#tbt: HUDS in the Early 1900s

As much as HUDS has stepped up their salad and website game this past year, eating in the dining hall still feels like a chore. Doubly so if you're in Adams, where recently a putrid stench has invaded the dining hall and residents have been forced to use plastic plates. However, there once was a time not too long ago when HUDS was the last word in fine dining.

Not a swai in sight. By Courtesy of Harvard University Archives and Ignacio Sabate

Take a look at this menu from a Tuesday in 1909. Currently stored at the Harvard University Archives in Pusey Library, this menu (1) is beautiful and (2) should make modern Harvard feel ashamed of itself. The menu was displayed alongside an essay written by Henry David Thoreau when he was a student at the College, to show what the author ate the day he published his essay. But really, we at Flyby think it's there to send a messages to modern-day Dining Services: This could be us, HUDS, but you playin'.

When was the last time you had broiled halibut (a fish, I had to look that up) or broiled lamb chops for breakfast? I had a boiled egg for breakfast today.

Or a cut of (real) veal for lunch and a melba tart for dessert? Adams had chicken fingers at lunch today.

How about roast lamb, fried scallops, and a fig cake for dinner?

All of this makes us wonder: what happened? Harvard tuition costs somewhere around $63,000 per year. Are we really getting our money's worth? Oh, how the mighty have fallen.