Real Student Grub

This article was originally created to promote Grub on a Grant, a project I undertook with a group during my first year of Computer Science.

There's a lot of advice out there from people claiming to know best for students. Concerned parents, newspaper columnists and famous chefs all want you to believe their vision of what you should be eating. Sadly, there's very few viewpoints out there written from an actual student perspective.

I'm a Computer Science student at one of the UK's best Universities at the moment, and as you might guess that doesn't lead to an 'ideal' diet as the various TV shows, magazine articles and those who get rich off telling you how dreadfully unhealthy you are would define it. But as one of the thousands, probably millions, of people are who living and studying at Universities across the world, I'd say I've got a fair idea of what students really eat and drink.

The first, most important choice that you'll need to make when you're starting uni is whether to go for catered or self-catering accommodation. When you're making the choice between catered and non-catered accommodation, you really need to ask yourself just what university is about for you. A lot of people might come up with the answer of striking out on their own and becoming self sufficient. Having to sit down at 6 o'clock for dinner every day really constrains the average student, a lot of whom tend to keep quite abnormal hours, lectures permitting. Certainly a fair few people who've gone in for catered accommodation have told me that they get a lot of take aways, as getting into the catering during a specific time slot tends to be a hassle. As an additional note, you should realise that most catered accommodation will only supply you with food for five days out of seven. You're typically expected to fend for yourselves over the weekend.

Still, there's plenty to be said for the stability of a regular meal schedule, especially for people who aren't used to living away from home. Maybe having to think about shopping for food on a constrained budget might be a little overwhelming for your first year away from the family. But if you do decide to go for non-catered accommodation, there are a few useful tips that might help you out.

Those of you who're taking a course in food preparation may disagree with this next point, but many students live by it. The rule of four is a simple cooking rule which states that: 'More than four ingredients is too many'. When you've got work that needs doing for the morning, or a party starting in an hour, you don't want to be following recipes in one of the many student books that requires 25 grams of this, that and the other or for you to marinate a side of beef. That doesn't, however, mean you have to settle down with a chicken curry ready meal or a pizza, though I'll readily admit to doing that when I can't be bothered.

Gammon, oven chips and peas is simple to make and takes no more than 20 minutes, while something like chicken in a homepride-like sauce with roast potatoes and maybe some broccoli makes a nice Sunday dinner. My personal favourite is baked bean mince; just brown a normal 500 gram pack of mince in a pan, then dump in a tin of beans and stir for a few minutes. Add a na'an bread and in 10 minutes you've got an easy and filling meal for two that you can almost guarantee has no excess sugars or preservatives in it.

Where to shop and what to buy is often the most complicated thing to figure out when you're a student, although if you go to any university in the UK I can guarantee you that most students will know the phrase '7 pence noodles'. The best advice I can give is find a Tescos or Asda in your area, as most local convenience stores are good for a loaf of bread but most everything else will be overpriced in comparison. It might be worth going for the supermarket's own-brand products. The super cheap stuff is normally only a few pence less, and the difference in quality is tremendous. The quality of own-brand tends to be only a little below the brand name products, while only being about half the price. Certainly worth the effort, apart from baked beans, as most people's mothers will have told them already.

Alcohol. For many people in the UK, it's a staple of university life. Although this article is theoretically about food, I have to accept that alcohol has an important place here too. About two out of every three students are going to spend more money a week than on food, at least for the first month or so. Strangely, the best places to purchase alcohol tend to be the convenience stores I told you to avoid a minute ago. A lot of retail chains use special deals on alcohol to lure people into the shop in the hopes that they'll buy something else as well. However supermarkets do, again, have some excellent own-brand products. While convenience stores are likely to offer better prices on beer and cider, supermarkets tend to stock own-brand liquor. Like most of the own-brand food, the liquor tends to be almost as good at about half the price; an excellent example being Asda's 'Irish Knights', which is essentially a £3 bottle of Baileys Irish Cream. Much cheaper than the £15 it would normally cost.

If you have the good fortune to have a well organised freshers week from your halls of residence, you'll get a good tour of a lot of the local bars. Almost without exception it's cheaper to stay in with a group of friends than it is to go out. The odd exceptions might be the students unions, many of which have £1 drinks nights. But even then, from a safety point of view it's almost always better to stay close rather than staggering back from a night on the town. Many universities offer special late-night minibus services around the campus, which give priority to girls or people on their own. Hopefully some small reassurance to worried parents.

After the first year when you're thrown out of the University accommodation into the big bad world of renting houses, paying bills and arguing about whose turn it is to use the washing machine, food worries will hopefully recede a bit. If you chose to take your first year in non-catered accommodation, you should be adept at finding all the food you need. However it may be worth considering communal cooking. It's something that I don't see done very often, which is a shame as it does save a lot on food costs. If you're moving into a house with your friends anyway, it might at least be worth-while trying to set up a communal shopping budget for buying things like milk or bread which the whole house can make use of. It's a real shame to see halls of residence where there's five different half-empty bottles of out-of-date milk in the bin, but that goes double for when you're living with people that you chose yourself.

Well hopefully that's given you a few ideas of what to do when you do eventually get to university. There's various things you'll pick up along the way from other people you live with, for instance putting bread in the freezer to keep it fresh. I can't stand it myself, but for those who don't eat much bread maybe it'll come in handy. But above all, just try to enjoy what may well be the best years of your life, and don't worry too much about the next meal.