In September, we asked UBC grads to give us the scoop on the best or worst meals they ever made during university — and they did not disappoint.
From mouth-watering meatloaf to malodorous soups, alumni dished on the culinary delights and debacles that animated their time at UBC. Here are just ten of the meals that caught our eye... and that we suspect might be forever seared into the memories of those who made (or witnessed) them.
The soup that “scared almost everyone off”
One of my responsibilities as a residence advisor was to organize quarterly events encouraging residents to get to know each other. For my first event, I thought it would be a good idea to cook a meal which would reveal something about my heritage. I hoped it would inspire others to cook and share from their cultures as well.
It was a promising plan. However, I made the terrible decision to focus on the British side of my heritage and make Stilton & Cauliflower Soup. The Stilton cheese was expensive and, even worse, cooking a 50-person batch in the dorm stunk up the entire place and scared almost everyone off.
As a result, I was left with what seemed like a lifetime supply of stinky soup to consume mostly by myself. I got through it, but I still have not been able to endure having Stilton since.
Fortunately, I didn’t let the stench of this failure keep me down. I bounced back at the next event with a Steak & Caesar Night that was a resounding success. I’ll still never forget that soup though!
~ Barclay Webster, BA’08
A recipe for survival (and scurvy prevention)
My university survival staple was “ramen supreme” — mushroom-flavoured Top Ramen with added sliced carrots. I threw in the carrots because vegetables are important and I didn’t want to get scurvy. Amazingly, I’m still alive to tell the tale.
~ Daisy Sharrock, BSc’99
A breakfast sandwich... of sorts
I made a sandwich in second year with a bun that was rock-hard and put Honey Nut Cheerios in it. I was out of food.
~ UBC grad, BCom’23
Makeshift "spaghetti wraps"
While I had my fair share of misadventures in the kitchen during university (powdered ginger is far more concentrated than fresh ginger, and should not be added in the same quantity if a recipe calls for the latter), by far the most memorable weird meal I made was during my third year.
I had some tortillas that were nearing their expiration date and none of the normal fillings for them. Plus, I wanted something a bit more substantial than just a tortilla.
Cue my grand idea: I had some spaghetti and marinara sauce that would make a good meal, but since I also had to eat the tortilla, I decided to make a spaghetti wrap. While it was not difficult to hold and had the decided advantage of not needing cutlery, the texture left something to be desired, as the chewiness of the tortilla made it difficult to swallow the pasta. The sauce could also have used more salt and possibly some more seasonings. And while the no-cutlery part was great, it was a very messy dish to eat.
~ Andrea Martinez, BA’19 (UBCO)
A fishy combination
Best fast meal but kind of gross in hindsight: I would put fish balls and spinach in water, and heat them up in the microwave. Then, after draining, I would add sesame paste, and that would be my dinner.
~ Molly Chen, BSc’17, BEd’18, MEd’24
The meal that caught on fire
My friend and study partner was a Physics major, with a great ability to intensely focus. One day in Gage Towers, he put dinner in a frying pan, then returned to his bedroom to solve just one more triple integral equation. When I approached his quad, there was a plume of smoke curling along the ceiling and entering the hallway. He hadn't noticed... now that is focus!
~ Ben Whiting, BSc’79, MSc’89
A pasta to remember
The best meal I ever made was when my brother and his two friends came over to visit me at Ritsumeikan dorms. I made them an Everything Pasta. 🍝
I put in onions 🧅 broccoli 🥦 ground beef 🥩 cheese 🧀 garlic 🧄 peas 🫛 carrots 🥕 and anything I could find in my fridge. It was a beautiful masterpiece of colour! We devoured it with makeshift garlic bread made from whole wheat toast with butter and mashed-up garlic slices. It was a great meal to remember!
~ Martina Seo, BHE’00, BEd’09, MET’17
The meatloaf with magnetic powers
My grandma's meatloaf was the best. It wasn't that expensive to make, you could stretch it for several meals, and it was really, really satisfying. I always had intentions of freezing the leftovers but every time I made it, people would just start showing up at our door. Did I mention how good it smelled? It was mouth-watering.
So we'd hear a knock and a neighbour would be asking what we were cooking. When I said it was meatloaf, the response was always “Really??” — and they always asked for a piece. Between my roommates and the neighbours, not much meatloaf made it to the freezer, but it fed a lot of hungry students.
~ Melissa Zack, BSc’04
A Chilean dish with a Chinese twist
One of the most memorable homemade meals I had during my studies at UBC was an intercultural win!
I am from Chile and one of our traditional meals is cazuela. It’s a hearty soup made with rich beef or chicken broth, with simmered vegetables (typically potatoes, green beans, corn, and pumpkin), a handful of rice, and either chicken thighs or beef ribs. Cooked just right, cazuela is known for lifting spirits and keeping one warm. I never really learned how to cook it, which made me crave it even more when I was away from home.
One day in winter, my good friend and colleague from China announced that he would give it a go at cooking anything I wanted from Chile. Naturally, I chose cazuela.
When I got to his place for supper, I was surprised to see that he had not only managed to make it, but had also looked up how to serve it in the traditional Chilean way: in a deep ceramic bowl, with chopped parsley sprinkled on top. He made just a couple of twists in his version of the recipe: he added a slice of lotus root and used a leg of duck instead of chicken thigh, and omitted adding a handful of rice to the soup (because, as he informed me, that was a no-no in Chinese cuisine).
And there we had it: a traditional Chilean dish with a Chinese twist. It was both an intercultural win and a warm meal celebrating our friendship.
~ Fernando Murillo, PhD’18
Operation Turkey: An unforgettable Friendsgiving
It was 1993 and I was a fourth-year pharmacy student living with my best friend at UBC's Fairview Crescent with four other girls. There was a Thanksgiving contest for all the Fairview residents so I entered the six of us in it — and we won! The prize was a 25-pound frozen turkey!!
We decided to cook it up and have a potluck Thanksgiving dinner at our condo and invite our friends, boyfriends, and classmates, a few each. It was a great plan — except for one tiny detail: none of us had ever cooked a turkey before!
Since I’d watched my mom roast a turkey for Thanksgiving and Christmas gatherings over the years, I bravely volunteered to tackle the task. The first question I had: would the turkey even fit in our mini dormitory oven? This was all before the internet, smart phones, and looking up the recipe on Pinterest, so I called my mom countless times (via landline!) to find out how I should cook this turkey and took lots of notes. The next question was whether or not I was going to make stuffing. That seemed like too much work as I was stressing out about lab assignments, pharmacology midterms, and memorizing the pharmaceutical brand names versus generic names of all the medications dispensed in Canada…
Mom said that I needed to put something in the bird’s cavity to give it flavour as it baked, so we settled on an onion and an apple inside, with butter to coat the skin, and my friend would make Stove Top stuffing.
On the day of “Operation Turkey,” I woke up early and started cooking. After donning a pair of rubber gloves, I pulled out the turkey giblets, inserted the apple and onion into the cavity, added poultry seasoning, and basted the skin with melted butter. Then I put it in the largest disposable roasting pan I had been able to find and covered it with tin foil. With just millimetres to spare, I managed to squeeze the turkey into our tiny oven.
While it was roasting, I went back to my studies, but soon enough, we could all smell the delicious turkey aroma and our mouths started to water. Every hour I would take a quick study break to baste the bird with butter and turkey juices. My roommates got busy preparing the tasty sides: stuffing, potatoes, and carrots. At 5:00 pm, the turkey was perfectly roasted and our friends started arriving with buns, salads, pies, and drinks. My friend’s boyfriend was in charge of carving the juicy turkey, and around 20 of us enjoyed the best Thanksgiving dinner we’d ever made all together in our lounge area. I was so grateful for all of my mom’s help and so thankful for the enthusiastic contributions of my friends and roommates that Thanksgiving in our cozy student residence at UBC.
~ Georgina Chipman, BSc(Pharm)’94
