By Shifra Lindenberg, Web and Social Media Editor
Sushi salads: if you’re new to Stern College for Women, you might not be familiar with the popular breakfast, lunch, and dinner option. More experienced Stern students, though, know that this meal is one of the most popular food items on the Le Bistro menu. A sushi salad is essentially a deconstructed sushi roll which is served in a plastic poke bowl, and is a meal that on-the-go students find filling and efficient.
But when Stern students arrived at the Le Bistro cafeteria at the start of the Fall semester, they were told that the meal would no longer be made. Gabi Chutter, SCW ‘20, told The Observer, “It feels like they’re constantly taking more and more away from us. First, they take away the ‘Caf Daddy’ program [when we weren’t allowed to buy food for others on our caf cards], then they make us pay for water, and then the sushi salads? What’s next?”
Moshe Singer, Food Service Manager for the Beren Campus, originally said that the sushi salads were going to return after the Sukkot break, but they came back earlier than expected. Right before the beginning of the holiday break, sushi salads were revived, but at what cost? A more expensive one. While they used to cost around $12 (depending on which ingredients students ordered), sushi salads are now being sold for around $16.
“I’m just happy that they’re back,” says Ahuva Wakschlag, Syms ‘20. While some students were overjoyed by the sushi salad’s return, others had mixed feelings regarding the new price for the popular dish. “It’s aggravating as an out-of-towner, who can’t go home for weekends and relies on the caf, that caf prices are ridiculously inflated. We pay so much for the caf only to waste it on extreme prices, which the new sushi salad prices are so reflective of,” says Elka Wiesenberg, SCW ‘20.
According to Anat Jacobson, Syms ‘19 and food liaison for the Beren Student Life Committee, the reason for the short-lived suspension of sushi salads is the vendor’s decision to raise the price. “The vendor upped the price, which is the reason that there were no sushi salads at the beginning of the year. Since there was so much backlash, YU brought them back, knowing that people would have a problem with the price. [The price] is not up to [YU],” said Jacobson.
It doesn’t seem like the sushi salad price is going to go down anytime soon. If you’re one of those students who have too much money on their caf cards at the end of the semester, you’ll have a better way of spending your money more quickly. As for the students who tend to run out by the end of the semester, you might want to find another way to pay for this culinary masterpiece.