Today, I bring you a tale of a salad that has helped me in a time of great need.
Much of my homesickness on this campus occurs because of food. I miss the way my mom makes chicken pot pie and the way my dad makes stir-fry with his specific peanut sauce that always tastes good. I miss my sister’s signature chicken and sweet potato dish. Most of these cravings are things I have to dream about, and last week, as I curled up in bed for the night, I was struck by how much I missed my family’s taco salad.
I imagined the flavor combination of Doritos, Thousand Island dressing, lettuce, pinto beans, ground beef and cheese. I could practically taste the creation as I was about to fall asleep. Right before I drifted off, my eyes popped open and I realized it was possible to make this at St. Olaf. And so began the wonderful experiment of the Stav taco salad: Stav edition.
The experiment began with a trip to the vending machine, where I bought a bag of Doritos. I then stashed the bag in my pocket as I made my way into Stav. While doing this, I felt like a total, super-secret thief — like “Ocean’s Eleven”-level work.
Once I had successfully snuck the Doritos into Stav, my next feat was to obtain one of the new salad bowls. When my eyes finally locked onto the oddly, diagonally cut bowl, I practically sprinted toward it. I truly felt that if the cafeteria had not been so crowded, I would have twirled around with the bowl lifted to the sky in glee. Instead, I headed to the taco line and asked for two things: chips and beef. Once I obtained these ingredients, I went over to the toppings station and got shredded lettuce and cheese. The journey for this taco salad was almost over; only one last ingredient was needed.
I took my final trek to the dressing station in Stav, grabbed the Thousand Island dressing and poured it over my collection of ingredients. My only objective after that was to get a drink and sit down.
Once I sat down, I took my bag of Doritos out, opened it and added them to the bowl with everything else. Then, I took my fork and started crushing the chips, taking out all of my aggression from the week on them. I stirred it all together until most of the chips were fully coated in the taco sauce substitute of Thousand Island dressing and the taco seasoning from the beef.
Once it was all mixed together, I chowed down, and it was a delicious 10 out of 10 that brought me home in an instant. For a moment, I was not sitting in the wooden chairs of Stav, but instead at my family’s kitchen table.
After hearing about this creation, I hope you feel inspired to try it yourself — or, if not this, to experiment with what Stav can offer to help ease homesickness.
