TRANSCRIPT

Haley Oeur  0:07  

Hi, I’m Haley, I’m the Online Managing Editor of The Purple Tide, and welcome to Episode 2 of Chantilly Contests! Today, we will be ranking the school lunch at our school. A good time, a bad time, who knows? Personally, I have not had a lot of experience with the school lunch. I bought lunch pretty often last year; well, not really. But, sophomore year, I bought it every single day because it was free. And then in elementary school, I was buying school lunch like three or four days a week, so. I have two guests with me today and I’m going to have them introduce themselves and say what their experience is with the school lunch.

Harman Kumar  0:39  

Hi, I’m Harman Kumar, it’s my fourth year buying school lunch as a sophomore, and the experiences have been more bad than good.

Rosabel Liu  0:49  

Hi, I’m Rosabel, I’m a senior. I’ve been buying school lunch for about 11 years now. Very thrilled to be here finally sharing my thoughts.

Haley Oeur  0:57  

As you can see, we’re all very excited and very happy to talk about the wonderful, delicious school lunch. So last time, I had some time to just talk with my guests about, like, how their day is, stuff like that. But no, we can’t do that today because I have a list of, like, 20 items to talk about. So, we’re gonna debate those and we’re just gonna go down this list and talk about some of them. So number one on my list: the nachos. How do you guys feel about the nachos? Okay, so I know Harman you don’t eat beef. Do you still eat the nachos with, like, just chips and cheese? 

Harman Kumar  1:27  

Yes.

Haley Oeur  1:29  

How is that experience?

Harman Kumar  1:30  

It depends on how, like, stale the chips are.

Haley Oeur  1:33  

You know what, you’re really right for that. I do notice that there’s a lot of variety in the chip quality of the day. The cheese… you know, I wouldn’t say it’s fresh from a cow or anything like that. I would say it’s a little older than that. Possibly. 

Rosabel Liu  1:49  

Yeah. It’s probably, like, fresh from a bag. I’ve seen them, like, dump it out. But I feel like it’s good as long as it’s still melted. If you let it congeal, it’s not good anymore.

Haley Oeur  1:58  

I agree. Despite all that we said, nachos actually does rank pretty high on my list of school lunches. Okay, next on my list, the mozzarella sticks, which, when I was researching, I found out that their official name is Baked Cheese Sticks with Marinara Sauce.

Harman Kumar  2:12  

You call them mozzarella sticks?

I call them mozzarella sti- what do you call them? 

Cheese sticks.

Haley Oeur  2:15  

Oh, interesting. Okay, what do you guys think about those?

Harman Kumar  2:19  

Best thing on their menu.

Rosabel Liu  2:20  

No, I think they’re so bland. People who like them are so weird. I don’t understand.

Haley Oeur  2:24  

Woah, direct attack. Okay, I actually think they’re okay. I think they’re good. But the only thing saving them is that they’re hot. If they were even slightly lukewarm, I would hate them. I’ve had good experiences with them, except for one time in middle school I got one that I think was raw on the inside. And I thought it was cheesy at first, but I think it was the dough. Um, so I’m not so sure about the quality sometimes, but I actually think it’s pretty okay. Why would you say it’s the best thing on the menu?

Harman Kumar  2:50  

It’s pretty reliable. Like, you get the sauce. It’s usually pretty warm. And it’s not like you’ll get a raw piece out of it. Like some of the food on the menu.

Haley Oeur  2:57  

You know what, you’re not wrong. Okay, the next thing I have on the list: the tacos, which I wouldn’t say they’re authentic by any means. I think the taco quality is really based on how good the wrap/tortilla is that day. Sometimes it’s very hard.

Rosabel Liu  3:15  

Yeah. I feel like the tacos… they should not be called tacos, per se, because, like, the thing that they wrap them in, like, sometimes it’s been so stale, it just cracks, and then I can’t eat my taco because it’s, like, fallen apart.

Haley Oeur  3:28  

Yeah, it’s like both too hot and too cold at the same time or too stiff and too soft at the same time, which doesn’t really work out. Under this list, we have, like, a lot of things that I have tried and haven’t tried, even with my experience (why do I talk like I’m a professional food critic), and next thing we have is the corn dogs. I have seen the corn dogs on multiple occasions. I think I’ve eaten them once and it was, like, one piece because I’m not a big corn dog fan.

Harman Kumar  3:46  

I haven’t had them either.

Rosabel Liu  3:47  

Yeah, I used to have them a lot. I feel like they’re super processed, but they taste good. They taste good with, like, ketchup and mustard.

Haley Oeur  3:54  

Do they taste like normal corndogs?

Rosabel Liu  3:56  

Yeah.

Haley Oeur  3:57  

Okay, because I don’t like normal corndogs, either. So I think that might be part of the issue. Next, we have a pretty big-ticket item, a classic staple of school lunch foods. We have pizza, but in parentheses, I have put rectangle, circle and triangle, because there are multiple that the school has served throughout the years.

Rosabel Liu  4:14  

The best shape is definitely the triangle, but they haven’t served that since I was in middle school.

Haley Oeur  4:17  

Hm. I don’t know, I exclusively get the cheese pizza. It’s okay. Harman, what’s your experience?

Harman Kumar  4:24  

It works.

Haley Oeur  4:25  

It works. You know, it’s… I can fall back on it.

Harman Kumar  4:29  

The rectangle, in my opinion, is the best shape.

Haley Oeur  4:32  

Yeah, you know what, I think I would actually go between rectangle and circle, but that’s probably just because I haven’t had the triangle one in a long, long time. But yeah, I think they’re okay. Next thing on the list. We have orange chicken and rice, which I found out when I was looking at the menu that there’s also, like, General Tso’s chicken and teriyaki chicken, none of which are really authentic Asian foods, and I think that’s very funny. This is gonna sound really bad, but as someone who’s Asian, I actually think the orange chicken that the school serves is really good. 

Rosabel Liu  4:59  

I like it, too. It’s actually really good.

Harman Kumar  5:01  

It’s solid.

Haley Oeur  5:02  

It’s solid,

Harman Kumar  5:03  

As long as you don’t get, like, a raw piece in it.

Haley Oeur  5:06  

Have you had many experiences with-

Rosabel Liu  5:07  

Raw pieces?

Harman Kumar  5:09  

I had a raw piece of my chicken last week.

Rosabel Liu  5:11  

Ew!

Haley Oeur  5:13  

Oh, no! 

Rosabel Liu  5:14  

Okay, well, we’re gonna have to be more careful-

Haley Oeur  5:16  

Yeah.

Rosabel Liu  5:16  

When we look at those orange chicken pieces.

Haley Oeur  5:18  

But actually, overall, I really do like the orange chicken. It’s doing its job. 

Rosabel Liu  5:18  

It tastes good.

Haley Oeur  5:20  

It’s got the flavor. I will say though, it’s always paired with the rice and the rice is horrible. I really, really hate the rice that they give and I don’t know what’s with it or how they make it, but it’s not good. Like, this stems back to, like, first grade. I remember I went to the school and I was like, “I’m gonna buy school lunch today.” And then I got, like, rice and it was… it was bad.

Rosabel Liu  5:44  

I feel like you have to make the perfect ratio between the chicken and the rice.

Haley Oeur  5:48  

Yeah.

Rosabel Liu  5:48  

So while you’re eating the chicken, you also eat all the rice.

Haley Oeur  5:50  

Yeah, otherwise, I don’t think it really works.

Harman Kumar  5:52  

Yeah, the chicken is either too sweet or the rice too bland.

Haley Oeur  5:55  

That’s true. I mean, I don’t think they’re seasoning the rice, though.

Rosabel Liu  5:58  

I mean, yeah.

Haley Oeur  6:00  

Harman with the aggressive head shaking. Next thing, we have the baked chicken on bun. There’s a mild variety and there’s a spicy variety.

Rosabel Liu  6:09  

Can’t tell them apart. Like, I go in there. I look at them. They look the same. They probably taste the same.

Harman Kumar  6:14  

No, but like, one is, like, a bright orange.

Rosabel Liu  6:17  

Okay, maybe I just haven’t looked hard enough.

Haley Oeur  6:20  

Rosabel just sees the baked chicken and she’s like, “Oh, that’s not for me.” I think I’ve gotten it twice. I don’t know what kind of chicken they’re using. I don’t know what they’re mixing with that chicken, to be honest.

Rosabel Liu  6:29  

It’s, like, a last ditch scenario for me.

Haley Oeur  6:31  

I would agree.

Harman Kumar  6:33  

Really? I think it’s a top choice for me.

Rosabel Liu  6:34  

Whoa!

Haley Oeur  6:34  

It’s a top choice? Woah! Okay, explain why 

Harman Kumar  6:38  

I, well, first of all, I like spicy foods.

Haley Oeur  6:40  

Oh, okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. There’s not many spicy options.

Harman Kumar  6:42  

And then, it usually goes pretty well.

Haley Oeur  6:47  

“Usually.” I respect that. I have the same thing except that if I need a backup, I go for the hamburger. So I feel like the chicken sandwiches, they’re in a similar vein to that, I would say. They’re not my fallback, and I actually don’t like spicy food, I’m, like, not very good with it. So then, it’s not my favorite. But for people who eat spicy food, I guess it’s probably one of their only spicy options, so you gotta take what you can get. Next thing on the menu, chicken tenders, which has had a strange evolution over the years, I would say. Have you guys noticed that?

Rosabel Liu  7:14  

Yeah.

Haley Oeur  7:15  

Like, they started off, like, triangle slash fang shaped? I don’t know how to describe it.

Rosabel Liu  7:20  

Like an icicle?

Haley Oeur  7:21  

Yeah, that’s kind of… have you seen them recently? Like, what are they, what are they now?

Harman Kumar  7:24  

Theyre, like, minis.

Rosabel Liu  7:25  

Oh really? Oh, I know. You’re talking about. They’re more like chicken nuggets, or like KFC nuggets now. I’ve seen, like, a warped, like, I don’t know, they look kind of funky.

Haley Oeur  7:33  

They kind of look like, I don’t know, like popcorn chicken.

Harman Kumar  7:37  

Guys, what lunchlines are you going in?

Haley Oeur  7:40  

You know what? There’s one lunch line that I think is better than the other and I think it’s the one closer to door 11.

Rosabel Liu  7:46  

Oh, the one closer to the other side, because senior side usually just serves, like, pizza.

Haley Oeur  7:50  

And the other one is the one closer to the door.

Harman Kumar  7:52  

Uh, the one closer to the senior side.

Haley Oeur and Rosabel Liu  7:56  

Whoaaa.

Haley Oeur  7:56  

Okay, explain.

Speaker 2  7:58  

So there’s a separate line in the back where you can get a wrap with whatever you want on it.

Rosabel Liu  8:02  

Ohh.

Haley Oeur  8:03  

Okay, actually, wait, talk about this rap. I don’t think I actually included in this list because the wrap is, like, a new thing, right?

Unknown Speaker  8:08  

It is a new thing, as far as I know. But this is my first year as Chantilly.

Haley Oeur  8:11  

Oh. Well, I’m pretty sure it’s a new thing because I haven’t experienced it in the past. I haven’t tried it yet because I’m not sure. Tell me about this wrap.

Harman Kumar  8:18  

It’s pretty basic. It’s, just, you can get a chicken – spicy chicken or a mild chicken base – and then lettuce, cheese cucumbers, onions, corn and like two other options on top, and it’s like Chipotle, but if Chipotle was low budget.

Haley Oeur  8:32  

Whoa, this is crazy. I don’t know if this is like an improvement to school standards or, like, not.

Rosabel Liu  8:38  

I would try it.

Haley Oeur  8:39  

I would try it, too. This is interesting. Let’s see, what other hot ticket items do we have to cover? The mac and cheese! I need to talk about the mac and cheese.

Rosabel Liu  8:46  

Oh, yeah.

Haley Oeur  8:46  

Yeah, I hate it.

Harman Kumar  8:47  

Me too!

Rosabel Liu  8:48  

You know, if I have nothing else to eat, like, I’ll eat it.

Haley Oeur  8:52  

If there’s nothing else to eat, and mac and cheese is the only thing there, I’m not eating. I’m starving.

Rosabel Liu  8:57  

I would still eat it. You just have to kind of imagine that you’re somewhere else.

Haley Oeur  9:02  

That’s a really low bar! I don’t know. I don’t trust it.

Harman Kumar  9:05  

I had an experience in elementary school where someone turned the mac and cheese upside down and it didn’t fall.

Haley Oeur  9:09  

It’s giving… Blizzard. Maybe it’s not the best, in my opinion. French fries. Which one is your favorite? 

Rosabel Liu  9:16  

I haven’t seen french fries in the high school for a while. 

Harman Kumar  9:20  

Yeah.

Haley Oeur  9:21  

Yeah, I just included because I wanted to talk about the smiley face french fries from elementary school, because I really miss them.

Rosabel Liu  9:25  

Yeah, where are those?

Harman Kumar  9:26  

Those were the best!

Haley Oeur  9:27  

Those are so good, I miss them so much. Milk. Which is the best milk? I’m going to be honest, I’ve never gotten anything other than the chocolate milk.

Rosabel Liu  9:34  

I’ve been getting the 1% milk for, like, five years now and it’s pretty good.

Haley Oeur  9:40  

Okay, interesting.

Harman Kumar  9:41  

I’ve tried all three of, like, the main ones.

Haley Oeur  9:45  

Okay, which one’s your fav?

Harman Kumar  9:46  

It’s chocolate, regular and then strawberry, from best to worst.

Haley Oeur  9:50  

Hm. I don’t like the strawberry one.

Rosabel Liu  9:52  

I don’t like it, either.

Haley Oeur  9:53  

It’s not very good.

Harman Kumar  9:53  

Some people say it’s, like, the best thing to grace the Earth, and I don’t get that.

Haley Oeur  9:57  

Yeah! I don’t get that either. That’s a strong opinion for them to have. Okay, cookies and pretzels.

Rosabel Liu  10:02  

Oh, they’re definitely, like, the best things.

Harman Kumar  10:03  

Easily.

Haley Oeur  10:04  

Yeah, they’re at the very top. You have to pay extra but, like, it’s worth it.

Rosabel Liu  10:08  

I think it is worth it.

Harman Kumar  10:09  

Isn’t is just $1 anyway?

Haley Oeur  10:11  

Yeah, I don’t think it’s that bad. And, I don’t know, I would consistently get it every time.

Rosabel Liu  10:16  

We need to cover the pasta.

Haley Oeur  10:17  

I haven’t seen pasta in so long.

Rosabel Liu  10:18  

I know!

Haley Oeur  10:19  

I miss the pasta, though.

Rosabel Liu  10:19  

The pasta is good.

Haley Oeur  10:20  

It’s actually really good.

Rosabel Liu  10:22  

And they used to have garlic bread with it.

Harman Kumar  10:24  

The garlic bread was fantastic.

Haley Oeur  10:25  

The garlic bread was incredible. I don’t know where they were getting that stuff, but it was, like, it was…

Haley Oeur and Rosabel Liu  10:29  

So good.

Haley Oeur  10:30  

How do we feel about the salads?

Rosabel Liu  10:32  

They are okay. I feel like they just never feel, like, they have flavor. Like, you have all the components, but there’s no, like, kick to it. 

Harman Kumar  10:40  

It’s solid. It’s nothing special.

Haley Oeur  10:42  

We’ve mostly covered things.

Unknown Speaker  10:44  

There’s the Thanksgiving options.

Haley Oeur  10:46  

Thanksgiving. Let’s talk about those really, really quick. Yeah, they used to be good. I think they’ve gotten worse.

Rosabel Liu  10:50  

They’ve kind of fallen off.

Harman Kumar  10:51  

I’ve never had them before.

Haley Oeur  10:52  

That’s okay. I don’t think you’re missing out on anything.

Rosabel Liu  10:55  

I mean, you kind of feel festive while you’re eating.

Haley Oeur  10:57  

I do feel a little festive.

Rosabel Liu  10:58  

Yeah. Because it’s like sliced turkey. 

Haley Oeur  11:02  

I don’t think the turkey was ever good. I will say, the mashed potatoes.

Rosabel Liu  11:05  

The mashed potatoes!

Haley Oeur  11:06  

Yes, they used to be really good. And then they got more watery.

Rosabel Liu  11:09  

Oh, yeah. Also, don’t get the green beans because those are just, like steamed. There’s like no spices in there. You don’t want that. But cranberry jelly, like, they get that out of a can, like, it tastes good.

Haley Oeur  11:19  

Better be good if it’s out of the can. What’s your number one item and what’s your bottom item?

Harman Kumar  11:26  

Uh, spicy chicken on bun for number one. And then, probably the mac and cheese.

Rosabel Liu  11:32  

Okay.

Haley Oeur  11:33  

I, that’s a reasonable take. Rosabel, how about you?

Rosabel Liu  11:34  

I would say, the pasta with the meat sauce and the garlic bread, if only they still had that. Bottom? Honestly, the pizza,

Haley Oeur  11:43  

The pizza?

Harman Kumar  11:44  

That’s crazy!

Haley Oeur  11:46  

That is crazy! That’s, like, 50% of the menu items every day.

Rosabel Liu  11:49  

I know. I can’t deal with it.

Haley Oeur  11:51  

Okay. Mine is a combination of yours. I think my number one is the pasta when they have it. And my bottom one is the mac and cheese. And the rice. I don’t like the rice.

Harman Kumar  12:00  

Just specifically the rice?

Haley Oeur  12:02  

Not the chicken, not the chicken. Only the rice. To conclude, how has your experience been with the school lunch? And how has this experience with us changed you? These new perspectives?

Rosabel Liu  12:14  

I think school lunch is as good as you could expect it to be for a public school. Like, if you hate the lunch just bring your own lunch.

Haley Oeur  12:22  

That’s true. Rosabel, you started bringing lunch this year.

Rosabel Liu  12:24  

Yeah, I have, I was like, can’t take any more of this. Even though I appreciate how hard our staff work. 

Haley Oeur  12:30  

I agree. Yes, they work very hard.

Rosabel Liu  12:32  

Yeah, they do.

Harman Kumar  12:33  

Overall, 7.5 out of 10.

Haley Oeur  12:35  

Wow.

Rosabel Liu  12:36  

That’s pretty good!

Haley Oeur  12:36  

It is pretty good. What a great time talking about the school lunch food. I’m feeling so hungry right now. No, but thank you guys for being here. Thank you to any listeners in the beyond that are listening. And yeah, this was a fun time. I really appreciate talking to you. And I’m glad you guys wanted to record with me. Thank you so much, and that’s it. That’s the podcast.