Mental
activities burn around 300 calories per day and every day at ESSEC, numerous
brilliant young minds spend hours burning calories in the library and in the
classrooms. But where do these calories come from? Or more simply put: what and
where do ESSEC students eat? Luckily for them, the campus offers a good array
of options to maintain a balanced
diet.
Lesson no. 1: Go beyond your comfort zone
The first
place one discovers when beginning his or her studies in Cergy, is the DeliMarché (aka, the university
canteen), located next to the cafeteria and therefore also the closest and most
comfortable option. This is especially convenient during days when the lunch
break is squeezed in between two classes. One would think that in 2017 university
canteens would have mastered the art of providing tasty meals to students, but
unfortunately this is not the case. I will soon be clear that finding a meal
that is not soaked in butter, overcooked, or accompanied by some mysterious
sauce is a rare event but hey, somethings got to give!
Should you
look for something a bit more refined,
you might want to try out the canteen upstairs. Be warned though, higher
quality means higher price, and the seats are reserved to professors and MBA
students by right of seniority.
After
getting acquainted with the surroundings, you will find out that in the park
behind ESSEC there is the Restaurant
Universitaire (or Resto-U). Despite its name, it is a dark and gloomy canteen
offering student-ish meal deals: you can purchase a full meal, from appetizer
to dessert, for the bargain price of 3.25! After a few meals here, you will
understand that being hungry is pretty much like being in love: exterior
appearance is not that important after all.
Lesson no. 2: Get creative
In the era
of Pinterest and Tasty, being creative in the kitchen has never been so easy.
So why not investing a couple of minutes in chopping and mixing some fresh
ingredients at home so to have a perfectly instagrammable takeaway lunch for
the next day?! The greedy looks of your friends will make your day!
Lesson no. 3: Explore the surroundings
When
sitting in the cafeteria, you will also see several people carrying a red or a
brown paper bag and you will also notice that those bags smell reeeeeeally good.
In fact, right across ESSEC’s main entrance, there is Pomme de Pain (literally the “Apple
of Bread”) and a little further you can find Cezam (literally meaning the ‘brown bag’). These two heavenly
places are best friends to hungry students. The first one offers a variety of
pretty-much-healthy sandwiches and tempting viennoiseries
to be packed in a red paper bag to go. The latter one instead is more like a
yummy fast food and believe me, you might want to keep it for those afternoons
in which you can afford to be sleepy.
When you’ll
feel brave enough to go even further and will have a long lunch break, you can
explore the little brasseries and cafés located in and around the shopping mall
“Les Trois Fontaines”. Thai, French,
Italian, and many more types of different cuisines can be discovered in these
hidden places, you just need to look for them. The walking distance (a few
hundred meters) might discourage the laziest students on campus, but we all
know that it is important to include some physical activity in our daily
routine, so why not?
Finally, before
going back to studying, you should never forget to conclude your meal with a
coffee and something sweet from the DeliCafé,
the cafeteria: after all this food you wouldn’t want to fall asleep in the
middle of a lecture, would you?
