RESTAURANTS: Institutional food, with good grace

YogiBoy

One recent article, and one old thread. Lets the Freshers know their dining options!

Commons people http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/magazine/2008/0301/1204240311479.html


RESTAURANTS: Institutional food, served with good grace
IN MY TIME at Trinity College Dublin, in the late 1970s and early 1980s, I wasted a great deal of my time by being involved in the College Historical Society, the world's oldest university debating society. It was time that I could have spent in the Lincoln, in bed (ideally not alone) or, God forbid, studying. But the Hist had a certain fascination, especially for its Machiavellian politics, and I met a lot of important and distinguished people who very kindly came along to speak at or chair debates to which we undergraduates would make contributions of varying degrees of pomposity, I being one of the worst offenders.
It was a tradition that the Hist committee and guests would attend commons, as the evening meal at Trinity is known, in the dining hall, before getting out the ballot box and trying our hands at public speaking. In those days commons was something of an ordeal. One of the porters, a former Irish Guardsman, had taken it on himself to conduct this formal evening meal with a military formality that we all took to be ancient tradition. It involved him marching about, clicking his heels and closing the dining-hall doors with a resounding crash.
After the doors were slammed and locked, one of the scholars would intone the grace. Oculi omnium in te sperant, Domine, it would start. Whatever pious hopes were being expressed on our behalf certainly didn't extend to a good meal. Commons in those days was pretty vile. I distinctly remember two fellow students dissecting their corned beef and claiming to have found a superior vena cava or something equally unpleasant.
How times have changed. I returned recently, on a frosty Monday evening, in the company of a man who had the misfortune to teach me British medieval history - and who seems to have recovered remarkably well. He is now a fellow and thus qualifies, as do scholars, for free commons, unlike the rest of Trinity, who pay a modest €17, which includes a glass of Guinness.
We prefaced the meal with a glass apiece of dry sherry, served at room temperature, according to a tradition unknown in its native land, at an equally modest €2.50. When the bell in the campanile started tolling, at 6.15pm, we adjourned to the dining hall, where, our guardsman being long retired, things are conducted rather more serenely. But grace is still said by a student, in this instance with a rather Italianate inflection. Apparently there is some concern among the classicists that Latin pronunciation ain't what it used to be.
We ate at the high table, where conversation flowed on a vast range of subjects as the three courses were served without rush but promptly and very efficiently - so much so that we were done and dusted by a little after 7pm.
The soup was as unlike anything I tasted in my undergraduate days as I can imagine - a home-made combination of tomatoes and herbs, well blended but still with a bit of bite. (I think there was probably some celery in there).
And then on to bacon - not too salty, thickly sliced and anointed with a pleasant and perfectly smooth parsley sauce. There were potatoes in their skins and, amazing as it may seem in what is, let's face it, an institution, exceptional cabbage: retaining a bit of crunch, nicely buttered, exhaling no sulphurous fumes. This was a fine plain plate of well-cooked food, simple and very tasty.
Pudding brought me back to the days when apple sponge was cut in squares and had the consistency of tepid glue strewn with toasted sawdust. But this apple sponge was similar only in name and constituents. It was light, crisp on the outside, nicely tart within, impeccably fresh and served with just enough whipped cream.
After grace, with a mention of Regina Elizabetha, huius Collegii conditrice, we adjourned to the senior common room once more, for coffee that we agreed was execrable, although it was poured from a very fine silver pot.
The wine list: In my time the TCD cellar was overseen with great joviality by a toxicologist, the late Philip Chambers, whose portrait now hangs in the college. His successor, Edward Arnold, has a very shrewd palate, and prices are usually a shade less than what you would pay in a shop. Some older wines offer the fortunate Trinity staff fantastic value, such as Bouchard Père et Fils fully mature Corton-Charlemagne 1988 for a barely believable €38.10, and Domaine de Trévallon 1999, a new classic, for €45. At high table the wines included in the price of commons are both from the dependable Chilean stable of Errazuriz. E Guigal Côtes du Rhone weighs in at €11.

---

Has anyone here gone to commons? I was awarded a Reid Entrance Exhibition.
So like the Sizars, I'm entitled to commons everyday. I've gone a couple of times but stopped coz it was all a bit too....for want of a better word...posh. The food was great, (it was free), but i didnt like it. i found it annoying coz all the rest of the people were scholars and i was a first year...and the fact that i only had 11 hours of college and i was finished by 1 everyday didnt help, i just couldnt have been bothered coming in everyday at 6,
I think next year i'll go more often (free up some money).

If ya never been before, its funny. I got a shock when i first went.. had NO idea what to expect, thank god the guy beside me told me when to stand up and stuff. You can barely hear what the guy says in latin, he says grace so fast. I liked the little glasses of guinness on the table but i hadnt the nerve to take one..i think only dudes can drink em?? or am i wrong? well i never saw a girl drink one.


I heard the food is pretty dreadful - meat/cabbage/potatos kinda thing.

People in tight dress suits imbibing Guinness and cabbage - never mind the Latin - I hope they leave the windows open.

girls can drink Guinness, I think it's just that the guys are quicker to take the ones on the table..

It's definitely an experience. Everyone should go at least once, imho.

The veggie option at commons isn't too bad.

Christmas commons is fun, was at it once (can't remember why...). The Chapel Choir sing christmas carols in between the courses, and there's crackers.

I've only been like 6 times in my time in the college, and I havn't yet had any complaint with the food. You get a 3 course meal, soup, main course and desert.

The drawback is that you have to sign up in advance before 3/3.30pm on that day, which is a bit annoying, and you tick yourself off on the way in. But the advantage of having everybody signed in beforehand and a preset menu, is that the service is super quick. As soon as everybody's finished their soup, they just roll out the main course, and the desert just as quick.

There seems to be a pretty good variety (Ive had a very different meal each time Ive went)

The other drawback is the rather rigid traditional formality... walking out after the fellows, grace in latin etc. But Id say you quickly get used to it. The scholars seem to be a fairly decent bunch too, I get the feeling you can just sit down and strike up a conversation with most of them, so Im actually trying to make it a habit of sitting at a different table each time I go.


We had our final year commons there a wee while back and myself and my colleagues managed to get 6 glasses each by getting all the muslim students/girls to fire them down the tables to us. It was funny, there was a crowd of raucuous drunken med students sitting beside all the normal sedate commoner scholars!


you have to buy a ticket from the enquiries office. €17 a pop or at the group rate.

I think i'd nearly prefer if it was at lunchtime all year, like in the summer... frees up the evening abit. You cant leave until the fellows leave so you're kinda stuck there for an hour! Yeah gettin a three course meal is deadly but just a tad bit formal for me! The veggie option always looks better.


I think it's quite a nice tradition that we have commons. I know some scholars who almost never go, but personally I find it handy as it cuts down on cooking... also an hour isn't that long really.

Yeah the veggie option is usually a good choice - in general commons meat isn't the best, especially the beef.

commons is alright as long as you have some one to talk to, i would love to have free commons everyday, im ean, i can ignore all the ceremony and all that jive, but helloooooo!! free food!

raah!

So can anyone just buy a ticket and go to that for their lunch one day? Sounds pretty interesting, to go to just for a one time thing anyway, for a larf.

Kwekubo

It's an evening meal. But yes, anyone can go.

YogiBoy

Anyone can go, at a price. Think of organising a group visit (cheaper), before a night out, just to sober the event up. (Buffet lunch outside term, 1800-1900 in term time)