Food for Thought

SESHADRI G.

Bored of the mess food but don’t want to travel far? Institute food joints will come to
your rescue. Over the course of this semester and the next, all the familiar eateries in the
institute will be given new avatars. InsIghT digs in.

• Brewberry has already begun in H8 in place of the old Coffee Day Express outlet.
  Brewberry serves coffee, smoothies, pizzas, burgers, sandwiches and cakes and will
  soon start serving sandwiches similar to subway.
• By December end, Amul Ice Cream parlour and Ganesh juice centre will be
  combined into one place. This will have a mini food court with external seating and
  will serve juices, chaat, sandwiches, parathas, frankies, south-indian etc.
• H13 can expect to see a couple of food stalls which will be serving a range of
  beverages and pre-processed food as well as fast food options, by the end of
  November
• The Shrusti Dhaba, opposite H1 will have a new vendor by the end of November and
  a paved seating for around 40 people.
• The Coffee Shack will be revamped and is expected to serve more options like fruits,
  sandwiches, pre-processed foods and juices in addition to the existing food and
  beverages by February.

In addition to this, all hostel canteens are also going to be re-vamped depending on
the decision of individual hostels. The initiative was taken by the Dean SA and the HCU
Chairman after a food poisoning case in H3 canteen. According to Abhishek Agarwal
(Monty), GS Hostel Affairs, “This is being done because the canteen models are very
old and with time, we have increased the menu to such a level where with the current
kind of vendors, it is a big failure in terms of hygiene and professionalism. No general
solution has been decided for implementation but the HGSC is working towards it.
In the long term, a 24-hour food court will come up near H12, 13 and 14 which will
have around 6 outlets but would take 3–4 years for completion. The plan in the long
run is to centralize the canteens to form two food courts.” The quality of food being
served currently is being compromised because of the low pricing and no competition
for the canteen caterers. Perhaps this new move will improve food quality at the cost
of ‘Raghu’, an increased canteen bill and more items on the menu.