I'm just back from lunching at Washington, D.C.'s Kelly Miller Middle School, one of seven schools selected this year by the district to be in a pilot program that will feed students meals prepared by DC Central Kitchen. Local ingredients, made-from-scratch, healthful?you know. On this afternoon's menu were baked catfish, brown rice with peas and carrots, pico de gallo, and milk (skim or 1 percent). A vegetarian burrito was also on offer. The burrito was fine, as was the rice medley, and the pico de gallo was actually quite zesty. But the catfish?it tasted, literally, like dirt. Not earthy, mind you. Dirty.* And the patrons were clearly displeased with their fare. I witnessed a young lady voluntarily assume the tedious task of removing each and every pea and carrot cube from her rice concoction. She then sort of jabbed at the grains disconsolately before dropping her fork altogether and frowningly contemplating the middle distance. An unscientific poll of the pupils was conducted, and the most-popular response was, ?This food is naaaaaasty!? followed closely by, ?We want piiiiiiizza!? One young man asked if I could maybe bring him some Chinese takeout from a local eatery. Granted, these are middle schoolers, a notoriously negative and picky crowd. And this was just the third day of school and?thus the third day of the no-fried, no-chocolate-milk, no-frozen-pizza shock regimen at Kelly Miller. But still.
*Most catfish, before the hooking and filleting and dredging and baking and such, do find their own meals on or around the muddy bottoms of lakes or streams. But a chef's astute seasoning can overpower reverberations of their grimy lives.
?Liam Julian