The BC deli is open from 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday and provides students with sandwiches as well as personalized pizzas and pre-prepared salads.
A sandwich is my favorite thing to eat. The fact that you can fill two slices of bread with all kinds of food and that you are able to eat on-the-go makes me very happy.
I seldom purchase food items from the cafeteria that are not packaged, but I have bought a sandwich or two from the deli on random occasions.
One of the things that gets me down about the deli is that it does not have much of a variety. The selections that students have to choose from are pastrami, turkey, salami, ham, beef, tuna and veggie. This might seem like a lot, but compared to other sandwich shops, it isn’t much.
Usually I get pastrami or a salami sandwich, but on this particular occasion I was in the mood for turkey. Not because I’m particularly fond of the lunchmeat, but because it was one of the few sandwiches that I have not tried from the cafeteria.
Though I prefer to be given a sandwich that has predetermined contents, I filled out a green order form circling the items I desired. I chose turkey with mayonnaise, mustard and avocado and everything else except for alfalfa sprouts because I’m not down with the stringiness.
Extra meat is another thing I circled, because in the past I had been given a scant amount of meat that was not fulfilling. All of this was placed on a six-inch French roll.
Opting for the meal, I also chose chips and a soft drink; my meal came up to be a whopping $9.25. Though I did not imagine it to be this much, I knew that ordering extra meat and avocado probably didn’t help with the price.
What I received was more than I expected. The woman who prepared my sandwich put over an inch of turkey, and a fat amount of lettuce, jalapenos, banana peppers, olives, onions and two half slices of tomatoes. While she was stuffing the contents of my sandwich, she had trouble folding the roll over because of all the meat and vegetables she packed into it.
While struggling to close the sandwich she asked me, “Are you going to eat this like a taco?” I smiled as she cut my sandwich in half and stuck a toothpick on each end to keep it from falling apart.
Though I was pleased at her generosity, I couldn’t help but notice that the onions were somewhat transparent and not white like they should be. The lettuce also seemed to be a bit wilted.
Before consuming the sandwich, I inspected it. The texture of the onions was not what is to be expected. Instead of being crisp and easy to break, they were somewhat bendy. I looked at the lettuce and, though it seemed questionable, I decided I’ve eaten sandwiches with lettuce that looked much worse.
Walking through campus while holding my plated sandwich, a sprite and a bag of potato chips, I received glances from several students.
One woman who noticed my sandwich commented, “That’s what I’m talking about. Can I have some?”
The French roll that the meat and vegetables were placed into were not able to support their presence and much of the insides ended up on my plate.
While eating my sandwich, I noticed that I did end up eating it like a taco, scooping up all the items that fell off the plate with my chips.
My experience of this visit wasn’t a great one, but I probably will go again. As far as cafeteria food goes, I feel the meal was adequate. After all we don’t get the privilege of having a Togo’s on campus like CSUB. The two things that I wish we did have were better prices and fresher vegetables.