"The newest, most popular foods among young folks are Indian food and Southesast Asian food because there are so many different taste profiles," David Newlove, associate director of Dartmouth Dining Services, said. According to Newlove, student response to these foods has been very positive.
Sunja Yi Hayden, a local vendor based out of Waterbury, Vt., and a her crew demonstrate sushi making live in Collis Cafe four nights a week. Hayden's products have been sold at Topside for the past 12 years, according to Newlove. The sushi used to be sold pre-packaged in Topside and Collis coolers, but in the past three or four years, it has moved to many campus dining halls, Tucker Rossiter, DDS director, said.
Hayden did not initially travel to Dartmouth to make sushi, but in the past few years she has started performing one demonstration per week. Positive student responses prompted more frequent visits, Newlove said.
On-campus sales of Sunja's Sushi have doubled in the past two years, according to Newlove.
"We had a lot of requests for having sushi more often," Rossiter said. "There's not a night that it's offered where you can say, 'Monday is a slow night,' because folks are going in there all the time."
Anna Pudimat '11 said that she is pleased with the sushi offerings.
"I'm a sushi kind of person, and I think it's fantastic," said.
Still, some students said they believe the price of the sushi is too high.
"Of course, everything that we're purchasing these days is getting more expensive," Rossiter said, noting that DDS price changes depend on fluctuations in local vendors' operating costs. These operating costs include paying for fuel and raw materials.
Newlove praised the quality of Hayden's fish, which she brings whole to campus for her demonstrations, and said that DDS has not raised sushi prices for its customers this year. He said that DDS must account for the cost of the fish itself and packaging expenses in its pricing.
In addition to more frequent visits by Hayden's crew, Collis Cafe introduced Vietnamese pho to the Late Night menu this winter in response to student requests that DDS offer a greater variety of Asian and Mediterranean foods, according to Rossiter. Don Reed, manager of Collis Cafe and Lone Pine Tavern, brought the dish to Dartmouth after seeing a similar entree at the University of Massachusetts.
"We had seen pictures, and we thought, 'Oh, that's something we could do,'" Newlove said.
Reed, who went to culinary school, makes the pho from scratch.
DDS plans to introduce other new foods in the near future. Communication with students remains an important part of this process, according to Rossiter, who said DDS routinely solicits student input.
Newlove hinted at the possibility of including kimchi, a Korean side dish that is part of Hayden's lineup, in Homeplate meals.
In the warmer months to come, Newlove foresees the need for yet another innovation.
"We'll probably have to find something to replace the pho just because when it's 80 degrees out, you might not want soup," he said.