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The podcast discusses the eating culture at Notre Dame, specifically focusing on the dining hall and the Balmer table. The Balmer table is a place where students from the dorm gather to eat together, fostering a sense of community. The table is always occupied, making it easy to meet new people and form connections. The dining hall food is not exceptional, but the students find creative ways to make it enjoyable. The Balmer table also helps freshmen feel acclimated and allows them to get to know upperclassmen. The dining hall experience is cherished, and some students prefer it over eating off-campus. The communal eating experience provides opportunities for friendships and interesting stories. Welcome to Why We Eat, the podcast that dives into eating culture at Notre Dame and figures out why we truly eat. I'm your host, Will Guarino, and today we are looking at eating culture, specifically at my door in Balmer Hall. I am with one of my roommates, Cole Cerevolo, and a freshman in my door, Matthew McDonald. Do you guys want to introduce yourself? Hi guys, my name is Cole Cerevolo. I'm a sophomore in Balmer Hall. I'm really excited to be on the podcast today. Hey, I'm Matthew McDonald. I'm a freshman. I live right across the hall from Will Guarino, and I'm excited to be taking part in this podcast as well. Well, thank you guys so much for joining the podcast. Before I get into some questions, I think it would be helpful for our audience to get some background, some context on eating culture at Notre Dame, and Balmer specifically. So, there's a dining hall we go to every day, and we have a table that we call the Balmer table. This big table sits in front of the dining hall, and we all sit up together, and this is great because it builds community. You can go in at any time, and there are going to be people there in your dorm. They might not be your best friends, but it helps you to get to know other people, and it's all around a great experience. Cole, do you want to speak to this a little? You've been here two years. How do you enjoy this part of Notre Dame and Balmer specifically? For sure. I mean, I think it takes away all the stress of going to the dining hall and sitting alone, knowing that whether I'm going to the dining hall at 830 in the morning, at 10 a.m., maybe at 2 p.m., literally at 430 for dinner, or at the dawn at 9 p.m., there will be one of my friends, a familiar face sitting there, and you know, something I really admire about Balmer, the entire dorm knows each other. We don't just sit with our sections or go for section dinner every night, but the whole dorm comes together around a meal all times of the day and sits at that table, and you just know, you know, I'm supposed to sit at that table, and even if you're sitting there alone for five to ten minutes, it's not long before somebody comes and sits next to you, and you know, you get to meet somebody new or see an old friendly face. Yeah, I think that's incredibly well said. It's been one of my favorite things about Balmer. I mean, I feel like for everyone, eating is a time for connections, to be with friends, and having the opportunity to know that you're always going to have a friend, a Balmer, a fellow Balmer buck there present with you really helps and helps form great connections. Oh, Matthew, I'll ask you the same question, but maybe you can give your own unique spin on it, because you're just a freshman, you've only been here one year. How has the Balmer table, or eating culture in general at Notre Dame, helped for you to join in this community? Yeah, so actually, I've eaten at the Balmer table a couple times alone, like without anyone showing up, and I think that even though I'm like sitting there alone, and it's whatever, there's no one there, it's still, like I still feel connected to my dorm, because it's like, it's like Cole said, it completely takes away the stress of going anywhere else. Like I just, it's almost like building a routine, like as soon as I walk into the dining hall, I know where I'm sitting, regardless of if they're somewhere or not, because it's our table. Yeah, no, I totally agree with that. I feel like I go to the dining hall at such a great quantity, way more than I would, just because I know there are always going to be people there, even if there aren't, it's just like I know where I'm going to sit, there's no stress in that regard. Do you, Matthew or Cole, if you want to speak to this, do you think the fact that it's like where we eat, the dining hall, is that like significant, especially significant, the fact that you have to go there every day, and we have this table, or is just like another great way for building community? Well, I'll talk about the food a little bit. Talk about the food, let's do that, I like that. South Dining Hall is notoriously not like three Michelin star dining, but I feel like that, even that builds culture in a way, because we gripe about the food together. I actually have a friend named Cole Isherwood, who also lives on this floor, who's nicknamed, or coined the term, the SDH Shuffle, which is you go to every station at the dining hall and do a little dance around the stations, because everything looks bad, and you have to go look for more stuff. So, it's like it's like you, everyone comments when everyone, anyone sits down, like what they're eating on, or you know, just toss their pizza or whatever. Yeah, I'll add to that, at the bomber table, we try to get as creative as possible as we can with foods, so it's always a really cool thing when somebody comes back. I remember the first time I saw a Greek yogurt bowl with nuts and Nutella and Oreos in it, and that has just revolutionized the game for Greek yogurt for desserts. Now, the entire bomber table now goes and gets Greek yogurt for dessert now, and you know, it's really cool to be at the dorm, just all like, hey, look at this dining hall hack I found. We're all in it together, trying to make the food as good as possible, while also kind of eating healthy. I think being able to sit with people and just talk about what we're getting, how we're making healthy food taste good, is also really beneficial to dealing with the dining hall food. Yeah, I think that's incredibly well said, Cole. I can totally add on to that. The fact that we're sitting with so many different people, new people who might not be your close-knit friends, you see new ways to eat, you see new, like, ways to make the dining hall food good. I kind of always thought it was you who started the big Greek yogurt trend, but I can speak to it. We all do it now, you know, you're throwing in nuts, Nutella, bananas, whatever, jelly, honey, peanut butter, whatever it is, and everyone's doing it, and it's just, it's great having that sort of community. And then, Matt, I kind of want to go to you one more time. I know you spoke to this a little bit, but if you can speak on your experience, maybe other freshmen in general, about getting acclimated in the bomber in Notre Dame. Do you think the fact we had a table that we spent three meals a day together, did that help in that regard? Oh, for sure. It's no question. Yeah, like, I had, I know first semester I had class with, like, four freshmen friends, and our thing was always we would go straight from principles of microeconomics to the dining hall, and then talk about the lecture or whatever. But you usually, because you're usually, like, going to the dining hall right after classes, you get to know the people you're in the classes with really well. Yeah, it's definitely one of the places that all the freshmen gather and, like, get to know the upperclassmen. That's, yeah, that's one of the unique things I think is true about Bomber that's not true of a lot of other dorms is that I know some of the upperclassmen just as well as I know, like, a lot of freshmen, and it's, yeah, Bomber Table is definitely part of that. Yeah, that totally makes sense. I think our relationship has really blossomed from great dining hall discussions, so I can, I think that's very well said. And I'll say one more thing, and I'm going to pass this to Cole after because I think this is right up his alley, but the fact that the Bomber Table and culture is such a great community, we're all there together, it really makes it so I'm not even eating off-campus as much using FlexPoints because I just love being in the dining hall, seeing other people. And I said I want to pass this to Cole because Cole is known as a dining hall merchant. He only goes to the dining hall. Cole, I believe you still have 500 FlexPoints left this semester. Can you speak to why you love the dining hall so much? Is it this culture we've been talking about or what is it? That's exactly it. I mean, I last, I take pride in honestly running out of dining hall swipes each semester, and, you know, I don't see any point in going to a modern market, going to, or off-campus on to Eddy Street, sitting by yourself and eating marginally better food, but not really enjoying your experience as much. I would rather sacrifice the quality of the food to just go and sit with some friends for an hour and unwind after classes and after a long day. And, you know, that's honestly the motivation behind, you know, my goal of running out of meal swipes each semester because it means I'm putting in my time and building relationships with my dorm and really being with the guys that I love to be around. Yeah. And then I guess the final thing I would want to talk about, just like eating connections, making friendships when it comes to it. Another reason I think it's so great to be eating with people who aren't just your close-knit group of friends. Perfect example would be Saturday morning after a Friday night. You know what your friends were doing. You know what they were up to. You already heard about it probably. But I didn't, I don't necessarily know what a group of freshmen did. And it's always great to be eating in a dining hall. Maybe that group of freshmen, they had a crazy story or something great that I wouldn't have heard otherwise because I'm not so good of friends with them. Matthew, if you want to add on to that at all, because you certainly have your fair share of great stories. Well, yeah, on that topic, I actually want to talk about something that's kind of a little bit fourth floor specific. I'm kind of notorious, along with another freshman, Luke Alvarez, for just making full meals in the kitchen that we have at two o'clock in the morning, which includes, but it's not limited to ramen and actually it is pretty limited to ramen and fettuccine. But the only reason that I do that is because we have a kitchen and the lounge as a result of that just naturally attracts people. I feel like whenever I walk into the lounge, I have this mindset of, I'm going to get so much studying done. I'm going to get so much work done. And then I walk in and there's just six people talking and I actually get sucked into a half hour conversation about the kitchen. And I think that's incredibly similar to what we've been talking about the dining hall this whole time. It's a place where you go to be with friends, make connections. I've made so many great connections with people in the fourth floor lounge at Bomber because of the kitchen area. I think food really brings people together and that's evident through the dining hall, but also with what you have mentioned. And with that, everyone, thank you so much for tuning in to the first episode of Why We Eat. Make sure to listen to this podcast on YouTube and subscribe. Thank you so much, Cole. Thank you so much, Matthew. And I hope you guys tune in next episode as we will be diving into the differences between distinct groups in Notre Dame, guys versus girls in their eating habits. Thank you.
