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3 (Mon) June 2019

Beef Stew + Chicken Pandan + Chop Suey + Steamed Rice

2.25

in the cafeteria

-WPRO, Ermita-

solo

This week, GMTD will provide a daily look at the lunch offerings in our cafeteria.

Most of the items are pre-cooked and sold per portion.

Just last week, the cafeteria instituted a kind of traffic light system, presumably to guide in making better nutrition choices: Go eat more (green), Eat less (yellow), Not recommended (red).  However, nobody can seem to understand what criteria are applied.  Pinakbet, for example, seasoned with shrimp paste and thus extremely salty, is labelled green.  Vegetable a la Newberg, smothered in butter and cream, is also labelled green.  But sinampalukang manok, simply boiled chicken with vegetables in a tamarind-based soup, is labelled yellow.  From a commercial perspective, it’s also odd that the cafeteria – operated by a third-party supplier – would offer for sale so many dishes that they themselves suggest shouldn’t be purchased: of 17 labelled dishes, 7 are green, 5 are yellow, and 5 are red.

There is also a section that offers dessert, salad, pasta, and halal dishes.

On any given day, beef stew with vegetables and steamed rice is my go-to combination.  Today, I tossed in a chicken leg for kicks.

At least it’s cheap: 165 pesos (about USD 3.25) in all.