Spend any amount of time in the military and you’ll surely find yourself in a military “chow hall.” Think of it as a college (or high school for that matter) cafeteria, complete with the tray, dirty silverware and the server who doesn’t want to look you in the face for fear you’ll recognize their look of, “I can’t believe they’re going eat this.”
Each service in the military has chow halls, but you might be surprised to know that the quality of these low budget restaurants vary dramatically. Well, at least between the Air Force and all the others. In fact, the Air Force doesn’t even call their chow halls, chow halls. They call them “Dining Facilities,” and to be honest, there is quite a difference. In a Dining Facility, you’ll find carpet and separate tables, big screen tvs, and sometimes…good food. Go to a dining facility in the Air Force and you might end up leaving satisfied. Go to a chow hall in the Army and you’ll count your blessings if you leave alive.
I’ve been counting my blessings a lot lately. Every meal I eat, unfortunately, is at an Army Chow Hall. It’s become a three times a day routine to look at all my choices and try to pick out the least toxic thing I can find. So far this week I’ve had what I think was baked fish, a greasy piece of pizza (cheese I think), a cheeseburger which I believe had a chewy center, and a piece of pot roast. ( I’d say something disgusting about the pot roast, but “pot roast” usually does it for me. ) Today however, I was greeted by a surprise when I went to eat lunch. There in front of me, in between the chicken fried frisbees and mesquite slop, was, of all things, tuna casserole.
Now…this wasn’t my mother’s tuna casserole, nor your mother’s for that matter. In fact, to be honest it wasn’t even tuna casserole. I guess it was chicken casserole because instead of tuna they had chicken. Same ingredients though…noodles, melted cheese, and tuna…I mean chicken.
I’m happy to report I thoroughly enjoyed my tuna (chicken) casserole this afternoon…even if the girl who gave it to me wouldn’t look me in the face.
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One Response to “Food for the Soul”
You’d be surprised at how Army chow halls downrange are a HUGE step up from the ones in the states. I’m not talking about the ones contracted out to KBR, but the ones on small LSAs that are run by army cooks.
Even when the Air Force was “cost cutting” we still had the nicest chow halls I’d ever been to. Shoot, even the one at Lajes was superb.
On another note, I’ll put you and your upcoming deployment on my and my church’s prayer list.