeps came from? How about who came up with the idea of taking sugar and turning it into a bean or why chocolate bunnies over chocolate frogs? The other day while talking with some friends about the little Peeps marshmallow candies, I asked myself these questions. It was then that I decided that there needed to be a blog about these sugary delights and other Easter candy staples.

In 1953, Russian immigrant Sam Born invented the yellow chick peep that later became available in several other colors and offered for other holidays besides Easter, like smiling pumpkins for Halloween. Another nifty fact about these sweet chicks is that after Easter Sunday, peeps prices drop drastically and the “Peep Off” competition, originally starting in Maine, begins. As you can probably guess, it is a contest of how many peeps you can eat in thirty minutes. The record holder of 102 peeps is Dave Smith who also started Sacramento’s “Peep Off” contest.

No matter how sweet these marshmallow treats are, jelly beans are always around to add to the diet of a sugar eater, but there is also some really interesting history connected to jelly beans. For instance, these beans of sugar originally came from Turkish Delights, a Middle Eastern candy of soft jelly and confectioner’s powder. First appearing in 1861 during the American Civil War when William Schrafft asked people to send the bean version of Turkish Delights to the soldiers. In the 1910’s and 1920’s jelly bean was actually slang for a young man who attracted women only by dressing stylishly. It was not until the 1930’s that the jelly bean became associated with Easter.

The last iconic candy of Easter is the famous chocolate bunny. Hollow, solid, crispy rice or milk chocolate, these guys are a must during Easter. The question is: why? The original celebration of Spring coincided with the celebration of the ancient goddess of fertility Eostre (Easter), hence why nowadays we associate Easter with the beginning of Spring. The chocolate bunnies come in with the idea of fertility and what animal is most associated with being fertile? Bunnies! That is really the only reason why we have the chocolate bunnies for Easter.

So this Easter, eat up your peeps, jelly beans and chocolate bunnies, but do remember these facts. Feel free to Facebook Uptown Campus Dining or follow us on Twitter @UptownCamDining to tell us about your Easter. We would love to hear about your attempts to eat more than 102 peeps.

Can you smell the spice in the air and feel the heat of the boiling water? It’s Springtime here in the Big Easy and after Mardi Gras comes another local season that drives everybody crazy for these little guys. They have been called crayfish, mini lobsters, crawdads, mudbugs, and the ever-popular crawfish.

The season picks up from March to June, which is the best time to have a crawfish boil. As you saw in the OR last Friday, we had a little Crawfish Boil of our own to celebrate the season! We had 400 pounds of crawfish to serve up to you guys and we were pleased to see and hear that everyone enjoyed eating these coveted little buggers.

When having a crawfish boil, one must make sure to cook them the right way by adding the right spices and maybe have add a little lagniappe of potatoes, corn on the cob, mushrooms, onions, garlic, turkey necks, and/or sausage for the best possible crawfish boil.
Louisiana supplies 98% of the crawfish harvested in the United States. After the crawfish season, those frozen crawfish in the supermarkets are usually Chinese imports. So it’s no wonder that we have several dishes where the main ingredient is crawfish that we eat every other day during the season. Some of these dishes are, but definitely not limited to: crawfish étouffée, crawfish monica, crawfish pies, crawfish jambalaya, crawfish bisque, and many more!

Besides being a delicious dinner for many, these extraordinary creatures can be kept as pets, believe it or not. If kept as a pet, they should be kept in freshwater and given a hidey-hole so that they do not try to attack other fish in the tank. It must also be noted that if given the chance, they will try to escape. So if you decide to adopt one of these guys to save them from the horrible fate of satisfying a hungry Cajun, or non-Cajun, make sure you keep the tank closed. The last thing anyone wants is a dead crustacean in the hou

Guess what? It’s St. Patrick’s Day soon! But what’s the deal with this cultural and religious holiday coming from Ireland? Believe it or not, more parading and a relief to your Lenten constraints!

Every year on the 17th of March, people all over the world celebrate this Irish holiday commemorating St. Patrick and the arrival of Christianity in Northern Ireland by wearing green attire and attending church services. The many traditions used to celebrate this holy day are seen all over the world, but do you know why the shamrock is a symbol for this holiday or why you wear green? A few little nuggets of knowledge: St. Patrick used the shamrock, the three-leafed one, to explain the Holy Trinity. Thus, the shamrock is an essential part of St. Patrick’s Day. Originally, blue was the color for St. Patrick’s Day, but during a rebellion, Irish soldiers wore green to make a political statement to grab public attention.

How does this relate to Lent and food? Well, how many of you are giving up the eating and drinking of something? This is the one day during Lent that those restrictions are uplifted for optimal celebration. And of course, when it’s time to celebrate, New Orleans knows how to party with . . . a parade!
Ever since 1737 when Irish immigrants came to North America, it’s been a true green festival every March 17th. Do you remember catching the coveted Muses shoes or Zulu coconuts? The St. Patrick’s Day parade has a unique couple of throws itself. It’s food! This Saturday, be sure to wear green and try to catch: potatoes, carrots, onions, lucky charms, moon pies, and the biggie… cabbage! Don’t worry, though. Beads are thrown, as well as underwear. Yes, I said underwear. Hey, they need to stand out somehow.

If you would like more information on St. Patrick’s Day in New Orleans, visit http://www.stpatricksdayneworleans.com/index.html for more detailed information. See you at the parade!

Did you know Loyola’s own Executive Chef once owned a restaurant called 2^nd Edition in Catskill, New York (near Albany), home of Mike Tyson? Born and raised until he was twenty-eight in upstate New York, Scott Goodstal is a one of kind chef with an interesting background.

While he has only been an Executive Chef for sixteen years, for thirty-four years, Goodstal has been involved with the cooking business in some way and has done nothing else since he was fourteen years old. Before leaving New York to continue on with his passion for cooking, Goodstal graduated from a culinary institute known as the Harvard of all culinary institutes to Julia Child called the Culinary Institute of America, or CIA believe it or not, where the famous Cat Cora of Food Network’s Iron Chef America graduated in 1995. (I suggest that anyone who is interested in cooking as a passion that they not only sit a spell with Scott Goodstal, but also visit the CIA’s website, http://www.ciachef.edu/.) After graduating from the CIA, Goodstal left New York after owning 2^nd Edition for Florida then left for Hawaii where he worked at a Marriot until he was transferred in 1994 to New Orleans. In the summer of 2010 he was hired as the Executive Chef of Loyola’s Dining Services. In August of 2012, Scott Goodstal will have been here for two years proudly serving up breakfast, lunch, and dinner to the students of Loyola.

Scott Goodstal indeed has one exciting history, what else is there to this intriguing character? Well, I was able to stand and watch out into the OR buzz as we discussed not only his education and achievements, but also some fun facts that truly show off his character.  One question I was dying to ask him was who cook’s at home? Being a chef, he does all the cooking, right? Not so. There is a group effort between himself and his wife when it comes to cooking at his house. Getting away from all things cooking, I asked him what his hobbies were outside work and the culinary arts that kept him busy. His cool and collected facade is explained with his love of fixing and repairing clocks and watches as well as fishing. I guess it is good for someone involved in a fast pace career to find some hobbies requiring patience and a calm temperament.

The next time you see this guy looking around, checking up on things in the OR, say hello and maybe strike up a conversation. This guy is truly a vital part of Loyola University, so go and get to know him a bit more… You might just learn something new.