My Chili Testimony

Today I reminisce of the “Wendy’s Chili” days. This is the entirety of the second semester of my freshman year at the University, where the dorm food in my residence hall was regarded as being prepared by “Culinary school mistakes” and a lunch lady with a Jamaican accent and a floppy white hat. Thankfully, we were offered different meal plans, and I opted to get 200 entrée dollars to spend at select venues outside of the dining hall, mercifully requiring me to eat less meals at the quad. What did I do with that extra freedom, you probably aren’t asking? Unfortunately there were not too many options for me. The Magic Wok? Breaded chicken and sinewey beef + msg-spiked “special sauce”? hell no. I’ve never seen them use woks there either. Panda express? Too far away and overly frequented by a glut of asians and engineering school kids (often a combination of both). Amer’s Deli and custom sandwich places? Good stuff, but so expensive that I would be out of money halfway through the semester. I needed a meal with value and close proximity to my classes, not overly unhealthy and welcoming during the winter months.

The only recourse for lunch was Wendy’s. I had 3 classes at a building distant from anywhere. Mealtime was always after my studio class, and the only place close was the Wendy’s in the student union across the street. The only good thing there was often in the value menu. The Chili (and jr. bacon cheese burgers and potatoes. Sometimes.) was probably my main source of sustenance during that period. Not only was it good, it was one dollar and, supplemented with a burger or potato, would keep me warm for the long winter walks back to the dorm and provided a mild food coma needed for my power nap before heading back to the same building for another studio. It was lighter than a burger and didn’t hamper my general feeling of health and gave me a good amount of energy to use through the day. Not only did I eat and feel well (enough) during school, finals, and those long hours spent at studio the night before the deadline, I had saved a sizeable amount of entrée bucks for next year. That and the people at register are very friendly and don’t wear floppy white hats. I feel slightly better knowing that even culinary school mistakes can’t screw up the food at Wendy’s because the food is industrially made and just need to be warmed up.

A small chili at wendy's costs 99 cents,
and was the best choice for me
as lunch for just about the entire winter semester.

I had not thought much of Chili previous to the experience, thinking it too salty and gas-inducing, although now I really appreciate that it much more for it's values. It's in the enviable position of being a very versatile dish, serving either as a side, a topping or a full-blown meal, is easily customizable by the addition and subtraction of many different food items, can be adapted to a very palatable vegetarian edition, comes in a range of spices and spice levels, is available to people of every demographic, provides a filling and "satisfied effect", and appeals to people of all demographics and value systems in the United states, even vegans. The only part of the american population that cannot enjoy this food are people with hypertension and those wary of relatively high-sodium items.

Nothing like chili and some carbs to
get you through the day.
(eaten 4/30/07)