SPGI 2015 - The Cafeteria

St. Louis Trip, Day 2 - Day 7

As I noted in my post about our dorm, our $300 (per person) for the week covered room *and* board: 3 meals a day at the Webster University cafeteria. I do not generally eat three full meals every day. I eat breakfast and lunch (dinner), and then have a light snack for supper, and I snack any time throughout the day when I may be hungry.

So, eating three meals a day (since they were already paid for!) was a challenge.  The first couple days I did it, but by the end of the week, I really had to lighten up on how much I ate every meal!  We became convinced that were it not for all the walking a person has to do on campus, students who eat regularly at a cafeteria would be quite overweight.  

The food was good at Webster University, though they didn't have as much variety every meal as we experienced in 2010 when we went to the SPGI at Texas Tech.  At Texas Tech, you could choose from numerous dishes every meal.  I think this may have been because there were more people eating at the cafeteria.  At the Webster cafeteria it was mostly just the chess players and their families, with a few campus workers.

There was pizza every meal, a burger option, and a third choice which varied every day.  There was also a dessert bar, salad bar, and at least once there was soup.  So, no complaining!

I went for pizza the first couple days, while Papa tried out their burgers.  In the morning there was a limited variety of breakfast foods.  Above, I have biscuits and gravy, eggs, and fruit.  

We enjoyed a St. Louis special, fried ravioli.  Other meals, we ate mashed potatoes and gravy, delicious cheesy potato soup, and rice and fish.

Everyone who worked at the cafeteria seemed friendly, and we enjoyed chatting with fellow participants while we ate.  There were definitely no starving chess players there!  Campus dining was a very convenient (and filling) experience.