Olives at Building 160

First off: the Stanford Hospitalities and Auxiliaries page for this eatery lists its name as "Olives@Bldg160," but I refuse to use that in a post title.

I always think of Olives as "that vaguely Mediterranean-ish place over by History Corner." Its website, however, tells me that its food is "inspired by Greek, Thai, Indian, and California cuisines." That's... quite a combination.

Anyway, I've been to Olives before, but don't remember ever getting anything other than lasagna or pasta Alfredo. So, I went back last week (breaking free of the hold that the GSB French dip had on me) and tried the vaguely-Mediterranean chicken skewers with couscous.

The chicken and couscous were perfectly fine, but the happy surprise of this meal was the side of what tasted like freshly-made hummus with pita. If they sold the hummus and pita a la carte, I'd eat here constantly.

This week's obsession

French dip with rosemary au jus on an onion roll (GSB cafe weekly grill special):

I've had it for lunch every day this week and I can't explain the obsession. I've never been a particular fan of French dip sandwiches, nor of consuming large quantities of red meat in the middle of the day.

Really wish they'd offer a half-sandwich option though. This is WAY more food than I need.

First Visit to the Thai Cafe

After deciding to start this blog, but before I got around to writing an intro post, I made my first visit to the venerable Thai Cafe. The Thai Cafe is known for selling $6 entrees (cash only!) out of a window overlooking a courtyard in the Main Quad, over by Jordan Hall and the math/computer science library.

I'd heard that the lines here tend to be long, but there was no wait when I showed up just before 11:30 on a Thursday afternoon. I got a very good vegetarian curry with potatoes, butternut squash, and carrots:

With the rice, it was a ton of food, far more than I could eat, and at $6 it is easily one of the best lunch values on campus. I found the curry a little on the spicy side, but I am a notorious wuss when it comes to spice; I'm sure a normal person would consider it mild.

I'll probably add the Thai Cafe to my regular lunch rotation, at least on days when I have cash with me. Which is admittedly not all that often.

A Confession

I'm going to start this blog with a confession: despite having worked at Stanford for going on four years, and despite buying my lunch nearly every day, I rarely venture beyond my comfort zone to explore the full range of food options on campus. And by "comfort zone" I mean the Graduate School of Business Cafe, also known as the Arbuckle Dining Pavilion. As is obvious from the noon lines at the sushi station and the salad bar, this is not exactly one of the best-kept secrets of the Stanford dining landscape.

I'm hoping that writing a blog about food at Stanford will motivate me to get out and try new things. If nothing else, it will give me a place to share exciting news such as the discovery that Coupa GSB and Coupa Green Library now carry nine different flavors of gelato bars.

And also to share things like this:

The GSB cafe likes to get creative with its weekly pizza specials. Lots of fusion pizzas on offer (Mexican, Indian, etc.) But never before had I seen what confronted me on Monday at the pizza station: pizza topped with pasta and meatballs. I can't decide if this is very, very awesome or very, very wrong.