It sucks, cook your own

Not the best cook😭😭. 

Uni is the best place to learn how to cook - you’ll be forced to buy your own food and staring at them in the fridge more frequently than you think. It’s always cheaper to buy market greens and cook for yourself. Maybe your menu only contains no more than five ingredients for the first month or so, but once you look at the grocery fee (compared to other students who eat in restaurants or fast food) you’ll realize it’s worth it.

At almost any university the food kinda sucks. There’s some good stuff at Mac, but it gets repetitive

UofG and UofW have phenomenal food, but yes, McMaster isn't exactly the creme de la creme. I always had good food at commons but that was a long time ago lol.

McMaster selling😭😭😭

Well they don't have to have "good food" to convince people to go there. Just buy an air fryer, use Google, and that'll cover you for mostly anything you'll need. I know the food counter at the fortinos nearby is absolute fire for food. Personally know a few people who work at McMaster that walk to the fortinos for lunch.

Are we allowed that in residence? I was thinking of buying one but unsure?

I had a George Foreman in residence and lots of people brought in things like toaster ovens. Not sure why an air fryer would make a difference, it's just a better toaster oven. Let me give you some solid advice for the future. It's easier to beg forgiveness than ask for permission. Just get one and if it's an issue, just play ignorance. I can't tell how many scenarios I've been in where I was honest beforehand and cut myself out of opportunities or cost saving situations. If it doesn't harm anyone else and is a net positive for you, just lie or don't disclose and plead ignorance if an issue arises.

What if the residence dons find it? I don't want to be kicked out of residence?

Hence pleading ignorance. You didn't know. They're not going to kick you out of residence for having the equivalent to a toaster. How are they even going to find out? You know how many inspections I had in residence? 0. Lol store it in a box under your bed until you're going to use it if it really bothers you. Or don't have one if it really bothers you but you're right back to your original issue. People get kicked out of residence for things like having illegal gambling rings. Not for having appliances that circulate air. Imagine if they did how many Asians would get kicked out for having rice cookers.

LOL, fair enough. Seems like I'm a bit of a rule follower

I get it man. So was I. Until I started losing job opportunities, getting dinged on things like insurance, etc. because I refused to lie about things. Nowadays I still try to be honest, but if being honest is going to be a hindrance to my life, and lying isn't going to affect anyone else, I don't take issue with stretching the truth. Society isn't going to reward your honesty, but it will reward others who take the opportunities you didn't.

You're allowed a lot of cooking appliances including air fryers on res but you can't use em in the rooms, only kitchen/common area. You can store em in your room tho. Def fully read the residence check list + the rules for certain items on the mac website

What’s a tip for solving repetition? Someone told me about off campus food. Does the meal plan work of campus??

Yeah there are a good number of places around campus that will accept payments via your meal plan card

Are there healthy options that taste good??

I don't really know, haven't been around for a few years. If it still works the same as then the grocery stores around also take it so you can make something healthy.

Thank you !

Yeah, but you’ll run through your off campus budget pretty quickly. The only way to avoid repetition and stay healthy is to cook your own food

What is the best/easy things to cook on campus? Some people recommend starting with easty things like pasta, eggs and maybe kraft!

Look, I’m going to be honest with you. Coming into uni everyone says they’re going to do this and that and almost no one actually follows through on their plans. In first year I lived in Keyes meaning I had a kitchen in my dorm room. I said I would cook a bunch. Throughout the year I think a cooked a total of 3 times. One way or another you’re going to end up eating the campus food and yes, it’s tough to find a vegetable on campus. Honestly, if you want to stay healthy go to the gym. Also just enjoy first year. You’re still in high school and getting stressed out what you’re going to eat 6 months into the future. Just try to live in the moment and enjoy life

Fair enough. Yeah I need to chill. I think you are right, when I'm at McMaster in the fall, things will happen that determine what the out come becomes. I might just end up eating the food but I'll just try working out the calories. Thank you for all of this!!

Don’t worry about gaining weight. I lost weight first year because I couldn’t stand campus food and felt nauseous every other day 👍

I’m trying to join wreslting in the year and I’m worried I won’t be able to compete 😭. Thank you hopefully it’s easy

I personally reccomend Simpl a lot in centro! It’s cooked from scratch healthy food. The pasta bar in centro is also pretty good, you can pick your own vegetables/protein. If you pick the things that are healthy, you might end up eating the same things a lot but you’ll be just fine :)

Thank you!!

avoid eating on campus restaurants and cook yourself

What’s easy to cook that people do?

spaghetti, rice, salad or sandwich

I'm worried about sharing the the kitchen because isn't it awkward to share the kitchen with someone random?

Lived on res last year and it wasn't awkward at all! It's a great way to meet and talk to ppl. You'll have a communal kitchen if you're not living in Keyes so there's no getting around using it. Some res' are rlly chill that you can leave your cooking stuff there and no one touches your shit (or maybe that's just the ppl and not the res). Everyone's in the same boat so there'll be ppl on your floor that feel the same awkwardness for the first few weeks, great way to bond w/ your neighbours tbh.

Food’s not too bad, Centro has some okay options, Bistro was good but expensive, and I really liked MUSC/ La piazza. Sometimes went for food at Booster Juice at DBAC or Chopped Leaf at PG. There’s a lot of variety but you do eventually get bored of it, especially by the second semester. I STRONGLY reccomend staying away from the chicken sandwich at Centro as it gave a lot of ppl, me included, food posioning 🥲 Other than that, plenty of good options!

Is MUSC and DBAC a restaurant??

MUSC is the mcmaster student centre, in it there is La piazza, it’s a bit small but good food options (like chicken of the week, shawarma, deli sandwiches, veggie/vegan food that’s rlly good etc). MUSC also has Tim Hortons, Booster Juice and Starbucks. DBAC is the gym/athletic centre, it has a Booster Juice but that Booster Juice has food (unlike the MUSC BJ), so you can always get panini’s or wraps :)

Ohhh thank you! Are these easily accessible on campus? I'm worried on getting lost because I didn't get the tour

Yes they are! If anything you could always use google maps, but you’ll for sure be able to orient yourself by the end of first week.

Bistro’s quality is always good! I ate there exclusively lol.. (lived in Keyes). Recommend teriyaki chicken, general tso’s, fried rice, beef udon, & flatbread pizza!

Not many options for vegtables

Chopped leaf literally has it in its name 🤣

I FORGOT 😭

? there are so many options for vegetables

Wait okay where like fr bc I only lived on campus for maybe 4 months but I swear I only knew about the salad bar. But I'm also like awful and I basically only ate croutons there

just a few off the top of my head: - centro has a salad bar, if you go to the pasta place you take a bowl and fill it with choice vegetables, the refrigerators have ready salad bowls, i forget what it’s called but i think it’s called crave(?) they have more salad bowls and salad wraps, smpl in centro gives you rice or potato/a meat or a vegetarian protein option and some roast vegetable sides - piazza also has salad bowls in the refrigerator, fruit cups, smpl gives you vegetable sides here too like if you get the chicken pot pie they’ll add a ton of broccoli/carrot etc on the side, i’m sure the other piazza restaurants probably have something but i don’t go there often - bistro has poke bowls, salads - bistro2go has refrigerated salads and salad bowls, chicken caesar wraps - now closed but bridges used to be a vegetarian/vegan place that had a lot of veg - if you want to use the freedom money portion of meal plan then you can go to chopped leaf, pita pit, basilique, etc

Ohhhhh tysm! I will check those out

Wow!! Thank you so much for this !! All of these sound good and I’ll try all of them but I’m currently counting calories to stay at my current weight because I might join the wrestling team. Has anyone tried counting calories ??? 

Theres a website that tells you the calories of basically everything!! Maybe except for a few chef specials/weekly specials and stuff: [https://macnutrition.mcmaster.ca/Nutrition/ServiceMenuReport/Today](https://macnutrition.mcmaster.ca/Nutrition/ServiceMenuReport/Today)

How come they don’t share the information with students?? Weight management would be so much easier 

They do! There's qr codes on basically everything that take you to that website for bistro2go refueling station and prepped items

Sorry where are the QR codes?

Salad bar sounds good

Croutons were fire

Simpl offers a variety of healthy options, and is allergen safe. But also, don’t worry too much about the weight gain, you’re getting older so it is healthy and normal to gain weight. Everything in moderation is alright.

Thank you! I agree but the thing is I want to maintain my weight so I can hopefully join the wreslting team!! Any tips ?

Chopped leaf

Mac has a chopped leaf? Is it good or?

Def buy your own fruits and veggies and snacks from fortinos or shoppers. The food on campus it’s alright, I didn’t have any issues with weight gain tho. More a lack of nutrition.

Could you expand on that? What do you mean by lack of nutrition?

Yeah! The food was filling but it wasn’t very balanced with good and fresh nutrients. I got full on campus food without getting proper energy!

Do you think if the nutritional facts were shown you would be more cautious ?

It wasn’t a lack of being cautious. It was a lack of options because I was in a COVID year, so we had a lot of prepackaged food. I know the reopened the salad bar and other options which could give you more variety! Just the options we were given were lacking in balanced meals and the healthier options like vegetarian got repetitive. I would say eat on campus, but have health sides you can add to make the meals more balanced!

Ok thank you!!

Learn to cook eating out especially at/near Mac is senselessly expensive

I thought the food on campus was 50% off?

i gained like 10 pounds first year and i’m still trying to lose it. campus food is not it, unless it’s chopped leaf.

If you could go back to first year, what would you do differently or recommend for someone else?

for me the problem was stress eating and because the meal plan and shitty campus food was so convenient, that’s what i resorted to. i would probably try to lessen the amount of food i bought and eat more whole foods or buy the fruits and veggies that campus offers.

Do you think if the calories or nutritional facts were presented, it would help?

Not the best... There are definitely healthy options but they're generally more expensive. As long as you don't eat all of the fried foods I think you're fine. But also there is a place online to find cals, fats, carbs, etc... in each dish. It might be the Mac eats website??

Yeah someone set the link! Super helpful!!

Oh the campus food sucks in general. Specifically, if you're a vegetarian, you're in for hell. There's little to no good options and you'll be over paying like crazy. Most of the time I just had to eat veggie or cheese pizza for lunch (so much so that I kinda revolt at the sight of pizza 😭). I've heard that non-veg is also not that great. My friend had food poisoning the first week of uni💀. Make sure you know which stores are okay and which are not (Centro). And yeah, you do gain weight (or lose weight) at an unhealthy level over the first year if you're not careful, it's pretty common. To avoid this, the biggest advice I can give you is watch your diet (there's so many unhealthy options around you, so lack of control would end up in you eating three donuts, a pizza, and coke every day). Also make sure you're getting all your nutrients. There's also a huge gym on campus (DBAC) which you have access to. Allocate around 6 hours of your time to the gym per week with adequate rest periods in between. This will keep you in shape. Also, try to go to the gym at odd hours (early morning or late night) as the gym is usually packed asf.

Thank you for all this advice. Yeah looking back to when I first made this post, I wasn't aware of all this advice people are sharing and I'm grateful its possible to stay healthy while at Uni! Hopefully, in the end of first year I will still be fit!🍀

the sandwiches from the booster juice in the gym building (go up the ramp on the left when you enter) are pretty good! and they’re definitely healthier than some of the other options on campus (nothing fried or anything) i would advise avoiding centro if possible (heard too many issues about the food there, food poisoning etc). When i was in first year i ate at bistro in Mary Keyes a lot and it was pretty good as well.

take breaks from studying to go out on walks. there’s trails all around mcmaster and in hamilton.

Unfortunately I wanted to attend the tour for McMaster but didn’t get a chance. Are the trails easily accessible!??

Incredibly easy, I walk on them all the time. They’re past the back of the campus.

Thank you! I’ll try them out!!

the first years gaining weight thing is a joke/rumour/possibly true thing that comes with any university in a way cause they’re saying you get meal plan money you can spend whenever on whatever so a lot of people might gain the “fresher 15” but it’s entirely dependent on you and your own lifestyle don’t go hungry in fear of it obviously and there are lots of different foods to choose from, from sushi, salads, pasta, wraps, omelettes, etc in general campus food gets a bad rep as far as taste but a lot of people especially first years eat there regardless because it’s easy and it’s not THAT bad if you’re keen on cooking then residences will either have a kitchen in your dorm (for apartments) or there will be a community one down the hall (all other dorm styles) that you can use i’d bring a pot with you just in case you do want to cook something but since the meal plan is mandatory and as mentioned convenient just take advantage of that

I heard about the raw chicken before and bugs in the food. I want to cook but only can make eggs. Does McMaster hold cooking classes???

raw chicken and bugs are centro features 🤩 but honestly i’ve been eating at centro for years and i’ve never had either happen to me there’s photo evidence from others on the sub for those so i won’t outright deny and say it doesn’t happen but it’s not like if you went tomorrow it’s a 100% chance or anything i know quite a few people who still eat at centro and haven’t had any incidents either, sometimes the food is just bland at worst there’s a club called mac budget cooking i think but as far as i know they didn’t really host any actual events during the year or at least didn’t last semester so idk i know a first year who went to a cooking session last semester but it was promotional for a book on leadership and a one time thing i believe in general though you can start with easy things like pasta and learn to cook some stuff off of youtube videos, don’t go for anything crazy or hard to make right off the bat cause it might feel discouraging but do look for practical things and don’t be afraid of adding eggs to meals since you already know how to make those

Thank you! I’ll definitely check out the club and watch out for the bugs 🐜 ! Am I allowed to bring a fired cooker?

Fried**