Jaden C. '28 Jaden C. '28

Join the Boarders and Taste the “Better Lunch”

I am one of the fortunate people who get to eat the Athenian dinner every day, prepared with great care by the Epicurean Group with their motto “fresh, honest, and local.” Most day students only get to hear about the delicious dinner that they miss out on from boarders. Here are the top 5 best Athenian dinners that will make day students want to become boarders.

  1. Taco Tuesday: The best constant recurring dinner Athenian has ever had. Boarders rush to dinner even a few minutes before to get their plate first or else it will be a long wait for this incredible meal. Endless amounts of rice, meat, beans, lettuce, cheese, sour cream, and guacamole, it is practically Athenian’s Chipotle. It tastes exactly like Chipotle, too, with each bite filled with a mixture of rice, meat, sour cream, lettuce, and cheese. It overpowers your tastebuds with flavor and makes you want to take more and more bites. Anyone can build their plate and taco to their desire leading to many plates overflowing. What a shame that Taco Tuesday only happens every other week. 

  2. Ramen: A warm broth filled with ramen noodles, bok choy, dumplings, and chashu. It just really warms your stomach and can help a cold. Every bite and sip of the broth just makes you feel at home and tastes like comfort. Furthermore, the noodles and dumplings give it a savory flavor, which when combined with the broth creates an explosion of warmth in your mouth. I love having this dinner during the winter as it gives me a shield from the cold and makes me feel like I am full and warm. The ramen is also build-your-own, so there are a bunch of toppings to choose from to make your ramen even better. 

  3. Sushi Boat: A wooden boat with sashimi, nigiri, and rolls, all neatly placed in rows across the top of the boat, creating a delicious piece of art. Fresh salmon and tuna are cut nicely into sashimi, while others are placed neatly onto rice to create nigiri. The rolls are even better with California Rolls and Japanese Grilled Eel Rolls. All fresh, and ready to eat on the boat with of course a side of wasabi and soy sauce. Only one bite is needed for each nigiri, sashimi, or roll, and you can practically taste and smell the sea with each piece of sushi all being fresh out of the ocean. 

  4. Chicken Katsu: A baked, bread-crumb-surrounded piece of chicken combined with a selection of sauces creates a warm, flavorful, crispy bite. Combined with a side of rice or noodles, this dinner is a staple in the boarding community due to its simplicity and likeability by a large number of people. It tastes exactly like it is from the restaurant, even a bit crispier, creating an amazing crunch. Moreover, a smooth savory sauce is prepared on the side, so boarders can get as much as they want to make their chicken taste even better. Every bite, the juices flow out of the chicken mixing with the sauce while you hear the crunch and top it off with some rice that enhances the overall taste. 

  5. Tri-Tip: Rows and rows of meat, perfect for a carnivore, with a side of mashed potatoes to help enhance the flavor of the meat. The meat is cooked perfectly and has sauce drizzled all over to make sure that it never tastes dry. On lucky occasions, there will be Hawaiian bread to make yourself a few sliders that taste phenomenal. The Hawaiian bread sandwiching the meat creates a chewy and delicious slider that enhances the taste of the meat even more. It is one of the few recurring dinners where boarders usually go for seconds or thirds.  


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Jem R. '28 Jem R. '28

Finding the Finest Fast Food Fries

As someone who loves fast food, I’ve eaten at a variety of places and have always found fries to be the most divisive topic. I’ve found the best burger, shake, ice cream, or drink at fast food places, but no one can seem to agree on a general answer to the best fry. It seems to be a controversial topic both in my life and on the Internet, with every list giving wildly different answers. Since no one could seem to agree, I set out on a mission to rank fast food fries. 

This list is based on five categories, each ranked on a scale of 1 to 10 and then averaged out. The scores for crispiness, freshness, saltiness, and ability to stand alone - taste - are all ranked based on my subjective perceptions of the fries. The final category, cheap and plentiful, is a ranking based on the price per ounce, with the cheapest per ounce getting a 10 and the most expensive getting a 1. 

So what makes a good fry? A good fry has to meet a few criteria. First, the fry has to be fresh, warm, and not soggy. Also, the fry should be crispy. Specifically, when you bite into it, the fry should be crispy on the outside but soft on the inside, and the smaller pieces should be crisp, but not so crunchy that they leave a burnt taste in your mouth. Additionally, the fries should taste good, so they should be well-salted and stand on their own well, not requiring any sauce to be enjoyable to eat. Lastly, the fries should be affordable: you should receive fries proportional to the amount that you pay. 

By those criteria, here are the best fast food fries, ranked in ascending order:

8. Burger King

Score: 4.2/10

Burger King might be the ruler of burgers, but it certainly doesn’t have the fries to match. The fries were warm but not fresh and had a strange coating that left an unappealing aftertaste in my mouth. They were also quite bland, barely having any salt or flavor. In addition to this, they were very soft, with no crispiness whatsoever. They were surprisingly cost-effective, but their price wasn’t enough to make up for their taste – a disappointing showing from such a popular fast-food restaurant. 

7. Dairy Queen

Score: 4.4/10

An underwhelming score from Dairy Queen. While the fries were certainly fresh, they barely had any flavor or crisp to them. They were slightly soggy and bland overall. With some sauce, or -- hear me out -- dipping them in your Blizzard, they could be decent. But on their own, these fries don’t hold up.

6. Jack in the Box

Score: 4.8/10

Jack in the Box’s fries were mediocre in every way. They were fresh and warm for a minute but got soggy quickly. The crispiness was inconsistent within every fry, with some bites being perfectly crispy, others very soft, and others practically burnt. In terms of taste, they were very undersalted and fairly bland. Despite this, they had a bit of flavor to them, and the bites that were crispy tasted decent. 

5. Wendy’s

Score: 6.2/10

While Wendy’s fries have had a ton of build-up around them overall, I found them disappointing. The fries were slightly warm and weren’t consistently crispy, having a bit of crunch but not very much. The smaller fries were overly crispy and the larger ones didn’t have any crisp at all. They were decently salted but needed some sort of sauce to have enough flavor. 

4. Chick-fil-A

Score: 6.7/10

Whenever people talk about the best fries, Chick-fil-A’s waffle fries almost always come up, but I don’t think they lived up to the hype. To be sure, they were warm and fresh, and outstanding in crispiness. Very few places understand how to make a satisfyingly crispy fry, but Chick-fil-A does it well. The fries are crisp along the edges but soft in the middle. However, this could not make up for the taste. The lack of salt and flavor made this fry fairly bland and unappealing.

3. Kentucky Fried Chicken

Total Score: 6.9/10

KFC’s fries came as something of a surprise. I wasn’t expecting much out of fries from a fried chicken place, but they were very good. They were right out of the fryer, fresh and fairly crispy. However, the salting was variable, with some not having nearly enough salt, and others having way too much. This could probably be masked by a sauce, but on their own, the fries don’t hold up very well. Even though they were good, they were by far the least cost-effective fry, with a price of almost a dollar per ounce. But if you’re willing to pay, these fries are worth a taste.

2. McDonald’s

Score: 7.8/10

McDonald’s performed well. Their fries were good, with enough salt to be flavorful, a good taste, fresh, and warm. The only area where they underperformed was the crispiness of the fries. The fries were overall very soft, even the small pieces that are usually very crispy. The fries were delicious, but I wanted more. That being said, McDonalds was certainly the most cost-effective, being only 39 cents per ounce.

1. Five Guys

Score: 8.7/10

Five Guys certainly did not disappoint with their fries. Their fries were warm and fresh from the moment you took them out of the bag, a little hot but after about thirty seconds they were the perfect temperature. They were flavorful and well-salted, there was no need for a sauce to complement the flavor. The only complaint I had was inconsistency. Some of their fries were more or less salted than others, but it was kept within a reasonable range and barely affected the taste. Five Guys were by far the most expensive fries on the list, but you get an insane amount of fries for the amount you pay, having one of the cheapest prices per ounce.

Even though Five Guys has the best fries, if you’re looking for the best value, you’ll get it at McDonald’s. The cheapest fries on the list at only $1.89, they have the best value for what you get, and even though they aren’t the best, they’re pretty close and still very good. 

I went into this thinking that I had an idea of what my favorite fry was, but I found myself surprised by some of the fries I hadn’t considered. I enjoyed Five Guys’ fries the most, but fry taste is very subjective, so I invite you to try them yourself and see what you think.

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Chloe L. '25 Chloe L. '25

Three Athenian Foods You Don't Want to Miss

As a Student Ambassador, one of the most common questions I receive from prospective students is ‘How is the food at Athenian?’ 

It seems that when given the choice, families prefer to go to a school that will satisfy their kids’ stomach. This article is, therefore, a chance to proudly showcase some of the best foods served at Athenian, allowing prospective students to have a glimpse of the amazing cuisines here. 

Athenian’s kitchen is run by the Epicurean Group, providing the school with healthy and sustainable food choices. There are daily entrée and fresh salad bars and the recently brought back soup station is greatly enjoyed. 

Without further ado, here are three of my favorite dishes at Athenian. 

1. Chicken and Waffles 

Chicken and Waffles is finally back. This is my all-time favorite meal at Athenian that the kitchen does not serve often. Who can resist warm and crispy waffles with savory chicken wings? The chicken is seasoned with a blend of salt, pepper, and garlic powder, creating a perfect balance of flavors that is neither salty nor plain. The meat is cooked just right, creating a golden-brown exterior. It is also sprinkled with lemon to add an additional flavor. The waffles make the dish even better. With a drizzle of maple syrup, the sweet taste complements the saltier taste of the chicken. Eating the chicken and waffles allows students to be satisfied and joyful for the rest of their day. 

2. Grilled Cheese with Tomato Soup 

The grilled cheese sandwich makes me smile, even on Meatless Monday. The bread of the sandwich is grilled perfectly: it is crunchy but not burnt or overcooked. The cheese melted in the middle adds a stretchiness to the dry bread. The tomato soup is the perfect addition to the dry sandwich. Made with ripe tomatoes, fresh herbs, and sour cream, the soup has a thick and creamy texture. With a dip of the grilled cheese into the tomato soup, the sandwich becomes flavorful and delicious. No wonder there is always a long line at the soup station on grilled cheese day.

3. Caesar Salad

I have to admit, I normally don’t eat salad, but the Caesar salad was what invited me to go to the salad bar for the first time. The light green leaves are crunchy. The salad is full of different textures and flavors with the addition of bread crumbs, cheese, and little tomatoes. Athenian salad also has other ingredients, including chicken bits, ham, pickles, and other dressings, including ranch and vinaigrette, allowing one to make the ideal salad. 

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