Lean Finely Textured Beef

In response to recent news about Lean Finely Textured Beef (also known as Pink Slime), Harvard University Dining Services (HUDS) has audited all menu items containing ground beef. Effective immediately, HUDS will not serve any meat that includes Lean Finely Textured Beef.

While this product is approved by the USDA, HUDS has elected to ban it from our menus to ensure our ground beef is of the highest quality.

Spring Seasonal Menu

There was some truly spring-like weather over the break, so we’re celebrating the new season with the launch of our Spring Seasonal menu in the undergraduate dining program.

Each year we make seasonal changes in keeping with the way our tastes change based on the weather, and to take advantage of ingredients growing locally.

The Winter seasonal menu received lots of compliments, so we’ve tried to take what you loved on that menu and bring it – if not in specific entrees at least in spirit – to the spring. As such you’ll enjoy:

• Two new Make-Your-Own stations. On Mondays we have an Asian-influenced Chop Chop salad; on Thursdays, we’ll feature a Crispy Fish Taco bar. (I know many of you have a deep love for the Korean Barbecue – it will be back next winter).
• Tuesday night’s Fruit Bar has been such a hit that we’ll keep it right where you’ve come to expect it.
• One of the recurring themes we hear is that you love it when we make special salads, already assembled. On Wednesdays and Fridays, we’ll institute that as a regular option. Wednesdays will include Fattoush, a Levantine salad made with toasted pieces of pita bread as well as greens and vegetables.
• And Friday nights will continue to serve Global Cuisines, starting this week with French, and following with Vietnamese, Thai & Mediterranean.

We continue to work on clearly defining for our vegetarian community a daily entrée. We’ve taste-tested and sample a range of options, some of which you’ll see this spring. You’ll also note that we’ve modified our online menu listing to call out the Vegetarian Entrée separately (just below the other entrees) at lunch and dinner. We hope this makes it easier to identify your options quickly.

A few other highlights based on your feedback:

• A new homemade fish cake recipe using local whitefish
• A new homemade chicken salad recipe at the deli
• Cheesecake for dessert (first appearing Tuesday, March 20)
• New Sweet Chills FroYo flavors (Cookies & Cream, Yellow Cake Batter, Dreamy Creamy Chocolate, Banana Cream Pie)
• And special menu features from the Mushroom Council and the Pork Board

Finally, spring offers some good reasons to celebrate. Coming up, we’ll have:

• Yardfest (mid-April)
• Earth Day dinner (April 19)
• Richardson’s Ice Cream Sundae Bash (may 3, at the start of Exams)
• And the Food Literacy Project’s Top Chef competition

Keep the feedback coming – here on the blog, online, at Facebook or Twitter, to your UC-appointed Dining Advisory Committee members, to your dining hall team, and on the Spring satisfaction survey. We’re listening!