New deli food options tantalize tastebuds

Those who frequent the delis on campus may have noticed some menu changes in recent months. Carl Korz, assistant director for dining services at the Wisconsin Union, talked to Inside UW–Madison about the new food focus.

Inside UW–Madison: What brought about the change in food offerings on campus?

Carl Korz: We needed some offerings that were contemporary, had full-flavors, and were comforting and satisfying at the same time. Additionally, we wanted to promote diversity by exposing our students to some great dishes from other cultures, as well as provide a taste of home for our students from other countries. We are not aiming to be perfectly authentic, although we do take pains to use authentic products and keep the intensity of spicing accurate, when appropriate. A lot of the ethnic dishes had the added benefit of being vegetarian, and it helps us encourage our campus to eat a little lighter on the food chain without sacrificing flavor. Our channa masala is addictive and filling.

iUW: Were the changes made in all of the delis, or do you vary the offerings?

CK: We run a three-week cycle to keep a good variety in our operations that serve hot food, which would be Ingraham, Badger Market in the Medical Sciences Building and E2’ed in Engineering. These are well-trafficked units.

iUW: Please describe the types of food now available.

CK: The food tends to fall into three categories: hot sandwich, ethnic comfort food or good old-fashioned comfort food. For instance, Thai green curry chicken, African peanut mafe (a mixture of yams, peppers, potatoes, tomatoes and onions in a creamy peanut sauce), Brazilian feijoada (Brazil’s national dish, a hearty black bean stew with several cuts of smoked pork) over rice with a corn muffin, chicken tikka masala with naan flatbread, and hearty sandwiches like the jalapeno bacon barbecue meatloaf sandwich, and falafel on pita with mixed greens and tzatziki. We still have the ones customers won’t let us get rid of, like our homemade mac and cheese, homemade spinach lasagna with garlic bread and the super meatball sub with parmesan.

New for this semester is the Poulet Moambe chicken breast sandwich, pork and green chile pozole with a corn muffin and the Bombay vegetarian “joe” with cilantro garnish. We also changed the sandwich rolls to a small local bakery that makes amazing products. The rolls are really flavorful and soak up the juices of the sandwich really well without falling apart.

iUW: What kind of response have you received from customers?

CK: The response has been really good. We make sure the portions are a good value, that the recipes are flavorful and that we are keeping it interesting. The choices, especially some of the ethnic dishes, raised some eyebrows at first, but they tried it and have been coming back for me. Every culture has its comfort food — we figured that we’d try to showcase some of the really good ones. A lot of the recipes are brought to us from our students, faculty and staff. The Poulet Moambe was brought to us by Emilie Njguidjol at an African studies conference several years back — she is an amazing person and passionate about food. The Southeast Asian studies department critiqued our Thai curries and Indian dishes before we finalized the recipes. We are tremendously fortunate to have these resources on our campus.

iUW: What have been some of the challenges of implementing the changes?

CK: I think the main one is getting people to try some of the dishes, so we’ll sample off and on to break down that barrier. Teaching our staff about the dishes is exciting, but the dishes are often new to them, too, so we try to explain a little bit of the history of the dish and know how to say it reasonably well, such as feijoada (fey-jho-ada). Occasionally someone isn’t willing to make the leap, but we have lots of choices that are more accessible, too.

iUW: What have been some of the most popular foods?

CK: Our staff informs me on what their customers like, and I was only able to wedge four items out of 30 off this semester’s menu given their input. The channa masala and tikka masala have been very popular — both have a great depth of flavor. We sell a tremendous amount of our homemade mac and cheese. The peanut mafe and chicken and ham jambalaya are also high-volume items. I am fairly certain that the Poulet Moambe sandwich on the new roll will be a hit. The chicken breast simmers in a sauce of spinach, tomato, onion, palm oil, ginger, cayenne, curry powder and peanut butter. It is a really delicious recipe from the Congo that we adapted to a sandwich. The sauce soaks into the roll so you keep all the flavor.