Photo by Elisabeth Seidel for The Lafayette

Lafayette Dining’s Valentine’s Day meal featured three courses of Mexican-inspired cuisine.

We spent Valentine’s Day Eve in the most romantic place you could ever imagine: the Clay Ketcham faculty dining room. Simply entering the space felt like an honor: we’d fought hard (entered a raffle) to gain entry to the prestigious (randomly selective), second annual Lafayette Dining Valentine’s Day dinner.

There was little ceremony to our entrance, no grand announcement or lively band. Nobody even checked that we were meant to be there.

We escorted ourselves to a table of our choice. Glitter-coated hearts had been scattered across the surface and our place settings were equipped with more forks than we could ever imagine using.

Each guest also received a small red goodie bag filled with candy, a palm-sized stress ball with an inspirational quote and a Lafayette Dining magnetic chip clip. Nothing says intimacy like a chip clip.

Shortly, small bottles of Topo Chico were emptied into our glasses. We also enjoyed another set of drinks, the purple hibiscus mocktails, which had a lingering, pungent pomegranate taste. Shiny silver carafes of hot coffee sat on a sideboard along the wall. 

We put in our entrée orders — a choice of roast chicken breast, Mexican fillet steak frites or grilled tempeh — and then, for a long time, nothing happened.

Moods lifted 35 minutes in when Shadeera Riddick, the dining division’s marketing manager, queued up some tunes. Soon, the slow, moody trumpet notes of a YouTube video titled “ROMANTIC JAZZ” filtered out over a boombox in the corner.

Nearly 10 minutes after that, we were treated to our first taste of the night’s dinner service. About time. We were running out of non-newspaper small talk.

For the appetizer, an Oaxacan Mexican-style pizza: pizza in the sense that it was round (as tortillas often are) and that there was some cheese on it. Think thick avocado slices, black beans and pico de gallo on a crispy tortilla base, all drizzled with a mystery white sauce. Though we had to deduct a point on principle for the naming blunder, the “pizza” was pretty outstanding. And it was warm — a win for college dining!

There was plenty of time in between courses for renewed conversation and people-watching, though there weren’t many people to watch as one couple arrived late and three never showed up at all.

The plating of the Mexican fillet steak frites was beautiful. The steak — topped with pico de gallo and salsa verde — had an excellent flavor, enhanced when paired with the dollops of butter. The entrée also came with a side of fries that were a bit under-salted but otherwise tasty. Their silver basket presentation momentarily transported us to a real restaurant and not a mostly empty, somewhat silent offshoot of Marquis.

The chicken, cradled in a pool of white mole sauce and sprinkled with sesame seeds, was phenomenal. The sauce was incredibly rich, a good contrast to the biting acidity of the sliced grapefruit and orange also on the plate.

For dessert, we were given a flight of four miniature Mexican-inspired desserts. The tres leches was the star of the show. Heart-shaped, decadent and saturated with a sweet and milky mixture.

The other desserts were fine. It is pretty hard to mess up a chocolate-covered strawberry. The flan was also heart-shaped, oddly dense and incredibly eggy. The spiced hot chocolate cookie was a little bit more than Lis’ British genes could take: a little tough to bite into, essentially a regular Upper cookie with a kick.

Moral of the story: Dining, take more chances. Do this more. It was a lovely, tasty and much-needed break from the newsroom.