SO you’ve heard about the First-Year Holiday Dinner, where Logan literally gained the grain when he took home a giant loaf of bread. With ice sculptures and marching bands, mountains of lobsters and pasta, the first-year holiday dinner is probably the best thing that will ever happen to you… until you become a sophomore.
Because BOY OH BOY is the Sophomore Brunch so much better. (*full disclosure: brunch is my favorite Yale meal.) Yale Hospitality pulled out all the stops on this one, along with co-host Marvin Chun, our hugely popular and widely loved Dean of College (we even got a photo with him!). With baby blue tablecloths and geranium decorations, it felt like we were at a lovely elegant picnic where the sun smiled down on our delicious brunch.
A “Yale” ice sculpture welcomed us into the foyer. To the left, a fresh orange juicer (fresh OJ yass). At the center table, a FIVE FOOT CHOCOLATE FOUNTAIN(!) surrounded by fresh fruit. A plethora of pastries–muffins, brownies, tarts, scones, cinnamon rolls, you name it–covered the entirety of the 10-foot long table.
But that wasn’t all. In the corner was a giant “Yale” made of doughnuts, looming over AN ACTUAL DOUGHNUT MAKER MACHINE churning out fresh doughnuts and doughnut holes. Fried to a perfect crisp and powdered with sugar, these doughnuts were absolutely BLISS. No exaggeration. Seriously. Yale is out here giving Krispy Kreme and Dunkin Doughnuts a run for their money.
In the back, I noticed a mysterious tank of water for… wait for it… poaching eggs to order at the eggs benedict station. With smoked salmon, avocado, hollandaise and more toppings, we could customize our own eggs benedict. Dear Yale Hospitality: can we please have poached eggs every day? Please?
Or how about a 3D Pancake Printer in every dining hall? We gaped at the printer as it made a lemon ricotta pancake in the shape of a Y. Did Yale really have to flex on us that hard?!
And finally, my favorite station: a build-your-own pork bao station. The white buns sat in bamboo steamers next to a roasted pork, a variety of toppings (dried mushrooms, slices of cucumber, green onions) and Hoisin sauce. My tastebuds were in heaven. As an Asian American, I am constantly searching for tastes of home–and I unexpectedly found slices of it at Sophomore Brunch. Thanks, Dean Chun!
My friends and I ate until we could barely move. We were stuffed and happy in our food comas (though it didn’t bode well for our papers we had to write that afternoon). Massive thank you to Yale Hospitality for showing us that though we are no longer babied first-years, we have not been forgotten. Thank you for essentially saying to us, we love you a brunch!
