Garlic-ginger chicken, goat cheese salad ...?!

Sodexo, a company that provides food services to some 600 colleges in the Uninted States and Canada, has released a long-term study of student taste preferences from 1989 to 2009. Check out students' dining hall favorites from this year, and compare 'em with the list from 1989:

Favorite foods in 2009

1. Locally-grown fruits and vegetables
2. Crispy garlic-ginger chicken wings
3. Mac 'n five cheeses
4. Vietnamese Pho soup
5. Green tea and pomegranate smoothies
6. Crab cake sliders
7. Mini samosas
8. Tilapia Veracruz
9. Goat cheese salad
10. Chicken Molé

Favorite foods in 1989

1. Fruit and cottage cheese plate
2. Chicken nuggets
3. Turkey Tetrazini
4. Chicken Chop Suey
5. Egg, bacon and cheese English muffin
6. Half sandwich and cup of soup
7. Taco bar
8. Spanish beef and rice
9. Vegetarian bean chili
10. Algerian lamb stew

When I was an undergrad at Middle Tennessee State U. in the early 90s, my buds and I didn't eat no chop suey or chicken nuggets or vegetarian bean chili or Algerian lamb stew (?!). In fact, we didn't eat on-campus food at all (save for the occasional cheap cheeseburger in the main campus cafeteria). Instead, we ate chicken wings and drank beer at Toot's; we ate meat, beans, taters and corbread at Kleer-Vu; we ate meat, beans, taters and rolls at the City Cafe; we filled up on pulled pork and the world's finest tater salad at Goff's; and we ate pizza, lots and lots o' pizza (didn't matter where it came from).

As for today's college kids' culinary preferences, I give 'em props for liking pho soup ... but that's all I'll give 'em credit for.