Skool lunch tasting session

Gotta love those skool visits.
This week they organised for interested parents to come in and try out the skool lunches. As it happens Felix is on serving duty this week so he gets to wear the dinky little serving gear, including the ubiquitous Germ Mask:

After the designated carriers have wheeled in the trolleys, the designated servers dole out the gruel from the pots.

The designated lunch monitors check that everybody has been served, then issue the Japanese version of 2-4-6-8-dig-in-don’t-wait.

Then the fun begins. Luckily there are no silly rules that you’re not allowed to talk while eating, like we had when I was at school back in the dark ages.

How about those US Army-issue metal plates! Like something out of MASH.

All the adults then repaired to a different room to try out the lunch for themselves. And listen to a highly involved presentation from the nutritionalist at the local council about how they try to incorporate seasonal ingredients and ensure a good balance of vitamins, minerals, riboflavin and iron, while making mealtime fun and interesting and many other things which I didn’t quite listen to as diligently as I possibly should have. I did however study an enormous table that gives a breakdown of the meal content in terms of nutrients, iron, energy and six million other parameters.

It’s all very thorough and I’m sure they’re doing a great job, but at the end of the day it’s institutionalised food on thin metal plates. Actually one of the mothers raised the crockery issue at the end of the talk. And the response? The local council is apparently “aware of the issue” but “unable to take action at this time.”

In any case, I’m sure that in terms of nutritional value the skool slops are surely way ahead of whatever we could be bothered slapping together for Felix at 6:30 in the morning, and at ¥240 (under $3) per meal it’s a bargain. Don’t imagine I’ll be eating out at the local primary school any time soon though.